Birthday Date in KC

For my birthday this year Ben did something totally different for my gift. If you read my birthday-recap post, you probably saw that Ben took me to dinner at Jack Stack BBQ. That day when he came home, he gave me a card and a beautiful bouquet of Chiefs-colored flowers. In the card he had written this:

  

Our one-day "birthday stay-cation" took place on Sunday because that is the day of the week that we both have off together. It was the perfect day. This post will serve as a photo-heavy review.

STOP 1:

We started off the day at Chezelle Creperie & Coffeehouse. To read the review, click here. It was beautiful that morning, so we were able to eat outside and enjoy our crepes.

 

STOP 2:

We ended up changing the schedule up a little bit because we got a bit of an earlier start than we had anticipated and the Kemper Museum wasn't open yet. Instead, we jumped to the "???" spot, which meant that I got to choose where we went. I ended up landing on wanting to go to the WWI Museum that's here in KC. Even though I have lived here my entire life, I have never been. Thankfully, Ben enjoys musuems as much as I do, so he was all in when I suggested it.

 

 

We ended up buying the combo tickets so that we could go up in the tower and see all of the different exhibits. There were tons of interesting things to see, so much to read, and a really cool exhibit on soldiers and nurses in the war that were from right here in KC. Obviously, I could have taken hundreds of pictures of everything in sight, but I tried to restrain myself and instead, really take in what I was seeing and appreciate the immense amount of history that I was being exposed to. Let's be real though; After going to this museum, I am completely convinced that this war was started because someone got lost and was totally pointless.

 

  

  

  

  

One of my favorite parts was the poppy field they had there in the museum. The poppy field struck me, and I loved the poem about the field. Here is the poppy field poem:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

STOP 3:

We spent a few hours at the WWI Museum, so our next stop was lunch. We ended up going to Kona Grill on the Plaza, which was another great choice because they had a GF menu. I was able to order two delicious rolls [mine is the plate on the left], emamame, and a cider for my meal.

 

STOP 4:
After lunch we shot over to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. We have visited here before, but they have rotating exhibits so we wanted to check it out again. These are some of my favorite pieces that we saw there - the piece that has different panels and comes off of the wall is based on the artist's visit to the midwest, so I really enjoyed the connection there.

 

  

STOP 5:
Stop 5 of the day was the Nelson Atkin's Art Museum. I don't think that Ben and I have ever been there together [or at least in my working memory], and he has an affinity for Ancient Egyptian history, so we went and checked that out. They have an interesting sculpture display out in the lawn right now. Each of the heads you see below represent one of the seasons.

  

  

 

 

  

STOP 6:
After we went to the Nelson, we still had a little bit of time to kill before our movie, so we stopped in at Winstead's on the plaza. We were each talking about getting a shake, and decided that we would just order the Skyscraper to split. Little did we know, when you order the Skyscraper, the staff comes out and sings to you when it is delivered. I hate being sung to in restaurants, so this was not my favorite part, but it was all in good fun. The Skyscraper was HUGE.

 

STOP 7:
Our final stop of the day was at the Alamo Draft House in downtown KC. We bought tickets to see Trainwreck and planned to have a snack [rather than dinner] since we'd eaten a bit that day. Overall, the movie was hilarious and the fries and drinks that we got were great. We loved that the tickets to the Alamo weren't any more than a regular theatre, AND the service/food were good. We'll definitely go back for a date night again.

  

After the movie we headed home after 13 hours out of the house running around the city to watch a little TV and relax. When all was said and done, it was the best birthday celebration that I've had - and getting to spend it with this guy made it even better. Now to start brainstorming how to top it for his birthday in December...