There and Back

We're back!  We had a fabulous time in Kansas City.  We were there for about 24 hours when it was all said and done, but it was a 24 hours well spent, for sure.

We had lofty goals to be up by 7:00, Amelia dropped off by 7:45, on the road by 8:00.  In reality, we were up at 8:30, Amelia dropped off at 9:20, and on the road at 9:55.  We had planned to meet my cousin Laura and her little man, Evan for lunch, but obviously missed the boat on that one.  We ended up rolling into KC about 1:45.  We checked into our hotel (which we once again secured through priceline for a decent price) and walked around a bit to check out the area. While walking around we came to realize that our hotel was connected to Crown Center, which mostly consisted of small shops and restaurants.  We ate at a so-so tourist trappy place and did some shopping.  Actually, I should probably say window shopping because the only thing we bought was a bag of random sweets from a candy store.  Union Station was across the street from our hotel (and actually connected to it by a large clear, covered tunnel), so we wandered around over there for a bit before heading back to the hotel to rest a little before heading out to the concert. 

view of Union Station from our hotel room

We had noticed while checking in that there were two large tour busses that were not typical passenger busses.  There was a lot of activity around the busses--people getting off and on, coolers getting loaded, etc.  We also noticed several younger, musician-looking (I don't know what made them this, they just were!) people wandering around the hotel and traveling to and from said busses.  So, I wouldn't say we were stalking the busses (or the people for that matter), but we definitely kept them in sight at all time while wandering around the area.  We also were lucky enough to have a room that faced the front of the hotel were the busses were parked.  But, unfortunately, I do not think the busses were those of Jack Johnson, instead I think they belonged to one of the opening bands instead.

We eventually headed out to the concert, grabbing a quick dinner on the way.  There was TONS of traffic heading to the ampitheater and by the time we arrived, there was little parking left.  In fact, we ended up paying $10 to park in a field with grass so high we feared the Corolla may not make it back out.  Then, we hiked about 3/4 mile to the site of the concert.  I was a sweaty, muddy mess by the time we arrived and cursing myself for wearing heels to the concert.  We found our seats, which were incredible, and listened to a little bit of Rogue Wave, the second of two opening bands, before deciding to use the bathroom and get some drinks.  Well, 45 minutes later, I was STILL in line for the restroom and by then we had both decided it might be too risky to put anymore liquid into our bodies for fear of spending the entire concert in line for the bathroom.  I met some nice ladies in line and even chatted with someone from Kirkwood before finally making it through the line just in time to get back to our seats before Jack Johnson came on.

He.  Was.  Awesome.  That is all there is to it.  Jason and I were both almost giddy during the whole experience.  I have always been a fan, but I think his new stuff is the best yet. He played 26 songs, which was basically all of his good ones, several new ones, and a couple of cover songs as well.  He is super mellow and relaxed up there, so much so that he forgot the words to a few songs (which apparently happens fairly regularly).  He came out for a 6 song encore and ended with a beautiful combination of "Angel" and "Better Together" that was simply amazing!  Needless to say, we both enjoyed the concert very much. Even though our tickets ended up being free, he is definitely someone I would pay to go see in the future.

It was pretty late when we finally got back to the hotel, so we slept in on Saturday morning, watched some cable TV we don't normally get to see, and then headed to the City Market, the region's largest farmer's market.  It was a beautiful morning.  We grabbed some breakfast there and bought tons and tons of produce.  The prices were decent and many vendors offered samples of their produce which made it virtually impossible to walk away without wanting to bring some home.  We ended up with zucchini, squash, watermelon, grapes, lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, and corn.  After the market we headed back to the car for the journey home.

I think it was the combination of watching Jamie Oliver on the Food Network that morning and visiting such a wonderfully abundant produce market shortly after that led Jason to come up with an elaborate dinner menu for Saturday evening.  We asked my parents to come over as a thank you for watching Amelia and shortly after returning home, Jason went straight to work preparing a delicious dinner for all of us.  The menu included a tomato/basil/mozarella salad (similar to what Jamie Oliver made on his show on Saturday morning), grilled chicken with mango, cucumber, and cilantro relish, grilled corn with herb butter, multigrain bread, and fresh watermelon for dessert.  I cannot even express into words how good this meal was!  I am seriously considering getting cable just so Jason can get inspired more often ;)

Kansas City seems like a great place to visit and we plan on returning soon with Amelia.  Everywhere we looked there were kids enjoying themselves.  Kids were playing in the fountains, watching the jugglers at the market, eating at a restaurant where a train delivers your meal, and there were even kids at the concert--lots of kids!  As an added bonus, Amelia already has built-in playmates in KC since she has four second cousins living there!