Wes and I just went on a week-long road trip!! 🚙 We left Oklahoma for Iowa via Missouri/Kansas and came home via Wisconsin and Missouri (and sort of Illinois but we only stopped for gas and boba). It was the first actual vacation (not counting the mini-trip to Tulsa in September) we've taken since my birthday trip to Tampa & St. Petersburg, FL in 2019. Since this was a mega trip with tons of pictures, I'll post in sections.
Last year on the British quiz show, QI, they had a short segment about the whale. I knew there was a gigantic cartoonish blue whale somewhere in Oklahoma along Route 66, but I didn't know much more about it or even what it looked like. I decided that we needed to pay it a visit after it was featured internationally.
I expected the whale to be on a lake or on the outskirts of town...I was wrong. It is literally on the side of the highway in the middle of town. LOL It was made as an anniversary gift. It looks like it was originally a play area for children. You can slide down the whale's fins and climb up to its tail to use as a diving board. You can also climb up into the whale's head and look out some portholes. We didn't do any of that since it was chilly and the pond that the whale sits in was grungy & dirty.
The Blue Whale of Catoosa is cute and worth the visit if you're driving thru. We stopped in Oklahoma Joe's barbeque for lunch. We went to the Joe's (another barbeque restaurant in Kansas City a few years ago) and I thought this was the same place, like a franchise, but it wasn't. The one in Catoosa wasn't near as good as the one in Kansas City. I got their award winning "best baked beans on the planet." It was, I think black, kidney and pinto beans, with bits of pulled pork swimming in a soup of tangy barbeque sauce. It was too much for me; I'm used to simple baked beans out of a can.
After lunch, we headed on to Kansas City. We had some time to kill so we walked around The Plaza before dinner. We've visited before but it was at nighttime so we didn't really get to see much of the architecture. This time we went when the sun was still up so I got to admire the Spanish-style buildings. And, I got my Unicorno figurine -- my must-have travelling companion. LOL
We had dinner at Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken. Normally, we try to go to restaurants we haven't been to before but Wes loved the chicken the last time so we decided to go a second time. It was just as good! The chicken is dredged in a slurry of buttermilk, cornstarch and spices instead of the traditional egg and flour breading. Then it's fried in peanut oil. So yummy!! Wes got greens & fries for his sides and he said they were good. I got coleslaw & fried okra and both were just so-so. It doesn't matter because no one cares about the sides. 😂 The chicken is the star of the meal!! Kansas City is so neat and I wanted to do more but I had a long drive ahead of me the next day so we turned in to the hotel after dinner for an early night.
We had breakfast at the Opera House Food & Coffee Emporium on our way out. It was such a cool place. It is a large restaurant with a coffee bar, bakery, bar and restaurant. I had the best matcha tea latte! 🍵 I ordered the biscuits and gravy for breakfast. The biscuits were ... different. They were dense and made from either corn meal or some sort of grains. Luckily, they were smothered in delicious spicy sausage gravy.
The restaurant is in City Market... so naturally I needed to take a stroll around, since we were already there. City Market is a ginormous open air market. It was mostly produce vendors but there were a few artisans. There were also shops and a steamboat museum. We walked around for about an hour but I could have stayed and explored all morning! I wish we had access to a kitchen and another day in Kansas City because I wanted to buy so much of the fresh produce and local foods. I am adding it on the travel list for us to return to! But enough of Kansas City... we had to drive to our next stop - Iowa City!! More on that later!
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