Fleetwood Mac was in Kansas City about a month ago. We decided to go see them a) because we've been talking about going back to KC for 4 years and b) Fleetwood Mac wasn't going to play in St. Louis. I've been working on this post for a while and was having problems inserting pictures into this post but it's finally been resolved so, are you ready for a novel? Here's a recap of our trip...
Sunday, April 28 - We left the house around 7:00, stopped by St. Louis Bread Co (aka Panera to the rest of the country) for breakfast and headed out. We drove my car which meant we couldn't take much luggage since my trunk is tiny. It worked out fine though as we didn't have much luggage since we were only going to be gone 3 nights. After making a few stops for gas, soda, etc, we arrived in KC at around 11:15am. We went directly to Kaufmann Stadium to see the Royals play the Indians. When we pulled into our parking spot and turned off the car, the car alarm sounded and then finally turned off. It happened again and we couldn't get it to turn off. It finally turned off when we opened the trunk (still not sure why it happened) and a few people who were tailgating in the parking lot clapped and laughed, good naturedly of course. Then one lady said, "Oh, I thought I was going to have to hate you. I thought you were wearing an Indians shirt but you're cool." I was wearing a Cardinal shirt...hee hee hee. Anyway, the stadium wasn't open yet but the team store was so we went in and I bought a Royals cap. I hate the Royals but I always buy a cap when I visit a new stadium. 
Notice the pained expression on my face? When the stadium opened, we went inside, walked around the entire stadium and took pictures, and then ate lunch; BBQ of course, as well as a few Boulevard brews. Our seats were great, the weather was perfect and the Royals won 9 to 0. The guy directly behind Bill caught a foul ball. If Bill or I had stood up when it was coming at us, we could have caught it! Anyway, it was the guys birthday so that was kind of cool. After the game, we checked into our hotel, The Ambassador, and changed for dinner. We then walked to Power & Light to relax and have a beer and then walked back to our hotel to get our car. We had 7:00pm reservations at Lidias for dinner and it was less than a mile away which was convenient. The dinner was great! I loved the inside of the restaurant. It reminded me of a renovated barn in Italy, not that I've ever been to Italy but it just had that feel. We started with the arancini, which we love, and a glass of the house wine. For the entree, 
we both ordered the pasta trio which is 3 different pastas that change daily and they are served tableside, as much as you want. This day it was spinach and chicken ravioi, fettucini with duck ragout and bow tie pasta with asparagus. Bill had seconds on the fettucini and I considered it but I knew I'd regret it as I was already stuffed. Anyway, it was very good and I would definitely visit Lidias again. After dinner, we headed back to hotel and called it a night.
Monday, April 29 - We ate breakfast at the hotel and then decided to visit the Federal Reserve Bank. Needless to say, security to get in is just like going through the airport. Once inside, we walked around, took pictures, and read interesting facts about money, banks, etc. 
Because I'm a child, I had to play with the "money" machine and make money with my picture on it...hee hee hee. You could choose the background, colors and all of the icons you wanted. Bill isn't a child so he didn't play...pfttt. Anyway, the only place where we could not take pictures inside the building was by the vault. It was fascinating watching the workers loading money into this machine which authenticates the bills and pulls out bills that can no longer be used. Those bills are shredded and bagged for you to take home as a sourvenier. I'm sure that there is some sort of accountability process in between the time they shred them and bag them though. Anyway, after looking at the map and realizing that Missouri is the only state with two Federal Reserve Banks, it dawned on me that I had visited the one in St. Louis back in 1989 or 1990 when I was working at Community Federal. After we left the bank, we headed to Crown Center and shopped for a while before heading back to the hotel. We ate lunch at McFadden's in Power & Light and then headed to Lawrence, KS. I really had to think long and hard before agreeing to go to Kansas. Bill and I have a competition going regarding who has been to the most states and he was leading me by one. Since I had been to Kansas before and he hadn't, now he's leading me by two. Anyway, it is about a 45 minute drive to Lawrence from Kansas City. We didn't realize that our GPS was set to avoid toll roads so instead of taking highway 70 all the way, it routed us to another highway and took us through some farmland and such but it was a pretty day and a pretty drive so that was fine. We visited the little shops all along downtown Lawrence. We bought a few things and then headed to 
Free State Brewing. We've had a few of their beers before because they are available at a few of the stores locally. We had the onion rings for an appetizer. It was a 1/2 order and was huge! Six giant onion rings with grainy mustard dipping sauce. Yum. For dinner, I had the thai noodles and Bill had the fish & chips. Both were very good. We had the Hoptic Nerve IPA and the Rye PA. When we finished, we drove back to KC, this time via highway 70. We got back to the hotel and walked to Power & Light to enjoy the nice weather. Since it was a Monday and there was no concert at Sprint Center, there weren't many people there which was fine with me. It was nice to just sit outside and not have a crowd of people around us.
Tuesday, April 30 - We ate breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Independence to tour Truman's home. When we were in KC four years ago, we visited the Library which was really cool, even though he was a democrat...hee hee hee. Anyway, we arrived a little before 10:00 and the next available tour time was 11:00 so we bought our tickets and then walked around downtown Independence. I took a picture of the outside of the house right before the tour started. 
The guide then told the group that we could take pictures outside but no pictures were allowed inside. I would have love to have taken pictures inside too. It was really cool. Everything was left exactly the way it was back in 1982 when Mrs. Truman died. Their daughter, Margaret, set the dining room table but other than that, nothing changed. Even the calendar on the wall was October 1982. The thing that gave me chills was President Truman's hat hanging by the door leading to the porch. We could only tour the first floor of the house because they were afraid that allowing so many people upstairs each day may cause damage. Even just touring the first floor was interesting and well worth the time. After the tour, we drove back to KC to eat lunch at Jack's Stack in Country Club Plaza. Bill had the ribs and I had the burnt ends (pork and beef). We both had the cheesy corn and I also had baked beans while Bill had slaw. Bill enjoyed the ribs and while the burnt ends were good, I probably should have gone with the pulled pork sandwich. I was being adventurous though...hee hee hee. I'm not much of a meat eater. I much prefer fish or chicken. After lunch, we walked around Country Club Plaza for a bit and then headed to the World War I Musueum. I must admit that I remember much more about World War II than I do about World War I so it was nice to brush up on history. 
This picture was taken outside the museum looking toward downtown KC. The building in the front is Union Station. We spent a few hours at the museum and then headed back to the hotel. We decided to eat dinner at Gordon Biersch in Power & Light since it was right across the street from Sprint Center. We've eaten at Gordon Biersch before, once in New Orleans and once in KC as well as had a few beers in their Denver restaurant and the San Diego airport. Their beers are OK, not bad but certainly not on my list of favorites. I do, however, love their cajun chicken pasta. Yum. Bill had a caesar salad with chicken. He was still pretty full from lunch. I can never pass up pasta though...hee hee hee. After dinner, we spent some time enjoying the nice weather sitting with a lot of other people in Power & Light waiting for the Sprint Center to open. Once inside, we headed to our seats which were on the floor, just about the same place they were when we saw Stevie them there in 2009. Here's the setlist:
The show was great! It's hard to believe that they've been together for almost 40 years! As for the songs, I was so glad that they sang "Sisters of the Moon" since we had only heard it live once before and that was back in 1982 during The Mirage tour! They performed two new songs, "Sad Angel" and "Without You", both of which I really like. We'd never heard these songs before so It was cool hearing them for the first time in concert. After the concert, we enjoyed the beautiful weather outside at Power & Light, along with hundreds of other concert goers. Hee!
Wednesday, May 1 - After breakfast at the hotel, we headed home and arrived by about 1:30pm. Greta was happy to see us. Oh, and two days later, they got an inch of snow in Kansas City. Ha, we timed that perfectly. Anyway, we had a great time and we definitely want to visit KC again soon.
