Where are the Kansas City girls?

[tarheels]

I'm only here with DH til the middle of August. GTG?

And while I have your attention, I have some questions:

1) Is it always so COLD here in the summer?! I'm walking around in a sweatshirt! (Yes, yes, I know to be glad I won't be here for winter.) Summer at home means 100 degree temps and at least 85% humidity. If this is normal, I shall laugh in the face of any Midwesterner who ever complains about "heat" ever again. The ten day forecast looks like more of the same, so is this summer here?

2) Can I tell you about the shrieking and hand flapping that went on in my car on our drive in when I realized we were far enough north and central to see road signs for Des Moines? "DES MOINES?! Iowa?! I'm within road sign distance of Des Moines?!?!" Yes, been a while since I studied American geography ;P

3) How did you all not warn me about Nebraska furniture mart? That place is overwhelming and incredible and just wow. 

4) We figure we won't be in this part of the country again, so what landmarks do we need to see? We're two hours from Des Moines and Omaha? (Or, er, was it Lincoln? Idk, sorry, Midwest fail.) So what weekend trips should we take?

[thewop]

I'm not from Des Moines or Kansas City, but good friends of ours are from IA and RAVE about the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. If we weren't already going on vacation that week somewhere else, we would be going to the fair this year.

[kermit]

1. NO, it is usually much hotter this time of year, and August is worse. IDK what's going on.

3. I think everyone here has gotten used to NFM. For all the stuff they have, I always have a hard time finding something I really like. But I usually have something in my head that doesn't really exist, soooo...

4. It's more of a 3 hour drive, but Eureka Springs, Arkansas is a fun weekend trip. Herrmann, MO has wineries you can tour. Other than that I'm drawing a blank. Welcome!

[midwest07]

The current weather is not normal.  We would usually be in the 90s, maybe a few 100 degree days here and there by the 4th.  As someone else said, August is usually the worst.  Humidity is also usually much worse.

I would say there is plenty to do around KC to get you through August, but some ideas for weekend trips - St Louis, Lawrence (day trip), Omaha (for the zoo, though there is a zoo here too), Branson(!), Lake of the Ozarks or Table Rock Lake (rent a condo for the weekend).  Des Moines probably has some things going on, but I don't know it as well.  The IA State Fair is in August, I think.  That is an experience.  There are some wineries around if you are into that, as well as Boulevard for a brewery tour.

[emoflamingo]

Jul 2, 2013 9:42:37 GMT -5 tarheels said:

I'm only here with DH til the middle of August. GTG?

And while I have your attention, I have some questions:

1) Is it always so COLD here in the summer?! I'm walking around in a sweatshirt! (Yes, yes, I know to be glad I won't be here for winter.) Summer at home means 100 degree temps and at least 85% humidity. If this is normal, I shall laugh in the face of any Midwesterner who ever complains about "heat" ever again. The ten day forecast looks like more of the same, so is this summer here?

No lol. It's usualy 100+ degrees with humidity that would cause your hair to frizz like a lion. I'm definitely enjoying the change of pace. It was a lot warmer last week. (I heard it's unusually cool in Texas right now too.)

2) Can I tell you about the shrieking and hand flapping that went on in my car on our drive in when I realized we were far enough north and central to see road signs for Des Moines? "DES MOINES?! Iowa?! I'm within road sign distance of Des Moines?!?!" Yes, been a while since I studied American geography ;P

So you're near I-35? Once you hit the downtown loop on I-70, it says "I-70 West Topeka" but it's a good 70 miles from downtown.

3) How did you all not warn me about Nebraska furniture mart? That place is overwhelming and incredible and just wow. 

I've always been disappointed when I go there. It seems so expensive for mostly muppet couches. but yes, it's HUGE and it takes a long time to go through. It's like the midwest version of Ikea, only not swedish.

4) We figure we won't be in this part of the country again, so what landmarks do we need to see? We're two hours from Des Moines and Omaha? (Or, er, was it Lincoln? Idk, sorry, Midwest fail.) So what weekend trips should we take?

[emoflamingo]

I didn't realize there were so many of us. Holla!

[tarheels]

Oh, can someone explain what's up with the MO road signs marked with letters in boxes? Things like DD and A and F?

[emoflamingo]

Those are route signs.

This right?: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_supplemental_route

[sierramist03]

I'm so sad I won't be home anytime soon we were just back home this last weekend. I'm 3 1/2 hours from KC now.

1) Is it always so COLD here in the summer?! NO we actually just finished about 10 days of highs in the upper 90's and yes this is unseasonable cool for this time of year! I actually wore a jacket to work at 530 this morning. Enjoy it while you can before it get miserable and you don't want to do a thing. You will learn that ozone days in KC are nasty.

3) How did you all not warn me about Nebraska furniture mart? I freaking love that place. It's we're 75% of my furniture is from. We were so excited to learn they'd deliver to our new house for $75! I'm surprised you haven't seen me or emo mention it.

4) I'd see the liberty memorial and WW1 museum, union station, Nelson Atkins Museum, Omaha Zoo, I'd do a Royals game, the plaza, Power and Light, rose gardens, there is also a map with all the fountains if you wanted to drive and see them all. St Joseph has the pony express museum, petty house, and Jessie James house. I'd do Weston and visit the shops and the wineries. If you want a drive I'd drive to Jamesport and see the Amish country. Atchison has the Amelia Earhart home. Let me think I might come up with more.

[sierramist03]

Jul 2, 2013 14:59:47 GMT -5 tarheels said:

Oh, can someone explain what's up with the MO road signs marked with letters in boxes? Things like DD and A and F?

Those are Missouri state highways

[sierramist03]

Jul 2, 2013 13:52:25 GMT -5 midwest07 said:

The current weather is not normal.  We would usually be in the 90s, maybe a few 100 degree days here and there by the 4th.  As someone else said, August is usually the worst.  Humidity is also usually much worse.

I would say there is plenty to do around KC to get you through August, but some ideas for weekend trips - St Louis, Lawrence (day trip), Omaha (for the zoo, though there is a zoo here too), Branson(!), Lake of the Ozarks or Table Rock Lake (rent a condo for the weekend).  Des Moines probably has some things going on, but I don't know it as well.  The IA State Fair is in August, I think.  That is an experience.  There are some wineries around if you are into that, as well as Boulevard for a brewery tour.

I totally forgot about boulevard. There is free state in Lawrence and tall grass in manhattan too.

We loved eureka springs and we live in one of the Missouri places listed so it would also be a great weekend. St. Louis is nice too. It's been a few years since I've been there though

[emoflamingo]

Oh yeah, don't forget Union Station and all that stuff sierramist03 posted about. TONS to do in KC.

(Not to be creepy, but I had a dream about being on here and you complaining about the food options up there lol. I was like "Um, we can tell you better places to eat than chains!!" It was completely WTF worthy. I dream about FOOD.)

[kermit]

I totally forgot about Lawrence, that's a great short day trip. Tons of shops on Mass St. Eat at Quinton's for lunch. There are a few cool flea market type places if you like that kind of thing.

[emoflamingo]

If you want proof that Kansas isn't flat, you can go through the Flint Hills and visit Aggieville in Manhattan. It'll be slow since it's summer (i.e. not a lot of drunk college kids) but there are some great places there too. The Little Apple Brewery is great.

[sierramist03]

Jul 3, 2013 12:09:12 GMT -5 emoflamingo said:

If you want proof that Kansas isn't flat, you can go through the Flint Hills and visit Aggieville in Manhattan. It'll be slow since it's summer (i.e. not a lot of drunk college kids) but there are some great places there too. The Little Apple Brewery is great.

My favorite place to eat is so long saloon

[emoflamingo]

Jul 3, 2013 13:13:38 GMT -5 sierramist03 said:

Jul 3, 2013 12:09:12 GMT -5 emoflamingo said:

If you want proof that Kansas isn't flat, you can go through the Flint Hills and visit Aggieville in Manhattan. It'll be slow since it's summer (i.e. not a lot of drunk college kids) but there are some great places there too. The Little Apple Brewery is great.

My favorite place to eat is so long saloon

Not to thread jack, but if you and Brandon come up for a game, you have to let me know! We got season tickets again but I'm hoping to get to go to more this year (since, you know, giving birth cramped my style) and we ended up getting 4 tickets!

[katie4253]

I was just talking to my mom today and she said that they are having the weirdest weather (she lives a few hrs north). But, I'm gonna go with not normal.  Normally it is high 90s to low 100s and then humid making the heat index well over 100.  Our AC never went off during the summers.  I'm glad not to be there because of that. 

We went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas one summer.  It was cool.  Beautiful town.  The Omaha zoo is truly the best zoo in the country, you could make a weekend of it by staying downtown which is also great.  I am from Lincoln, and the state capital is there.  But, really, that's about it.  I don't think it is worth the trip there (though I do love my hometown and go back to visit a couple times a year to see family.  It just isn't a big tourist place.).