Kansas City - Here We Come!

We fled a Memphis VRBO in a sketchy neighborhood a day early for our Kansas City hotel.  We were pretty desperate to feel safe somewhere and had laid a lot of hopes on this town.   We did not quite know what to expect.  There is a lot of tourism hype about KC, but we had been fooled before by slick brochures and websites, so we were wary.  We had decided not to stay downtown based on the advice of a lovely woman I met in New Orleans who recommended the Country Club Plaza area.  It was a lovely surprise to come off the highway and meet, not the economic devastation we had been assaulted with in the south, but, lovely shaded roads, and an almost ridiculously pretty area.  I have never been so happy to see an upscale hotel situated nicely in a lovely area in my life.   

We had run hard all the way up to Kansas City with two months of constant movement; lots of driving and sightseeing.  The rentals in Muscle Shoals and Memphis were in sketchy neighborhoods. I don’t think we could have done better anywhere else as both these towns are economically so depressed our only other choice would have been the one expensive hotel.  In addition both had turned out to be grubby.  The combination of constant movement and anxiety about the housing situation meant we were exhausted and in need of a little pampering when we arrived.   Kansas City delivered!  

Economically Kansas City is a prosperous town. Unlike the southern towns we visited that relied on cotton and slaves, its economy was always based on being a major transportation hub; road, rail and river.  By 1850 it was a major hub for the westward expansion movement.  The Santa Fe, California and Oregon trails converged here.  In 1869 a railroad and wagon bridge over the river increased the cities reputation as a transportation hub, easily reached, as well as a city sitting at the transition line between the west and eastern parts of the USA.  

Thanks to some excellent foresight by wealthy Kansas City residents in the late 1800’s a wonderful concept of the city as an interconnected network of neighborhoods, boulevards and parks was made real.  Today, no matter what neighborhood you might find yourself in, you will never be more than 5 blocks from a park and/ or a connecting trail to and from other neighborhood parks.   As you drive around you will find these simply lovely neighborhood blocks full of stores and restaurants.  These used to be businesses built around the stops of an extensive streetcar network.  The streetcars are no longer there, but the individual neighborhood amenities prevail and make Kansas City person- oriented and quite lovely.   All of the suburbs are connected to downtown, which has, in the last twenty years, undergone a planned renovation and resurgence.  Lucky for Kansas City, the older buildings are gems and, unlike Memphis, were never dynamited and torn down, which makes downtown rather pretty.   Adding to the charm, the city is known for its bazillion fountains.  There are fountains everywhere.  You can’t turn around in Kansas City without seeing a fountain.  They are everywhere!  They add a significant personality to the city and residents are really proud of them, as they should be.  

If that wasn’t enough, Kansas City is a foodie town.  We ate like queens.  

Our brother and future sister-in-law came to visit for a long weekend.  We moved into an expensive, but absolutely splendid hotel called the Raphael.  This is an old-fashioned hotel, complete with a doorman in a uniform, 24 hour room service, and expansive rooms.  We booked one of their suites which came with a HUGE living room and a dining room with an eight person table.  It was the height  of luxury.  We enjoyed every single minute!  We ordered room service for breakfast, we played games, we shopped, we stopped off in many of the neighborhood restaurant/business sections, we ate long meals at outside patios and we went downtown.  It was marvelous.  We had such a good time and I was so very sorry to see them go.   

I am almost embarrassed to admit it, but we were so busy eating, drinking and talking, we only made it to one museum.  Although we had meant to tour the US Reserve Mint, they were booked solid through the whole month so we did not go there.  

We did make it to the Kansas City Jazz Museum.  I highly recommend this museum.  What a little gem!   Make sure you see the documentary film before you go inside the exhibits.  Kansas City was know for its music scene, which took place mostly in the African American section of town.  It’s hard to describe how close-knit and social this community was.  In the documentary people describe how many social, church and charitable clubs and organizations they belonged to.  How every weekend would be filled with social events and if it wasn’t the plethora of jazz and music clubs lining this street would be available.  No-one stayed home. Even if they didn’t have a dime to spend, they got dressed up and walked up and down the street.  Music and social events were the backbone of that appears to be a tight knit African American community.  All the big names in jazz and big bands came to Kansas City.  Oddly desegregation and the ubiquitous highways always built right through African American Communities across the USA disrupted this community and pushed people out to the suburbs.  You can see the nostalgia for that time period in the documentary.  The documentary and the museum provide real insights into a certain period of time when music ruled.

Oddly the music story we had followed all the way through the south from Greenville South Carolina to Nashville through Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and back to Tennessee by way of Memphis, disappears here.  Once we crossed the Missouri River into Kansas, we never saw another music museum or mention of music again.  It all just fades away, which was disappointing in a way.  I loved following the evolution of American Music from its African American and folk roots to what we listen to today.  It’s just fascinating and its a hell of a good tale as well.   

You can tell we totally enjoyed Kansas City.  I’m not going to lie to you.  We arrived tired and slept a lot before and after the interlude with our brother and his fiancee.  It was a nice break from constant sightseeing.  I was sad the morning we packed the car for the next stop in Denver.   I highly recommend people go to Kansas City, but maybe not downtown till post-covid.  Downtown was pretty, but a bit of covid ghost town.  Stay at the Fontaine or Raphael Hotels in the Country Club Plaza area.  I guarantee you will love it.