Wes & Erica's trip to Kansas City, KS. (pt.2)

When I was initially planning this trip, I wanted us to have lunch in Wichita on the way to Kansas City and then have dinner later that night at Joe's Kansas City BBQ. Then we were going to have lunch again at Joe's Kansas City BBQ on our way home the next day (that way we could try multiple items on their menu). The night before our trip, Wes found out online that the burnt ends were only served as a lunch special...and that they were closed on Sundays. So instead of stopping half way for lunch, we drove all the way to Kansas City Saturday morning to make it to lunch at the bar-b-que restaurant. That left us nothing to do on Sunday besides drive home.

Okay... there was one touristy thing to do but it would only take five minutes. When I was researching sightseeing in Kansas City, KS, the Sauer Castle came up. It is an allegedly haunted castle in an old neighborhood. It is abandoned and not open for visitors. But, I still wanted to go. Originally, we were going to go Saturday night (I wanted to see ghosts!) but completely forgot about it until the next morning.

I wish it was open for visitors because I bet it would be interesting to tour on the inside (and I could have witnessed some of those ghosts). I at least wanted to be able to walk on the castle grounds but it was completely fenced off. We parked on the sidewalk and I got out and attempted to look around. No luck, I guess ghosts like to sleep in on Sundays. Anyway, off to lunch!

Top right- the diner randomly had samples of ice cream from Rita's. The flavor of the day was pumpkin spice. It had more of a sherbet consistency than ice cream but still pretty good.

I didn't want to not do anything on day two of El-versary, so we decided to spend a day in Wichita. We drove to where I initially wanted to have lunch on Saturday - the Doo-Dah Diner. They only served their brunch buffet on Sundays. We didn't know that Sunday was brunch day so on the drive there, we browsed--Wes read it to me--their menu online. I couldn't decide if I wanted the corned beef hash (featured breakfast item) or the meatloaf (featured lunch item). Well, I was in for a treat. The brunch buffet had literally EVERYTHING on their menu. There was so.much.food. So Much Food!!!! So, I got the corned beef hash AND the meatloaf and a ton of other stuff.

The more expensive items weren't in the buffet line, but were made to order. Wes got steak & eggs and I got the crab cakes Benedict.

We got to the diner at 1pm and it closed at 2pm. We ate for that entire hour! It was soooo good. I know our main reason for going out of town was to eat BBQ but I honestly enjoyed the food at Doo-Dah Diner more than Joe's Kansas City BBQ. Shhh...don't tell Joe. Hahaha! We sat at the bar so we could see the kitchen staff work their magic. We could also see when they were bringing our order out. The crab cakes Benedict were delicious. I think I've only had eggs Benedict once before and wasn't a fan. This completely changed my mind. Meatloaf is one of my favorite foods and theirs was heavenly. They also had a hatch green chili gravy for biscuits. It tasted more like a unique warm salsa. I ate that entire overflowing plate of food below and wanted desperately to go back for seconds but my stomach wouldn't let me. I did manage to get some fruit for dessert. Needless to say, we were full the rest of the day.

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After Doo-Dah Diner, we went to Old Town Wichita. It is a little shopping district just outside of Downtown. It could have been because we went on a Sunday but Old Town was not impressive at all. : ( It was a bust and probably shouldn't have been labeled as a tourist attraction. It wasn't even old. There wasn't any historical architecture and most of the buildings looked newly built. It looked like a sorrier version of Bricktown in Oklahoma City (it was basically buildings built with brick, a movie theater and some restaurants). There were a handful of local boutiques but only one was open for us to go into. There was another neat little shop named The Space Station that we both wanted to go browse in but we were confused. There were items on display in the window but there was also a For Lease sign outside. I walked up to the door and it was locked. The For Lease sale sign won. After spending 10 minutes in Old Town, we left for home.

The most interesting thing Old Town had to offer was this trashcan (top right) that advised me to "work like a farmer and party like a rock star."

We had another easy drive on the way back to Oklahoma City. Sadie & Athena loved their ribs flavored biscuits. Another fun and successful road trip in the books!