We had a quiet night, and this morning Paula and Tom shared the driving to Kansas City. The highway was surrounded by farmland for the most part and there were a few rolling hills.
Once into the city, we were impressed by how much tall brick architecture there was. Although our hotel was on Main St., it was somewhat removed from the city center. This part of the city had lots of green spaces and fountains interspersed with tall buildings housing hotels and banks. Brush Creek runs through the area and there were pretty footbridges crossing it.
We arrived well before check-in time at our hotel, so we drove to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. It was free, although we had to sign up for on-line tickets last night, which staff scanned as we entered. The museum is huge, so perhaps the tickets are to help manage museum flow and capacity.
We were hungry, so we went to the museum dining room, The Roselle Court Restaurant. It was the fanciest cafeteria we’d ever seen. The room had a central fountain at floor level, at which some children delightedly played. The room was surrounded by stone columns and gold wall tapestries. Small tables with chairs were arranged around the fountain. We got in line and looked at the lunch menu and the display of desserts. Paula got an arugula salad with roasted tomatoes and fried capers, and Tommy got Nelson chicken salad on a bed of greens. Both great.
After lunch we entered the galleries, which were basically rectangular. Each led to another through a rear door, and by the time we’d entered and exited several galleries, only to enter another room full of art, Paula had lost all sense of where we were in real space. There was a mind-boggling number of of artworks, mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries, although there was a smattering of ancient Egyptian and contemporary works.
Paula and Tom liked the Italian realists best. These usually featured religious or mythical scenes and people and used light and shadow to create drama in the picture. We saw many artists we didn’t know, along with some we did: Monet, Picasso, Van Gough, Caravaggio, Toulouse-Latrec, and Hieronymus Bosch. There was also a mummy and sarcophagus, many sculptures, and rooms full of ceramics and dishware.
Once we felt we were saturated with art, we drove to the Kansas City Marriot Country Club. Paula was intimidated both by the name and the size and height of the hotel, but staff was friendly and helpful, and we were soon checked in. We were a little anxious about what to expect since the price of our room was less than half that of all the surrounding hotels. Everything turned out fine.
We immediately left to explore the nearby shop and market district at Country Club Plaza (there are many such districts in the city). It was an easy walk right through a park with yet another fountain (featured picture for this post).
It consisted of about 6 city blocks of restaurants, bars, coffee cafes, and shops. All the big names were there: Apple, Nike, Coach, North Face, Barnes & Noble, Patek Phillip, Rolex, I could go on and on. Tommy got a shirt at 4th of July sale price at UnTuckit. This plaza area was surrounded by huge apartment buildings that seemed to go on forever.
Many of the restaurant names were familiar: The Cheesecake Factory, Fogo De Chão, McCormick & Schmick’s, PF Chang’s, Cooper’s Hawk, but we decided we wanted to eat dinner at one we’d never heard of before, Seasons 52. They pride themselves on different seasonal menus and boast that no item on their menu is more than 590 calories. The restaurant was plush and comfortable, with high-backed booths and a giant bar in the center. We shared shrimp and crab-stuffed mushrooms with spinach (240c for those interested), and Tommy had caramelized sea bass on a bed of wild rice with snow peas (520c) and Paula had grilled scallops over risotto with roasted asparagus (460c). They were amazing. Our waiter says they have fresh or fresh frozen fish flown in daily from all over the world.
Lest you think we have good self-control, we had previously bought 2 big bags of specialty popcorn, (Everything Bagel and Chocolate Drizzle) for shameful gluttony later tonight in front of the TV. After dinner, we returned to our room on the 14th floor (Paula refuses to look out the window). You are now up to date, as we are writing the blog post for today and choosing from among the pictures we took.