It was the summer of 2013 when we set off for Kansas City, MI to watch the Braves play the Royals. We were ready to cross another stadium and two states off of our list. Kansas City spans across state lines into Kansas and, since the Sunflower State’s capitol wasn’t far, we knew we had to pay it a visit as well.
From an awesome zoo, to delicious cupcakes, to an endless amount of tolls, read on for more on our Kansas City vacation!
Things to Do
So like all of our baseball vacations, we visited a new stadium. Kaufman Stadium, home of the Royals, was another good one. In his entire 19-year career, Chipper Jones only played in Kansas City when the All-Star Game was hosted there in his final season. Thinking the Braves might not play there for another 19 years, we knew we had to go. The stadium was sort of out of town but, fortunately, our hotel had a shuttle service and took us to the game each night.
We have always enjoyed learning things (as you know by how much time we spend in museums), but learning about pirates and outlaws is a special fascination. The Real Pirates Exhibit may have only been temporary but it was certainly a swashbuckling good time. We got to learn about the history and people of a real pirate ship and examine pirate artifacts. If it is still in Union Station, you should hop aboard.
What is there to say about the Kansas City Zoo? Best Zoo. Ever. We weren’t sure if we wanted to go to the zoo because, to be honest, most zoos are kind of the same. Some fellow Braves fans that were staying at our hotel told us they had gone and had a good time so we thought we would check it out. They said to allow a few hours, but we say allow most of the day. Now y’all know how we are about museums, but this zoo had so many cool things that we wanted to try them all. They have a boat ride, a sky lift over the zoo, a train, and so many animals. The zoo is huge so prepare to walk a lot and plan to spend awhile there but it is hands down the best zoo we have been to thus far. Along the same lines, we also visited the Sea Life Aquarium. It was a smaller aquarium, but still a pretty good one.
Like we said before, since we weren’t that far from Topeka, and we had rented a car, we decided to drive on into Kansas. What we did not expect was to have to pay 8 gillion tolls. It seemed like there was a toll booth every few miles and if you ventured off of the highway guess what? More tolls! We’re not sure if it is still that way 8 years later, but never has a fast pass seemed so useful. The only tolls we ever had to pay in our home state of Georgia was before GA400 removed its one and only tollbooth back in that same year. Needless to say, we were not impressed. Though, there was a noticeable difference in the roads from Nebraska to Kansas so perhaps they really needed all of that toll money. Anyway, as we’ve said in other blogs before, we like to visit capitol buildings and this was no different. We toured the Topeka State Capitol Building before heading out to get cupcakes.
Food
As Food Network, and more specifically Cupcake Wars, fans, we’d heard of Billy Vanilly cupcake shop before we got to Topeka. So of course we had to stop in and try them. We got peanut butter cup, lemon, chocolate caramel, and red velvet. As are most cupcakes we’ve tried from cupcakeries, they were delicious. It looks like the Topeka location of this shop may be closed at the moment but, if not, check them out if you’re in the area. They also have locations in Lawrence and Manhattan, KS.
Everyone told us we had to have some Kansas City BBQ while we were there. So we sought out one of the more popular destinations, Smokin Guns BBQ. This place has won lots of awards and the food was really great. It had traditional barbecue fixins and the pulled pork was good even without sauce. Barbecue has regional flare so it is worth trying when you travel to other places.
Freeb!rds is a lot like Moe’s or Chipotle but they have massive burritos and barbecue sauce on their salsa bar. Since we were in Kansas City, I, Courtney, had to put some on my burrito. Game changer! The barbecue sauce was the perfect compliment to the burrito elements and I have never looked back. Our closest build your own burrito place doesn’t have barbecue sauce in-house, but when I get their food to go, I add my own at home. Definitely check this place out and do yourself a favor, put barbecue sauce on your burrito.
The Brick was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives so we thought we would check it out. We almost missed it when looking for it because it only had a really small sign in an area that looked like it mostly housed office spaces. We are so glad we didn’t though and, once you go inside, you are as far from a grey walled office space as you can get. From the eclectic murals in the bathroom, to a drink menu with creative names, to some of the best burgers we have ever had, the Brick is our must-try restaurant in KC. Plus, we got a Hug from Ryan Gosling while we were there… it was a drink, but still, this place was as epic as Noah and Allie’s love.
Our McTravels 