The Tourists - Commanders in Chief, Civil Rights & 'Cue, part 1

Tales from our vacation taken in June of this year.

(This is a picture heavy post...)

We left early on Thursday and drove to West Branch, Iowa to visit the Herbert Hoover NHS and Presidential Library. It's a great stop and worth the time!

We drove on toward Missouri from there. We stopped at the Eagleville Welcome Center. The kids stopped for a pose with President Turman...

We stopped for gas at

 (the name just killed DS-he laughed everytime we passed by one...)

We got to Kansas City and checked into our hotel, in Independence. We headed into KC for dinner and look around. Thanks to our GPS we went through a VERY rundown and a stretch of neighborhood we did not want to be in. My husband, who doesn't scare easily, told the kids that if he said "Down" to get on the floor of the van. 

ANYWAY - - we made it downtown and went to the Crown Center. We had dinner at Fritz's, where your food is delivered to your table via train.  The food wasn't that good but the atmosphere was pretty cool!

Friday, we had breakfast and headed out for a day of "touristing". We walked around downtown Independence (it's a nice town from what we saw). We walked by Clinton's Soda Fountain, where President had his first job while growing up.

The kids had their picture taken with the Truman Statue in the square.

We took the tour of Truman's Home (a NHS) - the interior has been preserved as it was when Mrs. Truman passed away.  President Truman's final car he owned is still parked in the garage.

 We headed to Kauffman Stadium (home of the Royals) to take the ballpark tour. It's a wonderful park and we had a fantastic tour guide. 

 We headed to the World War I Museum. It is quite a place! We learned a lot about the war and politics during that time. You can go up in the tower and get a wonderful view of Kansas City.

We had an early dinner at:

The food is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!  It is in a gas station - so you have to kind of know where you're going.

Saturday, we continued our Truman Tour (or Trumanage, as DS called it)

We went to the Truman Presidential Library - they have fantastic exhibits and activities for kids.

President & Mrs. Truman's resting place in the courtyard.

 DS wanted to go back to the WWI Museum for a second day, so we took him and we took DD back to the Crown Center to see the fountains and visit the Hallmark Visitors Center. 

We saw this bus in a parking lot and DS wanted this picture of an official "short bus".

 We went to Gates BBQ for a late lunch - if you like vinegary tasting BBQ, this is the place for you. We weren't very impressed, but whatever you like.

We took the kids back to the hotel and got them settled, then DH & I headed to Arrowhead Stadium for:

As we pulled into the parking lot, the skies turned black and it was getting ready to STORM!!!!! We grabbed our ponchos and made a run for it. We had just gotten in the gate when the skies opened up. So, we sat under the stands with the rest of the fans, watched the water roll through the concourse and lots of people get drunk. It was one of those "don't tell mom" times.

When we finally got to go to our seats, we watched a good show. (photos from the Kansas City newspaper site), despite worrying about two girls behind us that were so drunk they puked through most of the concert and the couple next to us that were out of their minds drunk (she almost fell down the stairs [we were in the uppermost bowl] and he went over the seats in front of us). I would like to make a note that the accoustics in Arrowhead weren't very good where we were, until Chesney's crew must have taken over for his part of the show.

(he falls under the "Chief" category in the title...)

 After the show, we walked to our van to find that the two back windows had been broken out from a beer bottle. That is NOT what we wanted to find at 11:30 at night in a city we weren't real familiar with. Security refused to do anything to help, so the nice people parked behind us helped us clean up the glass a little and directed us to the closest Wal Mart, to pick up supplies for a repair. 

DH & DS covered the window as best they could in the dark (and redid it in the A.M.).

That's the first 3 days of our trip.  Stay tuned for further adventures...