by Pa rock
Road Warrior
Rosie and I are back home after a couple of days visiting in the Kansas City area. Yesterday we made a pair of trips with Tim and his family from the Kansas suburbs into downtown Kansas City, and I was once again shockingly impressed with how up-to-date everything is.
Take lunch, for instance.
We dined at a burger joint called Fritz's in the Crown Center (Hallmark) complex. Fritz's is unique in that most of the food is served via model trains which circle the restaurant on overhead tracks. Also, patrons are given paper train engineer hats to add to there ambience. Little Sully, who will be three later this month, was almost too excited by all of the train activity to eat his burger and fries. Almost.
We went back into the city yesterday evening just to explore and look around. Along the way Tim pointed out a business called Carvana. It is a square six-story building that displays one nice car on each side of every level. Tim said it was a "car-vending machine" for people who don't like to negotiate with car salesmen. I love that concept - and have been putting off buying a car for a couple of years now because I dread talking to car salesmen. However, after looking the business up on the internet, I am still uncertain as to how it actually works. Most of their vehicles appear to be high-end used cars with limited mileage.
Perhaps Rosie and I will visit Carvana on our next trip to Kansas City. (Talk about up-to-date - a car-vending machine!).
Our evening destination was the Power and Light District, an area of clubs and eateries and loud outdoor music located in the heart of downtown KC next to the famous "Power and Light" building. While there we visited a rooftop park (about five stories in the air) that was being used primarily for dog-walking. Later, out on the street, we began seeing hordes of little girls (roughly ages four to six) dressed in sequins and shiny fabrics and being chased around by overwrought parents - primarily mothers. It turns out that there was a "JoJo" concert scheduled at the nearby Midland Theatre.
JoJo Siwa is apparently the "it girl" for the little ladies who were born during Barack Obama's second term. Olive, who is pushing eight, has already exited that life phase and showed no interest in seeing the sixteen-year-old singer. When we got back to the house Olive had Alexa play a JoJo song for me, and I found it to be mildly annoying. JoJo might appeal to a certain niche crowd, but she is no Annette Funicello!
And speaking of child activities that some might find annoying, when little Sully gets fastened into his car seat and his daddy starts the car, Sully will begin repeating "There yet? There yet? There yet?" Daddy seems to get annoyed with Sully the Parrot, but Pa Rock thinks he's amusing!
Road Warrior
Rosie and I are back home after a couple of days visiting in the Kansas City area. Yesterday we made a pair of trips with Tim and his family from the Kansas suburbs into downtown Kansas City, and I was once again shockingly impressed with how up-to-date everything is.
Take lunch, for instance.
We dined at a burger joint called Fritz's in the Crown Center (Hallmark) complex. Fritz's is unique in that most of the food is served via model trains which circle the restaurant on overhead tracks. Also, patrons are given paper train engineer hats to add to there ambience. Little Sully, who will be three later this month, was almost too excited by all of the train activity to eat his burger and fries. Almost.
We went back into the city yesterday evening just to explore and look around. Along the way Tim pointed out a business called Carvana. It is a square six-story building that displays one nice car on each side of every level. Tim said it was a "car-vending machine" for people who don't like to negotiate with car salesmen. I love that concept - and have been putting off buying a car for a couple of years now because I dread talking to car salesmen. However, after looking the business up on the internet, I am still uncertain as to how it actually works. Most of their vehicles appear to be high-end used cars with limited mileage.
Perhaps Rosie and I will visit Carvana on our next trip to Kansas City. (Talk about up-to-date - a car-vending machine!).
Our evening destination was the Power and Light District, an area of clubs and eateries and loud outdoor music located in the heart of downtown KC next to the famous "Power and Light" building. While there we visited a rooftop park (about five stories in the air) that was being used primarily for dog-walking. Later, out on the street, we began seeing hordes of little girls (roughly ages four to six) dressed in sequins and shiny fabrics and being chased around by overwrought parents - primarily mothers. It turns out that there was a "JoJo" concert scheduled at the nearby Midland Theatre.
JoJo Siwa is apparently the "it girl" for the little ladies who were born during Barack Obama's second term. Olive, who is pushing eight, has already exited that life phase and showed no interest in seeing the sixteen-year-old singer. When we got back to the house Olive had Alexa play a JoJo song for me, and I found it to be mildly annoying. JoJo might appeal to a certain niche crowd, but she is no Annette Funicello!
And speaking of child activities that some might find annoying, when little Sully gets fastened into his car seat and his daddy starts the car, Sully will begin repeating "There yet? There yet? There yet?" Daddy seems to get annoyed with Sully the Parrot, but Pa Rock thinks he's amusing!
1 comment:
We have long been fans of Fritz's. What may be there original restaurant is on 18th Street in Kansas City, Kansas between Central Avenue and State Avenue at Grandview Boulevard. Although as a boulevard Grandview Blvd. isn't grand at all. They serve breakfast too and their lot is always full as we take Bryce to St. Paul's Episcopal on first Saturdays where the Boy Scouts help with serving breakfast to the hungry. Last week was a real treat as young ladies, college graduates one and all, from the alumni association of Kauffman Scholars were there to help.
Someone has pulled your leg about the mayor's office being in the KCPL Building. It was converted to luxury apartments. I do recall, in the days before fm became all the rage in radio, when WHB had their broadcast studios on one of the upper floors of the building. The mayor's office is on the 29th floor of City Hall at 414 East 12th Street in KCMo. From that floor there is a staircase that will take you to the observation deck. It used to be open all the time, now you have to call for an appointment.
Steam and colored lights have always added ambiance to the Kansas City night lights. Although the KCPL building does not use steam, it always had colored lights changing colors slowly as they illuminated the top of the building. The Liberty Memorial lights us the "flame" on top of the monument with steam and red to orange lights. Years ago, before the Crown Center was built catercornered to the Union Station that location was home to Signboard Hill. Among the advertising greeting travelers to Kansas City were billboards for Maxwell House and Marlboro Cigarettes. Both of those signs used steam and lights.
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