Wes & Erica's Vacation Photo Album - Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition (Kansas City) - April 2022

Immersive art exhibits are the new hot thing and I've been wanting to go to one, but the only ones that have been available have been Van Gogh (not a fan of the Impressionists) and Frida Khalo (would have loved to see that one but it was in Dallas and not at a convenient time for us to get away). I was super pumped when I learned that there would be an experience in Kansas City... on our anniversary month... when we had a legitimate excuse to go somewhere and do something nice. Perfect!!

I always assumed the snake from the Adam & Eve story was a traditional snake. Michelangelo painted him as half snake and half human. I guess that makes more sense since snakes can't talk or have hands to hold apples. 

The Chapel Sistine (I guess they couldn't legally call it the Sistine Chapel) exhibit was advertised as a floor to ceiling reproduction of each of Michelangelo's frescos. I guess it wasn't exactly "immersive" since it didn't have any projections, lights, or 3-D effects, but it was still supposed to be a larger-than-life experience. Sadly, it wasn't. 😕 I still REALLY really enjoyed it, but the marketing was a little misleading. 

The exhibit had licensed reproductions of each one of the frescos. They were laid out in order from one corner of the ceiling to the other. Each one had an accompanying map that showed where it is located on the ceiling and a brief explanation of the painting and it's artistic and religious significance. I think they were reproduced using a mix of photography and a high-tech printing technique.

My favorite frescos were the three creation ones (Separation of land from sea, Separation of light from darkness, and Creation of the sun, moon, and planets). The Separation of light from darkness fresco is unique in that we're seeing God rising above us. The perspective in the other frescos show us looking straight onto the scene. Wes thought the "from below" perspective of Separation of light from darkness was neat but he said that the Sistine Chapel wasn't his thing. He isn't into religious art and said the colors were too dull. I really enjoyed it. The frescos are gorgeous!! I thought the reproductions were amazingly well detailed and it was cool that we could see the cracks in the paint and original brushstrokes; I also thought it was neat that you could tell which frescos have been restored more than others.  

Wes & Erica's Vacation Photo Album - Country Club Plaza (Kansas City) - April 2022

Wes & I have been married for 7 years!! 💖💟👫💘💕 We went out for a nice dinner on our actual anniversary date and took a quick weekend trip to Kansas City for more celebrations. (Side note: Dallas, TX was my favorite quick weekend road trip destination, but Kansas City, MO & KS has overtaken it; just as much fun stuff to do, restaurants, culture & art but with waaaaay less traffic and construction.) We went to the Country Club Plaza shops in search of a new leather and/or bomber jacket for me. Wes bought me one ages ago when we first started dating and it finally got to the point where it desperately had to be replaced. I should have known that the shops would be showing their spring looks and there wouldn't be any jackets for sale but oh well. 🤷 While we were there, we ate at a bunch of restaurants (my sole reason for travelling) and visited the Sistine Chapel art exhibit (more on that in next week's blog post).

This was our third trip to the Country Club Plaza but our first time to actually spend a day walking around. The Plaza has a mix of high-end shops, restaurants, boutiques, and a lot of outdoor art. We went into a few of the shops but mostly just window shopped. The only things we bought were for the dogs. LOL A majority of the shops close at 7pm so if you really want to shop & explore, it will probably take two days of walking around. 

Since it was springtime/Easter season, there were lots of rabbit statues everywhere. They were each named, which I thought was cute. There was also a "Heart of KC" exhibit where storefronts each had a heart painted in the theme of what they sell. 

Outdoor art is definitely cool, but the highlight of our vacations is always the food. 🍖🍔☕🍪🍗 Our first stop was lunch at Shake Shack. My cousin (who lives in Australia) recommended that we eat at Shake Shack when we took our road trip to Las Vegas about 7 years ago and that recommendation always stuck with me. We ate at the one on the Strip and it has been my favorite burger place since. Too bad there isn't one in Oklahoma. 😔 Earlier that week, Wes & I had a conversation where we ranked fries in order of preference. Crinkle cut fries were on the bottom of my list. I had forgotten that Shake Shack's fried are crinkle cut and I was momentarily disappointed but theirs are sooooo good. I suppose crinkle cut fries aren't the worse anymore. Our lunch was so awesome. I would rank it as the best meal we had the entire weekend. 😋

I've decided that two things I need on each & every vacation is a tokodoki brand Unicorno figurine and boba tea. We got my Unicorno at Barnes & Noble and then headed to Bruu for boba tea. Their drink special was the Anchan strawberry milk tea with rainbow jellies. I had no idea what an Anchan strawberry tastes like but the drink in the picture was really pretty so I ordered it. It was delicious!! 😋 Probably the best flavored milk tea I've had in a while. The rainbow jellies weren't as good as traditional boba but still very tasty. Bruu didn't have any dairy-free options, so Wes went and got a cold brew at Made in KC Marketplace. It was a neat shop that had a café, bar, and all local goods. It had the cutest mugs and t-shirts, jewelry, candles, etc. Great place for souvenir shopping, but we didn't buy anything (we suck as tourists LOL).

For dinner, we went to Fogo de Chão. I was unaware of this highly popular steakhouse, but Wes said it was top notch. Oklahoma has Texas de Brazil so I was at least familiar with the Brazilian churrascaria concept. Maybe it was because we went on prom weekend and maybe it was because the restaurant was insanely busy, but I was NOT impressed. The food was similar to Texas de Brazil; it was good but not worth all the hype. The only things that stood out were that the lamb and chicken were marinated in a different (maybe tastier) blend of spices and they served this amazing grilled mozzarella dipped in honey.  Wes really liked our meal. I did too; I am not saying anything bad about the yummy grilled meats, but the vibe of the restaurant really ruined it for me. 

We had made reservations for 8:15pm but had to wait a while to get seated. Strike one. The restaurant itself was filthy. Strike two. The bathrooms were a disaster and there was food and trash on the dining room floor. The marketplace salad bar wasn't fully stocked, and our waitress forgot to bring out one of the complimentary side dishes. 😒 And, the bar was out of gin so they couldn't make the cocktail I ordered (a featured cocktail on the menu... so I was unsure why or how they could be out of the essential ingredient to make it). Strike three. After dinner, we headed back to the Intercontinental hotel. This has been our hotel for each of our Kansas City trips. Its very nice and literally across the street from the Plaza. You can park in the hotel parking garage and walk, which is the only way to do it since parking and driving in the Plaza is a nightmare. 

Before we went, we took a look at the Plaza directory and picked out the restaurants we wanted to try. One was Sweet Kiss Brigadeiro (a Brazilian bakery). We wanted to go there for breakfast and coffee so that was the plan for the next morning. We waited around until it opened... then waited about five minutes more... and then another few minutes. After a while, we decided that either its hours needed updating or it was out-of-business. So instead, we went to Messenger Coffee Co. for breakfast. We both wanted a chorizo burrito but they were out of chorizo so I got a chocolate chip toffee cookie & a chai tea and Wes just got a cold brew. My cookie was really good, but the chai had too much cinnamon in it. It was my fault, the barista asked if I wanted cinnamon and I said yes. Wes said his cold brew was good but not as good as the one from Made in KC Marketplace.

We also went to the Sistine Chapel exhibit but that will be for another post. We drove about an hour out of our way to go to Auntie Rita's Jamaican restaurant for lunch on our way home. We had planned to go there when we drove to Lincoln for the Ghost concert, but I was horribly sick and we had to skip. We made our way to downtown Salina, KS and everything looked closed. 😓 I checked and double checked the restaurant's hours online and it said they were open, so we parked and walked in. We were literally the only customers in the entire place. It was 3pm on a Sunday so admittedly a weird time to eat but still... I've never eaten at a restaurant where there was no one else in the dining room. The guy behind the counter was extremely friendly and gave us some pointers on what to order since we've never had Jamaican food and were from out of town. I got the BBQ pork and Wes got the jerk pork meal. We got the "regular" size and the portions were ginormous!! I can't imagine what a large meal consists of. We both really liked the food and I even ate the plantains (which I don't like). Wes said that he liked that the coleslaw was marinated in vinegar and blend of spices instead of traditional coleslaw dressing.

Overall, a fun and appetizing weekend getaway. Happy anniversary 💗 and looking forward to 70 more years of being married. 

Erica & Wes go see the Goo Goo Dolls...

... because they are Erica's favorite band of all time and they were touring to perform Erica's favorite album of all time (Dizzy Up The Girl) which contains Erica's favorite song of all time, Slide. Wes, on the other hand, does not like the Goo Goo Dolls at all, which makes him the best husband of all time for making this pilgrimage with me. The Goo Goo Dolls are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Dizzy Up The Girl's release this year with a special tour in which they perform the album in its entirety. The tour wasn't coming to Oklahoma but the next closest location with a convenient date was Kansas City, MO. So it was another road trip for us! (Original trip date was Sunday, October 28, 2018)

The Kansas Tollway has the best (cleanest) rest stops. Also, I got a new phone and the portrait mode is amazing. 

I think one of our absolute favorite things to do is to take road trips. The concert didn't start until 8pm so we took our time driving into town. The drive from Oklahoma City to Kansas City is about 85% tollway so that was a plus. Their tollway is also much smoother than ours, or maybe it just seemed nicer because there was much less construction. There was a ton of roadkill, though... opossums, deer, raccoons, you name it, we saw it. Besides that, the drive was really pretty. The majority of the countryside was trees that had changed to their autumn colors.

Dinner at Artego: those were the messiest wings I have ever eaten...ever. Wes said the calzone was a ripoff because it was mostly dough with only four tiny pepperonis in the center. 

Wes booked us a room in the very stylish Fontaine hotel. Super sleek and modern place! It was early evening and I assumed we had plenty of time to grab dinner and arrive fairly early to the concert.  We decided to go to Q39, a hip barbecue restaurant with good reviews online.What I did not anticipate was that Sunday night football was going on and the Kansas City Chiefs were playing. We got to the restaurant and were faced with a one hour wait because we didn't have reservations. Who makes reservations to a casual barbecue restaurant? On a Sunday? Apparently, football fans do. LOL The next closest eatery without a wait was Artego. It's a pizza place but I got buffalo wings and Wes got a calzone. Maybe we should have gotten pizza because the food we ordered was not very good.

We sat in the balcony so my pictures are a bit small. 

We arrived safely to Missouri, checked into the hotel, had our dinner and now it was time for the main event - GOO GOO DOLLS!!!! 😍 The concert was at the Uptown Theater. It is an old theater turned into a concert venue. The renovations left most of the original decor and style of the theater in tact, which I liked. Wes noted that it was very similar to the House of Blues in Dallas, TX. This was my second time seeing the Goo Goo Dolls perform live. The first was several years ago with my friend, Lacey. They came to Lucky Star Casino in some small town in Oklahoma. The show was amazing and I loved every minute of it but I think this show was a hundred times better. The band was much more personable and interacted with the audience a lot. I asked Lacey if they told any personal stories or jokes at the concert we went to and she said they didn't. I didn't remember any either. This time around, their set was peppered with anecdotes about the origins of each song and observations from the band.

As promised, they performed each song from Dizzy Up The Girl. It was so good. I could probably rant & rave for several paragraphs and use way too many adjectives to describe it but I won't. After a short set change, they performed a bunch of other songs from their catalog. It seemed like a bonus for me since I thought the concert would be over after Dizzy Up The Girl. Then after the second half of the show, they came out for an encore. Extra bonus! 😁 It was such a fantastic, extraordinary, rad concert. Probably tied in first place for the best concert I've ever attended (tied with The Darkness at House of Blues in Dallas https://ragsreborn.blogspot.com/2016/05/wes-erica-celebrated-their-first.html). For most of my childhood, music was just something in the background as I rode in the car or did my homework. But then in middle school, I heard Slide, and it was a song. I stopped to listen to the chords and pay attention to the lyrics. I know most people discover music much earlier in their lives but I never really cared until then. I don't follow celebrities in their personal lives so I have no idea if the Goo Goo Dolls are outstanding role models or not, but I absolutely delight in their music, song writing, and singing ability.

After the concert, we made our way back to the hotel. Wes said he enjoyed the concert even though it wasn't his favorite genre of music. I remained a giddy adoring fan for the remainder of the night. LOL The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant (no reservations needed, haha!) With full bellies, we headed back on the road for home. I usually do a fairly good job in researching eating establishments for our road trips but I totally sucked this time around. For lunch we stopped at Chiang Mai, a Thai restaurant in Wichita. It was presented as a unique and authentic hole-in-the-wall place but neither of us really enjoyed our meal. Wes's was too Americanized (chicken breast with a side of barbecue sauce) and my noodles were mostly onions and cabbage. 😒 I'll have to work extra hard in finding good places to eat on our next trip.

At least the restaurant was decorated with cool eclectic stuff. 

Wes got coffee flavored sparking water. Barf!

Chiang Mai was next to an Asian grocery store so we went exploring after lunch. It was also pretty disappointing. None of the snacks we got for the drive home were all that yummy. So I guess everything was sort of a let down except for the concert, WHICH WAS AMAZING! Oh and the drive was also really nice. And that's the last of the travel log for 2018. I'm working on planning two big trips for 2019. I guess we'll resume my journal entries then. See ya!

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!

Wes & Erica's trip to Kansas City, KS. (pt.1)

My actual wedding anniversary is April 27th... my more important "El-versary" (aka when Wes & I took a road trip to Las Vegas to get our vows renewed by an awesome Elvis impersonator) is October 8th. A few weeks ago, we decided to take another road trip to celebrate our El-versary. We didn't go as far as Las Vegas, though. Instead we drove to Kansas City.

Wes saw an episode of Anthony Bourdain's show that highlighted a bar-b-que restaurant in Kansas City, KS. The restaurant was Joe's Kansas City (formerly Oklahoma Joe's) BBQ. One of their star attractions is a plate of burnt ends of brisket. Wes was sold & I'm always up for going out of town, so off we went!

Looks like I'm at the airport but it's just a gas station.

Kansas City was a very manageable five-hour drive. (words I never thought in a million years would be put together: "manageable" and "five-hour drive" LOL) Maybe it's because I've never driven to Kansas before so the scenery was interesting. Or maybe it's because the Kansas Turnpike has zero cops so everyone got to drive 90 mph. Or maybe it was the Travel Plazas we encountered every 20 miles or so. They are ginormous gas stations with a connected Dunkin' Donuts/Hardees. I got a raspberry iced coffee at one of these Travel Plazas. One of Wes' friends is always talking about how tasty coffee is with raspberry syrup added. No one believes him but I had to try it for myself. It wasn't bad. It tasted like raspberry iced tea. I don't know what happened to the coffee flavor.

Anyway, we finally got to Joe's around lunchtime and the line was out the door! It was totally worth it when we got our food. We both got the lunch special- a plate of burnt ends on toast and one side. I got it with their Kansas Caviar, which was a cold vegetable salad with lime dressing. I actually liked my Kansas Caviar more than the burnt ends. But the burnt ends were still really good. I had some leftover and it was still good when I reheated it a few days afterward. Wes enjoyed the food, too. (I asked him for his insight and his opinion and he just answered with "It was good.")

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We finished lunch around 2pm but our hotel check-in time wasn't until 4pm. What to do for two hours? I wanted to go to the Farmer's Market but it closed at 2pm. I also wanted to go to the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens but it was 1. hot outside, 2. half an hour away, and 3. closing in a few hours. We decided to drive the five minutes into Missouri and hang out at the Country Club Plaza. When we drove across the border, the GPS on Wes' phone welcomed us into Missouri. I found it amusing.

The buildings are modeled after architecture of Seville, Spain.

The Country Club Plaza is a huge 15 block long shopping district. This is where people with money go to buy their wares. High end retail shops EVERYWHERE... Michael Kors, BCBG Max Axria, kate spade, even a Tesla Motors with fancy cars on display on the sidewalk. I enjoyed window shopping but was not in the financial state to splurge. The Customer Service office offered out-of-towners a Passport shopping guide that promised a free souvenir tote bag if $150 in purchases were made.  I bought a few things here and there but only spent $100. 

We walked around and explored a good handful of stores. I didn't buy anything crazy or exotic. A few of my favorite stores was Three Dog Bakery (because I am obsessed with buying things for Sadie & Athena) and Better Cheddar. The Better Cheddar had sooooo many samples of cheese and it took so much will-power to not try them all. Luckily, we had just finished lunch so I wasn't very hungry. The store was filled with meats & cheeses, jellies, salsas, chocolates and wine. I wanted to buy some of everything but I figured nothing in that store would travel well. 

 Oh the delicious cheeses!!

Delights for Sadie & Athena at the Three Dog Bakery. I got them some "RRRRRRibs."

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After our afternoon of shopping, Wes got himself a coffee at Scooter's (and I placed a business card on the bulletin board, see above) and we headed to the hotel. Wes booked us a room at the Intercontinental... a really plush hotel literally across the street from the Country Club Plaza. There were at least two weddings and another formal event being held at the hotel that same weekend. We were the most casually dressed couple. LOL  

A complaint I always get is that I overbook our vacations. I'm always trying to do and see every tourist attraction and the vacation no longer is a vacation because we're never relaxing. For this trip, I barely planned a thing so we got to spend the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening in our nice hotel.

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Later that night, we headed back out to the Country Club Plaza to grab dinner and explore the night life. Warning: there is no night life. LOL All of the retail stores closed at 7pm and all that was left was a few restaurants and coffee shops. We grabbed a quick dinner at Potbelly and took an evening stroll. Even though all the shops were closed, the streets were still lit up and beckoning window shoppers. We also managed to catch some live music. 

There was a group of performers named Battery Tour. They were a DJ, MC/beatboxer/singer and a few dancers. They performed "professional karoke" (I believe that's what the lady at the Customer Service desk called it). They basically did cover songs and danced around and got the audience moving. It was a fun show & they were talented kids. Being an old lady, I was sleepy by 11pm and we walked back to the hotel. It was an easy-going day of food & shopping. El-versary Day 1 complete, Day 2 to come next week!