Kansas City by Night - and a Visit with Dracula

Liberty Memorial at the WWII Museum in Kansas City

We settled down for a bit at sundown, by the WWII Museum. I've received texts, every other day

Yeah, that's right bitches, I got you for free now! 

from AT&T that I'd overused my data and then they'd charge me $15 for like a whole gig of data. I was about $45 in the hole cash wise. I whined about it to William. He listened, then got on my phone with AT&T and just like that, I got my $45 back, I was on unlimited data and I was getting HBO for free. HELLO! Is my neph awesome or what? I get too worn down to argue for myself and it was nice having someone go to bat for me. Thanks William!

One of a pair of sphinx on top of the war museum
The Sphinx hides from the horrors of WWII

Our BBQ lunch was long gone in our stomachs, so we decided to hit Yelp. We chose La Bodega - a Spanish Tapas Restaurant for dinner. Arriving at the height of the dinner service, an above and beyond kind waitress seated us at a table that was reserved for someone else at 7PM. The half hour was enough time for us to order and devour a dinner of Paella Valencia, Pan Plano con Salmon Ahumado (goat cheese, smoked salmon, capers, chives & balsamic glaze on flat bread) and big fat mushrooms thingies on a fancy sauce. Hey! There's plenty of  El Spanish chow & room at the table, so would you care to join us - via the magic of pieced together 'live' iPhone pix.

Yum! That was an excellent meal. Earlier in the day William looked at what Kansas City has for night time entertainment and he found something unique. So dinner finished, we drove through colorful night time Kansas City streets.

 Now check out, below, our entertainment site - a mall!  Does it look like a mall to you? It was like a Mall on Mars. Big, shiny and loads of parking.

Mall? Yes, a Mall!

We looked down on the orchestra from
our comfy chairs - yes, COMFY CHAIRS!

And what was in this mind blowing Mall? Well, for me anyway. A full sized theater at which there was a live stage Musical, and in the venue we had 'Music Heritage reserve tickets for, was - Nosferatu.

Why were we attending a 1922 Silent Movie? Because this performance came with a live Jazz ensemble playing music written to accompany Nosferatu. Geeze, I'd have thought that would be too cool for Kansas City but nope. Kansas City is beyond cool.

Seeing Nosferatu for the first time, with live music was amazing. It is easy to imagine how in 1922, the movie would have scared the crap out if its audience - even in 2017 the villain vampire Nosferatu is beyond creepy. I had wondered if I could sit still for 'live' performance of Nosferatu which was like being transported back nearly 100 years.

Here are about 2 and a half minutes of Nosferatu (SPOILERS!) so you can listen to all that jazz.

Yikes - if I learned nothing about my paternal grandfather from this brief stay in Kansas City is that KC is no po-dunk town. I believe the locals would like to keep the wonder of KC as their own private paradise. The secret is that Kansas City is not the little cow town many think it to be.

UPDATE: Talk about NOT FAIR! Just now at every location but for mine,  tickets can be purchased to see Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban WITH a live orchestra playing John William's score. I am overcome with envy - just shoot me now.

Kansas City: BBQ, History and TOYS!

♪ ♪ I'm going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come 

I'm going to Kansas City, ♪ Kansas City here I come 

They got some crazy lil' women there 

And I'm kind-da, sorta one. ♪♪

OK, OK, rest assured, I will eventually stop introducing cities with whatever local-centric songs pop into my head. I'm damned near sure I'll stop sometime prior to reaching the age of 95 so just hang on & consider yourself warned. Where was I? Oh yeah, yesterday we arrived in Kansas City late in the day, staying at a motel in the KC burbs. We got a late start today, as per usual, and decided to begin today's outdoor adventures with some geunine Kansas City BBQ. Our first choice was nixed because there were zero cars in the parking lot - wth, right? The 'winner' was Slap's BBQ.

It's Slap Yo' Mama Good

I chose a 'meat plate' with... with EVERYTHING

FOOD PORN! 

When I saw William's meat plate I WANTED those ribs!

Hungry & Pleased Nephie!

My eyes continue to be bigger than my stomach, but Wills helped me out with that. Once thoroughly stuffed, we headed out to take a driving tour of Kansas City, and to figure out how we'd spend the day.

As we drove, I told William how my paternal Grandfather, Will's paternal Great-grandfather William S. Miller, emigrated to Kansas City from Jamaica. It was in Kansas City that our ancestor was naturalized as an American citizen in 1899. It was also there he joined the Kansas Colored Infantry going on to become a Buffalo Soldier, and fight in the Spanish American War in Cuba.



I also told Wills how I always dreamed of investigating Gramp's history in Kansas City in the city's archives. So, when we accidentally drove in the vicinity of one of KC's public libraries, I went nuts! I was going to live the dream!

Kansas City Public Library

William S. Miller, where art thou?

So with the help of a kind librarian, we searched the city's microfiche files. Did we find any valuable info? Sadly, nope. But just because one's wishes are granted doesn't mean one's wishes meet all expectations. We didn't discover anything out Grand-dad. RATS! Maybe next my next dream...

Yet again, I was indulged, and our next stop was The National Museum of Miniatures and Toys. WHOO HOOOO!  Due to our late start at the museum, we had but a scant hour before the museum would close for the day, so we had to bussle.

National Miniature and Toy Museum

Wow... I was bummed about having so little time, so I took fifty zillion photos (yes, fifty zillion) so I can examine each & every little thing in future & at my leisure. So what photos to show off here, with myself thoroughly in love with every danged thing the museum has on display? UGH!

These detailed & amazing fans are about an inch wide

This grand castle room could fit in a shoe box

The toys were any toy you can think of, from Steiff stuffies to...

Recent and current modern toys

I show these Beatles dolls because the Beatles have accompanied us on this trip and I'm loving it. I could easily have spent a full day in this museum but perhaps I'll get another crack at it some day.

Loved this mini-Elizabethian dress & bedroom - sooooo intricate!

Oooo! I have some ensy waterfowl like these inch long
beauties myself. Wish I could have these too.

Totally enjoyed the Toy & Miniature Museum - why? Eh... because I love minis & love toys. Here's a good example why. I loved the mini ensy plains Indian toys/objects d'art below. In particular, note the plains horse in full regalia. 

Plains Indian minis at museum

Below is my own attempt at outfitting a Breyer toy horse in Nez Pierce tribe tack. See how I love minis?

My 'Steps High' mini appaloosa mare

 Visiting the museum showed me how tiny things can be made, is only limited by one's imagination.

Many Awesome Dolls

And show stopping Doll Houses

So I could go on for days about the doll houses but I won't. When our whirlwind tour was done, we visited the gift shop, where miraculously I bought not one item... that is only because there was nothing for sale that matched what I'd seen on display & for that, my pocketbook is grateful.

Next we drove around taking in the scenery. How fun, that after seeing everything in miniature, we first ran across something in HUMONGUS scale.

People admiring a gigantic shuttlecock on
the lawn at the Nelson-Atkin's Museum of Art

Parking, we walked the Art Museum's grounds.

It was fun telling each other our interpretation of the ground's many art sculptures
I see an Afghan hound playing the drums, how about you?

Another massive bit of art, a near one storey high creepy spider on a lawn! It carries a nest of white marble eggs and is said to represent... motherhood. 

Representing motherhood as in Morticia Adams perhaps

William captured this statue through a convenient wall tunnel thingie

Never suspected not-so-little Kansas City has so much statuary.

Bellerophon Taming Pegasus

Kansas City is proving to be way more interesting than I've ever suspected. Maybe Granddad William had good reasons for moving to this grand old city. And as the day's shadows grew longer, we continued exploring Kansas City into the night... more on that in the next post.