Kansas City's most centrally located attraction for kids is Science City, in the restored 1914 Union Station, cater-cornered from Crown Center at 30 Pershing Rd. (tel. 816/460-2020; www.sciencecity.com). At this multilevel, interactive museum, open daily, kids can create a personal…
Things To Do in Kansas City
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Kansas City Attractions
Baseball fans will be treated to one of the world's largest video boards if the home team Kansas City Royals are playing at Kauffman Stadium, I-70 and Blue Ridge Cut-off (tel. 816/921-8000; www.kcroyals.com).
- Cooking Class
College Basketball Experience
Located in the downtown Power & Light District, this hands-on attraction is a great place for kids of all ages. Operated by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (headquartered in Kansas City), it has a full-size court for free play, a 3-on-3 court, a small kids' court,…T-Mobile Center
- Museum
National World War I Museum
The nation's only public museum and memorial dedicated to World War I features the 217-foot-tall Memorial Tower, which opened in 1926 and offers views of downtown Kansas City from its top (which you can skip), and a fascinating underground museum documenting the history of the "Great… - Museum
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Kansas City's premier museum, occupying an impressive 1933 neoclassical building and a strikingly modern addition, boasts a collection spanning 5,000 years. It's especially noted for Asian art, including Tang dynasty bowls and Ming dynasty furniture; a 22-acre outdoor sculpture…
Kansas City Shopping
Kansas City's premier shopping district (and the country's first suburban shopping center) is Country Club Plaza, centered around 47th Street and Ward Parkway (tel. 816/753-0100; www.countryclubplaza.com). Built in 1922 to resemble a Spanish town, it's a tree-lined, 15-square-block area with more than 150 shops, restaurants, and nightspots. Crown Center, 2450 Grand Ave. (tel. 816/274-8444; www.crowncenter.com), is an 85-acre business and residential complex owned by the world's largest greeting-card company, Hallmark. It contains specialty shops, restaurants, hotels, theaters, and the free Hallmark Visitor Center (closed Sun-Mon), which chronicles 98 years of history with displays of Keepsake Ornaments and other Hallmark products and memorabilia, and excerpts from Hallmark Hall of Fame television movies. Just northwest of Crown Center is the Crossroads Arts District (www.kccrossroads.org), where First Friday lures an artsy crowd to restaurants, bars, and more than 60 galleries and shops the first Friday evening of every month.
City Market, at 5th and Main streets north of downtown and I-70 (tel. 816/842-1271; www.thecitymarket.org), is an outdoor market in operation since the 1850s. It's busiest on Saturday, when 150 vendors offer everything from vegetables and flowers to live chickens and T-shirts, but there are also permanent indoor specialty shops, international groceries, and restaurants occupying an Art Deco building. Just west of Kansas City, at the intersection of interstates 70 and 435, is Village West, a new leisure destination with hotels, restaurants, and shops, including the Kansas Speedway; Great Wolf Lodge; Cabela's (Kansas's top shopping attraction for its eye-popping wildlife displays and massive showrooms of outdoor equipment); Nebraska Furniture Mart; and the Legends (tel. 913/788-3700), an outdoor shopping and dining center.
Kansas City Nightlife
Much of the city's nightlife can be found downtown (especially in the Power & Light District), in Westport, and at Country Club Plaza. For information about what's going on, pick up the free weekly Pitch. For tickets to main events, call Ticketmaster (tel. 816/931-3330; www.ticketmaster.com).
The Performing Arts
The Lyric Theater, 1029 Central, is the venue for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City (tel. 816/471-7344; www.kcopera.org), which presents four productions yearly in the original language with projected translations; the Kansas City Symphony (tel. 816/471-0400; www.kcsymphony.org); and most performances by the Kansas City Ballet (tel. 816/931-2232; www.kcballet.org). The Lyric Opera, Kansas City Symphony, and Kansas City Ballet will have a new home when the Kauffmann Center for the Performing Arts opens downtown in December 2009. The turn-of-the-20th-century Folly Theater, 300 W. 12th St. (tel. 816/474-4444; www.follytheater.com), is known for its Jazz and Children's series. In summer, open-air Starlight Theatre in Swope Park (tel. 816/363-7827; www.kcstarlight.com) has presented Broadway musicals and concerts for almost 60 years.
The Club & Bar Scene
Majestic Steakhouse, 931 Broadway (tel. 816/471-8484; www.magesticsteakhouse.com), offers dining and jazz nightly in a historic setting, while Jardine's Restaurant & Jazz Club, 45436 Main St., near Country Club Plaza (tel. 816/561-6480; www.jardines4jazz.com), offers live jazz nightly and New American regional cuisine. Raglan Road, in the Power & Light District at 170 E. 14th St. (tel. 816/944-9700; www.raglanroadirishpub.com), looks like it was airlifted straight from Dublin and offers live Irish music and tabletop Irish step dancing Tuesday through Saturday nights, along with high-end pub food.
In the historic 18th and Vine District, the best spots offering live blues and jazz include the Blue Room, 1600 E. 18th St. (tel. 816/474-8463; www.americanjazzmuseum.com), featuring jazz on Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; and the Mutual Musicians Foundation, 1823 Highland Ave. (tel. 816/471-5212), a National Historic Landmark where musicians have been meeting for decades to jam after midnight -- Fridays it's blues, Saturdays it's jazz.
In Westport, Blayney's, 415 Westport Rd. (tel. 816/561-3747; www.blayneys.com), offers mainly blues Monday to Saturday in a pub setting, while farther south, barbecue meets the blues at the casual B. B.'s Lawn Side Bar-B-Que, at 1205 E. 85th St. east of Troost (tel. 816/822-7427; www.bbslawnsidebbq.com), with live blues Wednesday to Sunday nights.
Riverboat Gambling
Riverboat gambling takes place on noncruising boats along the banks of the Missouri River, including Harrah's Casino, U.S. 210 and Chouteau Trafficway, North Kansas City (tel. 816/472-7777; www.harrahsnkc.com); Ameristar Casino, I-435 and Route 210 (tel. 816/414-7000; www.ameristarcasinos.com); and Argosy, I-635 and Hwy. 9 (tel. 816/746-3100; www.stayargosy.com).
