Saturday - Fun in Kansas City

Saturday, we had an absolute blast. After eating at the hotel, we headed off to Union Station. This is an old train station that has been converted into an entertainment complex.

We hung out there for a bit until Brian, Maria and Joaquin joined us. There were model trains and I think if we left them to their own devices, the boys would have spent the entire day watching them go around and around.

From Union Station, there was an air-bridge that took us to another shopping area. As we started discussing lunch, Brian described a restaurant he had noticed when they had made a bathroom run to change a diaper. It was decided that we give it a try and it was a big hit.

The place was called Fritz's Train Station Restaurant. The concept was really cool.

There is a telephone in the booth. When you are ready to order, you pick up the phone and place your order. There is a train that runs around the perimeter of the restaurant that carries and delivers the food to the appropriate table.

And here is the boy wearing his Fritz's train hat:

And the boys together at the train in front of the restaurant:

After lunch, we decided to strike off to the Hallmark tour. Hallmark cards are based in Kansas City. It was interesting to see a bit about the history of the company and the demonstrations they had about making the cards. There was a machine there that made bows and we each made our own souvenir bow to bring home.

From there, we decided to head back to Union Station and take in a 3D movie at their IMAX. Based on the schedule, the only choice we had was one about Whales and Dolphins. However, it was quite interesting. Henry is not typically a fan of the 3D movie, he gets too freaked out with the things seeming to come out of the screen at him. I must say that he did pretty good. There was a part where one of the whales was waving his fin and with the 3D glasses, it did seem like it was going to slap us in the face with it. Henry didn't like this part but I worked with him to get through it. I think it finally convinced him that while it "seems" like things are going to come out and get you, nothing really does. He was totally fine for the rest of the movie. Here we are sporting our special glasses:

After the movie, we all piled into our rental car (a Mazda SUV with 3rd row seating) and headed off across town (and as it turns out, into another state) for the surprise dinner venue. As the GPS tried to direct me onto the interstate bypass, I just couldn't find the entrance ramp it said should be there. As a result, I ended up in downtown Kansas City. As we pulled up to an intersection, we noticed a pool of policemen on motorcycles, all with their lights on. The streets were all lined with onlookers. It only took us a moment to realize that we had stumbled upon an Obama siting (we had heard earlier in the day that he was in town for a rally). As we sat there, the policemen gave the go-ahead signal and took off. Following them were several dark SUV's, one containing presidential candidate Barrack Obama, waving at the crowds. Right or wrong, we all felt that we had stumbled upon a chance view of royalty.

Once the traffic dissipated, we made up our own alternate route to get to the interstate and off we were to the next stage of our adventure. We crossed state lines from Missouri into Kansas and landed at another shopping/entertainment area called Legends.

There, we ate dinner at a restaurant called T-Rex. It is the same concept as the Rainforest Cafe, except with dinosaurs. Since Henry is currently totally fascinated by dinosaurs, we thought it would be a hit. However, we were a bit worried since he currently refuses to eat at Rainforest. We knew we were okay as soon as we walked up to the place. Henry was so excited that he could hardly utter an undertandable word. There was a huge animatronic t-rex right inside the front door. He was mildly nervous of it, but totally fascinated.

The restaurant, along with a gift shop, had a build-a-dino (think: Build-a-Bear) area where Henry chose to build a pteranodon. One of the steps in this process is to name your new 'pet'. He chose to name his "Cutie Pie'. Later, when explaining why he chose that name, he stated "Because he's a cutie, and he likes to eat pie". Makes perfect sense to me. All in all, it was a great hit with Henry, and the adults didn't mind it either.

The evening was finished off with ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. We headed back to drop Brian and Maria off at their car (left at Union Station), where we said our good-byes. Then it was back to the hotel.

Sunday morning, we again had to get up very early to pack and catch our flight. We found ourselves ready with an extra 40 minutes to spare, so we headed to Cracker Barrel (right behind our hotel) for breakfast.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Henry was again sporting his pilot gear and was again being asked about flying the airplane. Our airplane was configured with one seat on the right side of the aisle and two seats on the left side. Henry decided he wanted to sit by himself on the right. He seemed so grown up sitting over there. The flight home was pretty much a repeat of the flight there, except no muffin.