Weekend Getaway

David and I have been together for a year-and-a-half. In that time, we have never spent a weekend together—unless there was a special event that David took time off to attend. This may seem like a weird statistic, but it is pretty common for a law enforcement family.

Last week, David decided that he was going to take the weekend off so we could enjoy a little getaway as a couple. David is currently training one of Ottumwa’s newest officers (who happens to be a friend of mine). The new officer is also in the National Guard and had drill last weekend, which is what enabled David to take the weekend off.

When thinking of destinations, David and I were trying to think of a fun place in close range—so we weren’t driving all weekend. David chose KC, and of course I backed that decision (for those of you who don’t know, I love KC and lived there for awhile. I haven’t been back in 1.5 years, so it was great to visit the city I love). David has only been to KC once, and that was to visit the water park, so I Googled several options so we could experience KC like we were tourists.

We arrived on Friday night and stayed with our friends Allie and Taylor (and their puppy Bayla!!!). We stayed up chatting and then hit the hay so we could get up and go on Saturday morning.

Allie and Bayla on the couch 

On Saturday, we woke up and headed to one of KC’s top breakfast spots—Eggtc. David and I LOVE coffee, so we both ordered their special—a salted caramel mocha and it was amazing! David got an omelet and I had the Eggs Benedict Florentine—both were so yummy!

After breakfast, it was off to the Nelson-Atkins Museum. It was far above our expectations and we had a great time touring it. The museum hosted art ranging from contemporary to structural to Asian to European and even an Egyptian exhibit complete with a mummy!!!!! The mummy really blew my mind; I couldn’t believe it was real.

One of the coolest moments was when David and I were walking down a hallway and noticed a painting of scenery we readily recognized—Richard the Lion Heart’s castle which we visited when we were in France last summer.

 The Painting.....

Photo from our trip to France.

On down that hallway, about twenty feet to the left, we recognized another painting-- this one was by Claude Monet and the subject was the Jardin at Giverny where David and I took our engagement photos. Although I've been to Monet's house and garden, I've never seen an authentic Monet painting so that was really neat to me.

The next stop on our KC spree was the Plaza. If you have never been, it is really neat. It is a grouping of several blocks of shops and restaurants all in beautiful white buildings that are fashioned to look like Seville, Spain. Some of the shops are affordable (H&M )and some are not (Gucci). David and I walked around the Plaza and even went shopping (only one store, I didn’t torture him too much). This is the photo I took in the store to depict how we feel about shopping haha.

Afterwards, we ate at PF Chang’s (David’s first time).

Our next adventure was at the World War I Museum. David is a history buff and really likes studying the wars and I—well, I have a lot to learn on the subject haha (just ask my college history professor who told my dad that my older sister Jennifer was the smart one and I was the social one lol).

The museum was amazing. They definitely spared no expense.  As you walked into the exhibit area of the museum, you walk on a glass floor that is high above a field of poppies.  The museum also featured interesting videos about the war and what led up to the war, artifacts, uniforms, tanks, missiles, ammunition, guns, a plane and life-size depictions of the trenches, bomb craters and even a field hospital room.

The stories and pictures displayed with the artifacts were so interesting and really helped make the war seem real. This museum was David’s favorite activity.

After the museum tour, David and I went to the World War I Monument above the museum. It was there that I saw the tail-end of an engagement. My favorite photo of David and my engagement was taken by a stranger who saw the proposal and text the photo to us. Therefore, I started taking photos of this couple. The new Fiancé saw me and said, “Oh, someone is trying to take picture of the monument, let’s get out of the way.” It was then I told her that I was actually taking photos of them. I offered to use their phone and hold his coat/her sunglasses while they posed and recreated the moment. It was fun and they quickly realized that I’m “snap happy” and said, “Wow! She is like a wedding photographer!” haha.

David and I then drove back to the Plaza, where he'd made reservations at a steakhouse called Houston’s. He was a sneaky guy and asked my friend Stephy for a restaurant recommendation and made the reservation on Wednesday. It was a good thing he did that because it was prom AND Saturday night on the Plaza :)

Side note: When I was changing into my nice dinner clothes, I broke the zipper on my pants—so we went back to H&M to buy new pants! I would say that was a perfect plan, except the pants that broke are my faves! Ug.

David got the rib eye and I got a steak salad (there really was steak in there, folks! Haha)

When we left the restaurant, we drove around the neighborhoods near the plaza. Oh my, there were some gargantuan and beautiful homes. Each was an architectural work of art. David and I decided that we would not argue if we were forced to live in any of them lol.

The “home tour” ended when we headed to the Power & Light District in downtown KC. This is such a neat spot. We visited a little joint called the “Flying Saucer.” I ordered the Molten Lava Cake there—but I was not impressed. The taste was great, the texture was very odd.

After cake, it was time to show David P&L. He thought it was really cool—but we are so used to going to bed early (so we can wake up at 5 a.m. for our jobs) that we did not stay more than 15 minutes haha. Before we left, a fun girl named Justine (who had the same phone case as me) took our picture.  :)

On Sunday, our original plan was to wake up and go to church with Allie and Taylor (their church is awesome and their pastor used to be on the KC SWAT team). However, we decided to catch a Royals game, which conflicted with church. So instead, we headed to another highly-rated breakfast spot called “You Say Tomato.” On our way there, we stopped at Starbucks for our favorite drink (white chocolate, raspberry mocha). Just across the way was a Lowe’s so we took a picture with our family store ;).

At You Say Tomato, David ordered the breakfast casserole and I had the breakfast flatbread (gravy, eggs, potatoes and cheese on a flatbread). Both were super yummy! We, of course, had coffee there as well.

Then it was time for another “home tour” haha. The houses were so amazing and we got so entranced by looking at them that we ran out of time to get to the Royals game much in advance. Luckily, we went the back way and we were able to get parked at the stadium, with no wait, which was awesome.

The game was so fun. It was David’s first Royals game and our first baseball game together. The weather was perfect—72 degrees. Our seats were pretty good, second level at first base. The game had an exciting end—extra innings and a stolen base for the win!

After the game, David and I high-tailed it out of the stadium and back to our car. We somehow did not catch traffic leaving the stadium either. Before leaving KC, I introduced David to Church’s chicken. That kind of counts as going to church, right?

The weekend was an amazing one of fun, adventure and bonding—just what we needed.