Kansas City: Museums, Lights, and Barbecue

 

This morning Travalon and I bid adieu to our lovely room (and they comped us the second night because of a slight thermostat issue), and we headed to Mural Mile, a long wall of murals that puts Black Cat Alley in Milwaukee to shame. Here are some samples.

It might be hard to see from this angle, but this mural has the Arch in it.

Then we drove a very long, hypnotic road to Kansas City. The day was overcast, and no matter how much disco music I played during my turns in The Game, I was battling to stay awake. Poor Travalon seems to have caught my virus, so he really needed me to stay awake for his sake. I did offer to drive, but he said he was okay to do that. 

Our first stop was the Negro League Museum in Kansas City, which is in the same building as the Jazz Museum. This mural was across the street.

Travalon took a couple of photos in the Negro League Museum.

Josh Gibson is the greatest baseball player who ever lived, and this is the hill that I will die on. After we were done in that museum, we went to the Jazz Museum, where they had fun music samples to listen to, and even one where you could remix the music. Here are some neon signs that I am guessing are from actual old nightclubs where they used to play jazz back in the 20's, 30's, and 40's.

When I was in Kansas City twenty-five years ago, we went to the actual nightclub that is part of the museum. It was "open" today in that we could go into it, but nothing was happening. They're having a big shindig on Saturday.

There were also these awesome backdrops in a little theater area.

Then we went to Country Club Plaza to enjoy the Christmas lights. These photos give you some idea, but they really don't do it justice.

(This is just a decorative stained-glass window that I liked.)

There were horse-drawn carriages that were lit up too. When I visited before, I rode in one with my then-boyfriend, but this time we needed exercise so we just walked up and down the streets, admiring the lights.

After that we went to the barbecue place that Travalon's brother had recommended, Arthur Bryant's, for burned tips and cheesy corn. I actually liked it, and I usually hate barbecue, but it was hot, not sweet. After that we had to make tracks, and the lights of downtown were so beautiful. For some reason they have a Ferris wheel, just like St. Louis, and I managed to get a photo as we drove by.

I couldn't get photos of the other lights, or of the many decorated houses we passed on the way to Salina, Kansas, which is where we are spending the night. The pool is being renovated and we got in kind of late anyway, so I'll head to bed soon. 

I thought going to St. Louis again might be a disappointment, because when I was there twenty years ago, the whole riverfront was a huge party for the centennial of the World's Fair, but I still loved the city on the river. And going from one Jazz City to another was even more amazing, even if we didn't hear any actual jazz in St. Louis. The Christmas music they sang at the Mass at Night was perfect.

Famous Hat