Kid Friendly

I have to admit that there's a little kid in me that can come out at the most inopportune moments. To limit the silliness from becoming too rampant, I find it best to shower my inner child with periodic visits to kid-friendly attractions. Kansas City just happens to be home to quite a few of these, so that works out best for keeping me in check. One of our favorites is the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures, which is located at 5235 Oak Street. It is a special place that we recommend to people every chance we get. I may enter this [...]

Kansas burst into the Union in an unusually bloody fashion. Human presence can be traced back to at least the 1400s. It would be the mid-1800s that saw the quick escalation of violence. The story of Bloody Kansas has been told many times, but we find each site sheds a little more perspective. The Johnson County Museum, at 8788 Metcalf Avenue, is a good resource for learning about the changing times that make up our state's history. We dropped by for a refresher course on how Kansas transitioned to its current state. Going Way Back Johnson County was one of the first areas [...]

Our visit to Fort Osage whisked us back over 200 years to a time when America was much smaller than it is today. Our nation's freedom had been won in the American Revolution, and we were in the midst of a great expansion. The Louisiana Purchase had allowed the fledgling nation to increase its land holdings by over 800,000 square miles. The reality is that what France had sold them was the right to obtain Native Indian lands by treaty or conquest. By nearly doubling its size, this new country was set on a path of growth.   We want to thank Fort Osage [...]

A visit to the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop takes guests back over 150 years, to a time when the territory was just opening for business. With so much history at this site, we were scratching our heads wondering why we had never visited. Knowing that nothing can be done to change the past, we pushed ahead with a plan to mend this oversight. A beautiful fall day in Kansas City offered us the perfect backdrop for our inaugural visit. We had plans to dive into all of the fun and educational opportunities that are found in this historic stop. Moving to the Farm James [...]

As Autumn descends on the Midwest, people will find an abundance of harvest-themed festivals. Welcoming Fall brings a change in the air, that signals the shortening of daylight hours. We find ourselves trying to savor every moment. Scanning the Kansas City calendar of events, we noticed the annual Fall Festival at Missouri Town 1855. Since we had never visited this particular outdoor venue, this seemed like the perfect destination for our first 2021 autumn excursion. Frozen in Time Missouri Town 1855 has a fairly self-explanatory name. The idea was to create a crossroads town that would be common around the start of the [...]