Last week we decided, based on the whining and pouting  performed by the tall blond in the family, that we should go to Kansas City and see Union Station and Crown Center.  Look how happy everyone is to be out of the house, no work, no school, no farm chores.  Such bliss!

You can rent a Segway to view all the sights.

We chose to pretend we were riding a Segway and if you’re riding a pretend Segway…

you can do lots of extreme tricks…

without worrying about falling off your Segway.

Look Ma!  No hands!

Look Ma!  No brains!

Pretend Synchronized Segway Dancing…it’s all the rage.  Just look how impressed our audience is.  Uh?  Seth?  Hello?  We just preformed a bunch of extreme pretend Segway stunts.  Did you see them?  Hello?

Pretend Synchronized Segway Dancers get no appreciation.

There weren’t many people at Union Station.  I told the kids I had called ahead and reserved the entire space for our family.  One time Ellen and I went to a late movie on a weekday night, we were the only people there. I told her I reserved the theater just for us, and she believed me.

We paid a few bucks to park and strolled around inside and outside the building.  The kids loved it.

Then we bought tickets to the 3-D Imax theatre.  It was that show about the flies that go into space..I can’t even remember the name of the movie.  I fell asleep three times during the show, it was a terrible movie.  The 3-D was cool, but I had a headache and felt like I needed to puke after viewing the whole thing with those weird glasses.

The only thing our kids asked for was to get some fudge.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not one to say No to fudge.  We got four slices and shared amongst us.

The model trains were being built for display.  It was fascinating, even thought it wasn’t fully operational.

All the tiny details were astounding.  I want to take the kids back over Christmas to see it all working.

We headed over to Crown Center through the elevated walkway aptly named The Link.  I practiced my Vegas Showgirl poses, just in case I ever find myself in a situation where I need to use these skills.  You never know, Coal Creek Farm might be bought out by some fancy schmancy casino and then what will I do?  It’s best to be prepared.

Oh, calm down Mom, I’m just kidding!

About the casino, I’m still going to practice the poses.

This is the spot where Clay and I stopped and sang, “Kansas City….Kansas City here we come…” because we were the only people in The Link, so why not?  Although, I’m pretty sure we would have sung  if there would have been people.

All the crowds were over at Crown Center for the Irish Fest.  We enjoyed a guy playing his bagpipes and another gentleman putting on a concert and then we ate at Fritz’s Railroad Restaraunt where you order your food with a telephone that’s in the booth and a model train drops your food down onto the table.  My boys were beside themselves with anticipation for that train to bring our food.

And everybody gets a conductor’s hat!

So we paid for parking, Terrible Movie tickets, Fudge and Dinner at Fritz’s.  It was about $100, not bad for a day in the city with a family of six.  Then we headed over to Liberty Memorial and viewed the sights from there, so beautiful…I have no photos of that to share, but it is amazing.

And that was our $100 Staycation!  Just enough time away to have fun and not think about any of our responsibilities waiting for us back home and most importantly…it was affordable!