Jason Gay, my favorite columnist in the Wall Street Journal, recently bemoaned the “fact” that August has turned into every other month of the year. It is no longer relaxing, idyllic, or pleasantly lazy. Instead, he sees it as frenzied, chaotic and as full of calendar dates as every other month. Ironically, he blames this on our cell phones, on which many of us read his columns. I'm also aware that you may be reading this blog on your phone as well. So handy.
After reading the column, we were pretty pride-puffed for two reasons: One, we'd just pretended to be tourists and went on the Kansas City Gangster Tour which originates from Union Station. In an hour and a half scenic drive, the tour bus leader pretty much explains the history of gangsters and Kansas City from the 1930s on. The tour was done in a well-practiced and entertaining way and reminded us that there are lots of tours in Kansas City that visitors take but residents seldom do. There's a short list of them at the end of this blog, stolen from KC Today, which is a good, informative blog to which you may want to subscribe. If you don’t know it, go to https://join.thekctoday.com/d30513b3/14. (No, not now. Finish this first.) Everyone should be a tourist in their own town sometime.
Two: We read Gay's column on Sunday and the very day before, we'd taken almost the entire day and gone for a car ride, ostensibly to find fresh peaches. After about three hours of driving, I noted that this task could have been easily accomplished at our nearby City Market. Nonetheless, Cute ignored me, persevered and we motored to Buckner and Lexington and various exotic points in between and beyond. We found honey, jam, and two farms selling said peaches, which were delicious by the way, although pricy, and it only took us about 4.2 hours, but who’s counting. Just time and gas – but it was his car and he was driving which he enjoys and I do not. I am a good watcher however, and the rolling hills were green and lush.
But then in a well-planned, brilliant move, my companion drove us to Artesian Moon Winery. That was a lovely surprise and we had pizza and wine as we sat outside on their extensive deck, just enjoying the day. Our only activity was keeping a very lusty, and somewhat rude it must be noted, mutt away from precious Sola, Cute's puppy. She didn’t seem to mind the attention, however.
Although I did not see an artesian well on the property, there was a lake, a.k.a. pond, three swans, some unnamed birds, pretty clouds and other revelers who were well-behaved. Did I mention the wine? Normally I'm not a Missouri wine fan but this was really good . . .
Or perhaps it was just the perfect, carefree, peachy August day.
Here are some tours:
Kansas City Museum History Tour | $0-$10 per person | Learn about the Long family with this one-hour guided tour of Corinthian Hall.
Taste of Kansas City Food Tours | Prices vary | Choose the Original Foodie Tour, or switch it up with the Prohibition Tour checking out KC’s speakeasy style bars.
Kansas City Winery Tour | $83-$98 per person | Wine not? Visit local wineries with your besties on this guided tour.
Kansas City Instagram Tour | $60 per person |(Seriously?) Looking for the best photogenic spots around KC? This tour has IG-worthy destinations from food + drink to local parks.
Haunted Taxi Ghost Tours | Prices vary | Tour the region’s spookiest sites, including hotels + cemeteries.
Great ideas! I did the Gangster Tour several years ago and it was super interesting.
I obsoletely love waking up to these. So fun, with a little snark thrown in.