Conor’s Scouts troop planned an urban hike in Kansas City yesterday, and Conor was kind enough to let me tag along. We walked more than 6 miles (parts of it through snow) and my feet felt every bit of it, but it was a really enjoyable day.
We started with a tour of Bar K (a dog park/restaurant/bar near the Missouri River). Very cool space if you have dogs, but also cool even if you don’t have dogs but like hanging out with dogs and watching them do their thing.
After Bar K we walked along the Riverfront Heritage Trail, where ice chunks of all sizes were racing downriver. They looked like fluffy icebergs you’d fall right through if you tried to step onto them – flattened snowball stars that all rushed along the top of the water in the same direction, trying to reach some undefined destination before they melted away.
We stopped at an observation deck full of love clipped along the outer fence and great views of the bridges and train tracks that run along the river. I’ve visited this overlook several times, and each has been meaningful in very different ways. I watched the full eclipse from it a couple years ago. The snow and ice added a new layer, and it’s strange how some out-of-the-way, innocuous places can burrow into your head as important touchstones in your life.
We walked through City Market, which felt kind of desolate compared to most Saturdays. But the boys got to visit an impressive game store (not video games, but real games, complete with boards and dice and cards and pawns and everything) and got a tour of a hydroponics store near the Market. I’m pretty sure the dude who talked to the kids knew more about bongs and weed varieties than he does about growing non-herbal crops. But as a group that went in knowing nothing at all about hydroponics and indoor growing, the kids (and the adults) learned a lot.
From City Market, we hopped on the KC Streetcar and rode it to Union Station, where we found a wall off to one side of the Great Hall and ate the bagged lunches we’d brought. Our family visits Union Station a lot, so this wasn’t particularly new. But every time I think I might grow tired of or uninterested in this space, I find something new to notice and love. Union Station is a gorgeous blend of neoclassical and art deco design with elaborate light fixtures and ceiling décor. It’s been my favorite place in Kansas City for years, and I don’t see that ever changing.
After lunch, we hiked up snow-covered stairs and paths up to the WWI Museum and past it through more snow on our way to a firefighter memorial fountain on 31st St. We made it as far as the Just Off Broadway Theatre, which is built in the middle of what looks like English homestead ruins on the southeastern edge of Penn Valley Park. At that point, most of the group had reached their limits – especially since there was a lot more snow walking ahead. So we turned around and hiked back.
When Conor and I got back to the car, we decided we had to finish the hike’s original endpoint, so we drove to the Firefighters memorial fountain and the Scout statue that looks Kansas City’s downtown and West Bottoms districts. Then we drove and got frozen custard at Andy’s (because why not?) before heading home.
It was a crazy-long day (complete with a sunburned forehead), but it was also a really good time with my kid and a unique look at Kansas City on a sunny, beautiful day that’s still clinging to remnants of winter.
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