Kansas City, MO: “Like a Dream”
This summer my family went on a grand road trip to the American Southwest. We visited nine stops over the course of two weeks. The trip was years in the making, with dual purposes of seeing friends who had moved to Las Vegas and bringing the kids to the town where their dad used to live—Flagstaff, Arizona. On top of that, 2026 marked the 100th anniversary of Route 66 and America’s 250th year as a nation. What better way to celebrate than by traversing that epic highway of yore and exploring some National Parks? Our daughter as a 4th grader got the whole family into the parks for free, which was an added perk.
This is Part 1 of a travel series where I recall a standout moment from each location. I hope it inspires you to muse on your past adventures and dream of future ones.
The morning sun spilled like orange juice across farmland sky as we headed west to start our summer travels. Seven hours later, we crossed a bridge into Kansas City, Missouri, a place I had always wanted to visit but never had a reason to.
It was early June, and immediately Kansas City felt welcoming with its abundance of Pride flags waving. The city was also a host for the World Cup, so it was showing off on a global scale. Our first stop was to grab lunch and check out the famous Spanish architecture-inspired Country Club Plaza, a sprawling outdoor mall. Kansas City is known as the “City of Fountains,” and we took selfies with some of the opulent waterworks and large murals throughout.
After doing some shopping together, the kids and Anthony drove me to the nearby Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the revered art museum that brought us to the border of Missouri and Kansas. I’m a huge art fan, and I have long known what an incredible collection could be viewed (for free!) here. We posed with the iconic Claes Oldenburg/Coosje van Bruggen Shuttlecock on the lawn and then I went in, solo, to indulge my reverie at finally making it to the great hall.
I stood before a Caravaggio, admired Rembrandt and Ruysch, walked amongst Manet and Morisot. A large Pissarro landscape captivated me for a while. So many Impressionist and Post-Impressionist beauties! A super saturated Josef Albers abstract played tricks with my eyes and a Mies chair made me beam.
As I drifted through, thinking I had seen everything I hoped to see, I turned a corner distractedly into a enclosed, moody blue room. I pivoted, and a massive Monet painting of “Water Lilies” spread out before me. I gasped.
I might have welled up a little, too.
Benches in art museums are the best. Moreso if not too many people are in the museum. I sat staring, trying to take in the huge, wall-sized work before me, the pastels dancing and shimmering every which way. I tried to devour it with my eyes, absorb it into my system like sustenance, knowing I could only be present with the painting right then and there. I was often alone. Me and Monet.
Eventually, I pried myself away and met back up with my family, rambling on about all the art I saw while my daughters simultaneously shared what books and clothes they bought.
I never thought I’d experience one of those enormous Monets outside of Paris. I really didn’t know we had any here. What a gift it can be to be surprised! How nice to not always know what to expect. As the family trip-planner, I don’t get many instances like that.
Later that night, we visited the Instagram-famous library parking garage built to look like a bookshelf for giants, the Chappell Roan mural, and of course, we ate some pretty tasty barbecue.
My freshman year of high school, I was in the chorus of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! The song “Kansas City” was just about the only thing I knew about the place for a bit. I don’t know if “everything’s up to date,” but in the fewer than twenty-four hours we spent there, one thing for sure was “like a dream” for me.