Kansas City Weekend

Over the weekend Brad and I visited my brother and his wife, who recently moved to Kansas City. It's an easy four hour drive (250 miles) to get there. On Saturday night, we all went to a brewery called Cinder Block. (Are you surprised?) Steve and Amy discovered it recently, and they really like their beer. We liked it too. After trying a flight, Brad's now practically an expert.

As we were leaving the brewmaster (we just call him Bucky) gave us a backstage tour of their brewing facilities and talked to us about their plans for the future. As always, quite interesting.

Next, Steve and Amy took us to Cellar and Loft, a beer and wine place. We had a relaxing evening of wine tasting and pizza eating.

Cellar and Loft has a great atmosphere and it offers something I don't think I've ever seen before in a bar/restaurant: a membership option. The perks of membership include a members only cellar (shown above), an offering of beer and/or wine each month, and a place onsite to store your personal alcohol (which you can drink while you're there). So while Brad and Steve had an intense discussion about the place, Amy and I partook in some wine tasting.

After the wine tasting there was a drawing for a case of wine. And look who won herself a case of red wine!!!

On Sunday we went to a local place called LC's for some authentic Kansas City barbecue. It was yummy. And if you don't believe me, even the man himself, Anthony Bourdain, agrees! (Though inside the establishment there's no bragging whatsoever about this.) Just as impressive as the food was the air quality inside LC's. The smoke from the barbecue permeated every bit of air and every surface in the place - every breath we took was of barbecue!

Our final stop was the very interesting Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. As you might know, one of the most famous baseball teams in the Negro Leagues was the Kansas City Monarchs, and its most famous player was Jackie Robinson. (Also Buck O'Neil, who before his death led the effort to establish the museum.) So it makes sense that the museum is in Kansas City. Adjacent to it is the American Jazz Museum, which also looks well worth a visit. We only had time to take in one museum, so we have another place to visit when we return.

Sunday evening was Super Bowl time. Even though the Packers weren't in it, we still enjoyed (okay, sort of enjoyed) watching the game. Steve and Amy fed us well, as you can see.

Did I mention that Allie came along on the trip? She was a terrific traveler (that is, after the first few miles when she finally stopped crying like a baby) and she liked Steve and Amy and their house very much. It felt like old times to her when she got to bark at the deer in their backyard. But mostly she found it easy to relax and have a nice getaway in Kansas City, as did we.