Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Amtrak Adventure 2019
"I make my own sunshine!"
I woke up to find that the forecast dire weather was upon us: heavy rain exacerbated by strong winds and cool temperatures. An interesting little diversion happened on the way down to breakfast. We were sharing a lift with two male convention attendees when the car slowed and stopped at an intermediate floor. Without even waiting to see who was on board, a female delegate clicked her fingers and slowly sashayed into the lift. One of the men on board said: "How dare you look so happy when the weather is so terrible". The newly boarded woman instantly replied: "I make my own sunshine!"
We
had breakfast at a branch of Panera Bread, which we were once again
able to reach without having to go outside and brave the elements. A
little later, we began the day's programme by riding the free KC
Streetcar through the downtown area to City Market. There wasn't
much going on there, so we took a Lyft (first time for both of us on
this Uber-lookalike service) to the TWA Museum at the city's
Downtown Airport. This promised to be an avgeek's dream - and if
you've never heard the term before, 'avgeek' = 'aviation
enthusiast'. We spent a very interesting 2 - 2.5hrs on our visit,
which was made up of a guided tour and a spell of looking around
independently. The facility was housed in the former TWA
headquarters. Confession time: I didn't even know that the airline
had a connection with KCMO, never mind being based there!
When
we were done at the museum, we took another Lyft southwards towards
the Country Club Plaza shopping district. Built in the 1920s, this
was one of the first shopping developments that specifically aimed
to be car-friendly. More interesting than that, however, was the
fact that its architecture was inspired by the city of Seville in
Spain! It was strange to think that I had been there for the first
couple of days of that very month. Our visit to the area was
punctuated by lunch at Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue.
Bruce and I ran a little unofficial competition to compare the food
with the similar lunch that we had eaten in St Louis two days
previously. He voted for St Louis, while I had a slight preference
for KCMO.
Following
a further look around, we bought items for an evening in-room picnic
in a very nice-looking deli - and were duly shocked when the bill
came to USD61! Our third Lyft of the day brought us (and our
shopping) safely back to base, where the weather seemed to be
undergoing a dramatic improvement. As soon as we were confident that
this wasn't an illusion, we set out for a walk in the much improved
conditions. This took in the WWI Memorial, Union Station and the
Crossroads Arts District.
Later, we had our in-room picnic. Spanish tapas in the American
Midwest proved to be an absolutely delightful way to end the day,
even if those eye-watering prices were a bit harder to swallow!
