Kansas City MO...a beautiful city and home to Hallmark Cards

KC is a beautiful city in of itself.  Downtown skyscrapers mix with beautiful old buildings like their 1914 Union Station.  Courthouse and City Hall with statues playing homage to Abraham Lincoln, mansions dating back to the 1800's and Jazz.  I just love all the history and the architecture that shows it.  Driving around a city is one of my favorite things to do.

 KC is the home of the greats like Charlie Parker and Count Basie with music styles of the blues, New Orleans Jazz, ragtime, big band, swing, stride and Bounty Music.  18th & Vine was the center of all this, and still is.  Besides keeping Jazz "live" with nightly performances, they have the American Jazz Museum that by day it shares the wealth of history and by night it's the "Blue Room" where they play live Jazz along with storytelling and poetry.  We struck out in trying to get into any of these while we were there, unfortunately, as they weren't open on the nights we were there.  All we managed to do is drive the neighborhood and dream.  We will just have to come back again, and time it better!

Downtown KC also has revitalized their Historic City Market to include various shops and restaurants, that includes the wonderful Winslow's BBQ.  We were told that Winslow's was the best BBQ in all of KC - so, of course we had to check it out!  Well, they weren't lying, it was GREAT!  My personal preference still puts the Memphis TN BBQ as number one, but boy, this was a close second.  Yum!  We also have discovered another treat out here, and that's Frozen Custard.  This stuff makes Ice Cream seem armature.  It's so much more creamy, smoother and satisfying.  California, your really missing out on this wonderful dessert!  (please don't tell Jenny Craig my new addition)

A big surprise was finding out that KC is the home of Hallmark Cards!  What a delightful experience visiting their Visitor Center.  There was so much to see and listen to, I came back the next day too!  Granted, partly because Jack was enjoying the WWI National Museum, and that's not my cup of tea.  I LOVED this place!  Of course I have been a fan of Hallmark Cards for many years, and who doesn't just love Maxine?  It was evident throughout the exhibits what a great company this is.  It's a family owned company that was started by 18 year old Joyce C. Hall, who, with his box of postcards, started the business back in 1910.  He later brought his brothers into the business to help him keep up with the success.  It's stayed in the family all these years.  It was first called "Hall Brothers Cards" before they decided to change it to Hallmark.  He cared for his employees from the vary beginning by offering things like car pooling and day care, long before it was ever popular to do so.  How cool was that?  His employees cared for him back, by sharing their creative skills in an annual Christmas Tree (each year a different theme) and a special painting created just for him.

They also showcase some of the original artwork done by Saul Steinberg, Grandma Moses, Norman Rockwell and Sir Winston Churchill.  They played all their commercials on TV; as I sat and watched I teared up just like I do when they come on now!  Of course they showed samples of their cards as well as their awards that their TV show The Hallmark Hall Of Fame received.  I could go on and on, like I did those two afternoons, but I will spare you, and just offer some of the many pictures I took!
A sweet place.

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

 ...kicking back in KC, Marie

Kansas City MO and the World Series of Barbecue

Wow, Kansas City is a town with tons and tons to see and do!  Before we even got there, tho, our mouths were watering.  The night before we journeyed into KC, we met a nice couple that shared conversation and their fire with us.  They were from this area, and when we told them that we were heading into KC for "some good BBQ", they agreed that KC was the place to go for that!  They also mentioned that they weren't sure when it was, but they have a World Series of Barbecue competition that teams come from all over the US to compete, and it was really something to experience.  Well, imagine my surprise when I found out that it was happening the very same weekend that we were going to be there!  Yippee!

Well, we didn't waste any time in reserving a couple of tickets for that Saturday.  Boy, we were ready to taste some good BBQ!  With lips smacking, we bundled up (it was colder than heck that day) and off we went to the American Royal Center where it was being held.  Map in hand, we decided to check out the "vendor hall" first.  We entered, expecting it to be full to the brim (like the ones at the fair)...hmm...not so much.  There were about 1/50th the vendors that the space could hold.  First off, tho, we saw that a cooking demo was going on, so we grabbed a couple of chairs and sat down to watch.  It was a chef from the Midwest Barbeque Institute talking about sauces.  They actually have a school for BBQing!  What a hoot!  We saw on the agenda that later that day Guy Fieri from the Food Network was going to host a segment, so we would come back for that later.  On to the vendors...the only ones that were aimed at the "general public" (vs professional cooks wanting huge grills) were those promoting their special sauces and rubs.  The first one I walked up to, I shared with him that we weren't from here, so were novices, and what made KC style of cooking different than say, Memphis TN?  He and the other customers there, explained that KC's is typically a sweeter sauce - but that "good BBQ" was cooked with a rub, served with the meat falling off the bone, then the sauce is added (or, it's OK to add it as the last thing before taking it off the grill).  I asked everyone to suggest the best BBQ place in town, and they all agreed that Winslow's BBQ was the tops, along with a couple of others.  With a "thank you" to the group, we moved on.  Around the last corner was a small set up with several (lovely) black women handing out samples of their sauce.  Their set up intrigued me, so I stopped to listen to them and taste.  Wow!  What a different flavor of sauce!  They named it Freddie Lee's "Ghetto Sauce".  Love the name.  They shared that it was an all purpose gourmet sauce to use when you grilled, smoked, baked and even in chili.  Yum, we agreed and bought a bottle.

 Well, enough of that, it was time to go outside and try some of the 545 competitors' BBQ!  We walked up and down rows and rows of the different team set-ups, all elaborate, some fancy & some funny, but no people?  We finally found a couple of folks gathered around a fire that they invited us to join them, in trying to keep warm.  We asked where all the food samples were, and they shared that there wasn't any, it all was going to the judges.  What, NO FOOD?  You mean we paid $18 each to allow vendors to sell us something and smell the BBQ?  Damn.  So, with hungry tummies, we conceded and went back inside to buy a BBQ sandwich from a concession stand.  NOT the fare we had in mind.

After the sandwich, we headed for Guy's demo.  He was a hoot!  He made several different things, one a "hot" Margarita!  Fun.  It almost made up for the disappointment, almost...

They were having a band and some other activities later that evening, but it was to dang cold to just hang around until then, and without the food, it wasn't worth it.  We would just have to find our BBQ fix at Winslow's...later.

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

 ...kicking back in KC, Marie