Kansas City with Noah

Friday, August 21

As Noah’s LEGO collection continued to grow, so did Amanda’s desire to contain them to a region of our basement family room. The train-turned-LEGO table was full, and bricks were sprawling across the floor. Following extensive Pinterest and Google research, her favorite was a table shared on Flickr, which consisted of four IKEA storage units topped with a painted piece of Baltic birch plywood.

Amanda’s dad could help with the woodworking and I could handle the painting, but a trip to IKEA was required to build the base of the table. With summertime winding down and Emmie set to spend a few days in Ottumwa, Amanda and I made the last minute decision to make an overnight trip to Kansas City. In addition to IKEA shopping, we made the trip more appealing to Noah by adding in a stop at the LEGO Discovery Center to our 24-hour agenda.

I booked our room at a south Kansas City courtyard, and we began the rather monotonous drive south just before 6:00 on Friday. The I-35 corridor between Des Moines and Kansas City has a pretty uninspiring dining scene, so we made a late-night reservation at JULIAN, a favorite restaurant from previous city visits.

Noah and I posed with the pretzel bread appetizer.

Dining with Noah at JULIAN had become a sort of Kansas City tradition. When he was nine months old, he accompanied Amanda, Gee Gee, and me for dinner; his good behavior earned him a label from the waitstaff as the best baby to dine in the restaurant. Fifteen months later, he was old enough to eat from the menu, and he devoured the mac and cheese we ordered. While our third visit to JULIAN was less memorable, we enjoyed a decent dinner before the short drive south to check into our hotel.

Amanda, Noah, and the alligator ‘stuffy’ outside the hotel.

Saturday, August 22

Noah and I drove to the nearby LaMar’s Donuts location for breakfast, where we each purchased red-and-white sprinkled donuts for breakfast. After a subsequent grocery store stop to stock up on Shatto milk, we returned to the hotel for a brief breakfast before checking out and making our way to IKEA, a short drive across the state line to Mission, Kansas.

We took the grand tour through both floors of the IKEA store, buying a few things here and there including another stuffed rat for Noah’s collection. We then shopped the self-serve furniture area to find the foundational storage units for our new LEGO table, filling our cart with four sets of shelves and 18 storage drawers.

Always time to smell candles while at IKEA.

I wasn’t the most efficient at backing up the van to the loading zone, but once it was there, our purchases fit nicely in the trunk.

Our lunch stop was The Mixx near Country Club Plaza, another favorite from previous Kansas City trips. The restaurant mixes custom salads on the spot, allowing Amanda (and every guest) to choose the type of lettuce, dressing, and up to five mix-ins. Noah ordered and enjoyed a grilled cheese from the kids menu.

After lunch, we walked down the street to Glace, one of my favorite ice cream places in the midwest. Noah skipped out on the ice cream fun, but the cream cheese ice cream made enough of an impression on Amanda that we returned in the afternoon for a takeaway pint.

We made a quick stop at Christopher Elbow, an artisan chocolate shop in downtown KC.

We spent the better part of the afternoon at the LEGO Discovery Center. While the attraction had mixed reviews online, most of the complaints were from parents of older kids lamenting the lack of rides and activities. Noah, however, was perfectly content playing at the tables of LEGO bricks, spending the bulk of our visit in two building stations.

Some of Noah’s handiwork at the LEGO Discovery Center.

Noah and I built custom mosaics from exclusively 1×1 bricks.

Our final stop in Kansas City was at the HiBoy Drive In, where we ordered a variety of burgers and fries to eat in the parking lot before driving home. I ordered the classic Hiboy sandwich, which was topped with their signature sauce plus pickles, onion, lettuce, tomato, and cheese. Amanda opted for the classic cheeseburger and fries, while Noah wanted a junior hamburger. The restaurant was completely accommodating of my request for a side of pickles, which he devoured along with his burger.