KANSAS CITY, Kansas — This metropolis has lengthy lived within the shadow.
For many People, point out Kansas Metropolis and ideas instantly flip to Missouri: barbecue, jazz, downtown skyscrapers {and professional} sports activities. The Kansas facet has too usually been decreased to an afterthought.
That’s altering.
With the Nationwide Soccer League’s Kansas Metropolis Chiefs relocating right here within the coming years, KCK — what the cool youngsters name it — is poised to imagine a much more outstanding position on the nationwide stage. But this metropolis’s rise isn’t merely about soccer.
It has been quietly reinventing itself for years.
Kansas Speedway helped remodel Wyandotte County, which incorporates town, right into a tourism and leisure hall, bringing NASCAR and different main racing occasions whereas driving substantial financial funding. Round it has emerged an expansive district of purchasing, eating and accommodations.
A type of locations is the Margaritaville Resort Kansas Metropolis.
My current keep marked my first-ever go to to a Margaritaville property, and I got here away genuinely impressed.
It compares favorably to extra conventional upscale manufacturers like Westin. Whereas too many chain accommodations more and more embrace sterile, interchangeable modernity, Margaritaville affords one thing much more transportive. Its decor is immersive, playful and resort-oriented with out sacrificing polish. In brief, this isn’t merely one other lodge. It appears like a trip.
The sprawling out of doors pool alone would justify a return keep. One can benefit from the ambiance of an island resort with out the passport necessities, airport complications or bills of airfare for a complete household.
For a lot of readers, KCK is a sensible long-weekend vacation spot.
I might gladly return for no different purpose than to spend a number of days beside that giant pool, having fun with a real resort ambiance with out ever needing to depart the nation.
But what shocked me most about Kansas Metropolis was not merely its new growth.
It was its historical past.
Nowhere is that extra evident than Strawberry Hill.
This historic neighborhood is architecturally and culturally fascinating. Strolling its streets, I used to be reminded much less of the jap Nice Plains and extra of the Rust Belt. Assume Pittsburgh and Erie in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin’s Milwaukee and Rochester on the Erie Canal in New York.
There gave the impression to be a church — towering reminders of Kansas Metropolis’s Croatian, Slovenian, Polish and broader ethnic European heritage — each block or two.
These weren’t generic fashionable buildings. They had been conventional church buildings within the truest architectural sense. Assume limestone, pointed-arch Gothic revival or Romanesque revival with rounded arches, bell towers and masonry craftsmanship that mirrored an period when church buildings had been constructed for permanence and wonder.
Some stay lively homes of worship. Others have been repurposed or now not serve Christian congregations. However all stand as enduring reminders of how earlier generations constructed sacred areas.
Their structure speaks to a confidence, seriousness and reverence usually absent from a lot up to date design. These had been buildings supposed to encourage, to endure and to anchor communities.
Even my unintended crossing into Missouri’s West Bottoms supplied a glimpse into the metro’s broader transformation. As soon as rough-edged and industrial, the world, which straddles the unmarked border between Kansas and Missouri, is quickly rising as a hotspot for lofts, eating places and different redevelopment. I think will probably be utterly redeveloped inside 5 years.
Between skilled sports activities, its rising hospitality scene and a surprisingly wealthy heritage, Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, is now not merely adjoining. It’s an surprising vacation spot.
Should you go
In Strawberry Hill, head to Beverly’s for a chunk to eat. The family-friendly institution is a neighborhood favourite. Different locations to eat embody Joe’s Kansas Metropolis Bar-B-Que, which is a part of the KCK BBQ Path.
Rowe Ridge Winery & Vineyard, the one vineyard in Wyandotte County, affords an intriguing glimpse into Kansas’ still-fledgling wine business. Produced from hybrid grapes grown on the property winery, the wines differ in model and evaluate surprisingly properly with bottles from different rising, nontraditional wine areas.
I’ve lengthy had an affinity for triumphal arches. The Rosedale Memorial Arch, a scaled-down homage to Arc de Triomphe in Paris, was erected to honor World Struggle I veterans and later expanded as a memorial to those that served in subsequent conflicts. It’s doubtless one in all KCK’s most missed hidden gems.
If Margaritaville isn’t your sort of lodge, think about Chateau Avalon Resort. Quirky and unapologetically eccentric, it affords a particular mix of boutique lodge and bed-and-breakfast lodging.
Full journey planning sources can be found by means of Go to Kansas Metropolis, Kansas.
Dennis Lennox writes a journey column for The Christian Put up.
Dennis Lennox writes about journey, politics and non secular affairs. He has been printed within the Monetary Instances, Unbiased, The Detroit Information, Toronto Solar and different publications. Comply with @dennislennox on Twitter.
“Well bless their hearts.”
