Oh that I could share some of the secret charms of Salina, Ks. with you but alas we saw nothing of it but the inside of the Ramada hotel. Such is the reality of my husband’s family reunion. I did hear tell that Salina is the terra-cotta capital of Kansas – no small feat considering how much terra-cotta clads the buildings of Wichita – but I didn’t get to see it – or visit some of our favorite restaurants such as the Cozy Inn and Jim’s Chicken. We did stop today on the way home at Freddy’s – the frozen custard/steakburger chain we first discovered in Oklahoma which seems to be expanding across Kansas. (We last spotted it in Hutchinson, now it’s in Topeka and Junction City.) Very rich custard – maybe too rich. My stomach hasn’t been right since – and eating Gates BBQ, which we picked up in Kansas City, probably won’t help. But fortune favors the brave….
Category Archives: Missouri
Going to Kansas City?
Here’s what I recommended to friends looking for places to stay and eat and things to do during a trip this week to Kansas City:
– A good recent NYT travel article (http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/travel/16hours.html) on the city – recommends staying at The Raphael which is what I was going to suggest (although I’ve never stayed there but heard good things about it.) My husband, a former Kansas City resident, also recommends this:
www.bestwesternmissouri.com/hotels/best-western-seville-plaza-hotel/
I don’t know most of the restaurants mentioned in the NYT story (except the BBQ places Gates and Bryants, which are favorites). We also like the BlueBird Cafe (although it’s out of the way and hard to find) and Lidia’s – http://www.lidias-kc.com/, a good contemporary Italian place.
The new wing of the Nelson Atkins well worth a visit – including walking outside on its green roof/sculpture garden. We also like the Kemper Museum – although we haven’t been to its restaurant, which is mentioned in NYT story.
Filed under Kansas City
Trust me: the fantastic new mural on Interstate 35 in northern Missouri
I know, I know – I should be blogging today about the thwarted terrorism attack at the airport of my youth (my native Detroit). But I’m far more excited to share my latest unlikely discovery – a beautiful new mural we chanced upon inside – of all places – the spanking new welcome center along Interstate 35 in the northern Missouri city of Eagleville.
Installed in September 2009, the mural fills a long wall inside the Eagleville Welcome Center (opened in February 2008) and is made of 600,000 pieces of multi-colored glass tile. An homage to Missouri history, culture, and topography, the mural has all kinds of scenes (the Missouri River, the Kansas City Jazz and Negro League Baseball Museums) and portraits (Jesse James, Harry Truman, Thomas Hart Benton) and cultural touchstones (from the American Bison to the Missouri River steamboat, Arabia.) Among other things, I learned that Walt Disney not only grew up on a farm near the small town of Marceline, Mo. (the Disneys’ barn is featured in the mural) but that the main streets in every Disney attraction are based on Marceline’s main street. Walt even recreated the barn on his home property in Los Angeles.
Apparently I am not the only one curious about the many images embedded in the mural, which was designed by a Washington State couple who won a competition to design the mural, funded through a federal grant. At the center, I picked up a very helpful 16-page pamphlet all about the mural – entitled “The Prairie Passage” – produced by the Missouri Department of Transportation.
I love finding art in unexpected places – and I love that someone bothered to perk up my drive through northern Missouri. This rest area is a far cry from the dreary ones I remember from the family road trips of my 1960’s youth. Which leads me to wonder – how much of this is going on at other interstate rest areas and welcome centers across the country? Is this effort on the rise or in decline? Which states or rest stops have the best public art installations? I have seen some great examples of rest area public art in Iowa along Interstate 80 (funded by the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Art-in-Transit program). Googling for more info, I chanced upon a terrific website about rest area history (www.restareahistory.org) that may answer some of my questions.
Filed under Discoveries: trust me, Iowa, Missouri, On the road, rest area
