I’m on travel. This trip my job requires me to spend two weeks providing support at Ft. Leavenworth. When I’m not in Leavenworth I’m staying at a hotel next to KCI. This trip my weekend is free so I’m trying to spend some of that free time down in Kansas City proper.

Today started out rather dreary both weather-wise and personally. I woke up early, then crashed back into bed to put in an extra three hours of sleep. I was feeling a bit poorly, matching the overcast and drizzly morning. By the time I was feeling better the sun was out a bit as well. I grabbed my keys and my camera and headed downtown.

I had no specific destination except to head south in the city. I drove surface roads as much as possible, looking for interesting places to stop. My first stop was The National WWI Museum and Memorial. It’s a big, somber structure dedicated “to remembering, interpreting and understanding the Great War and its enduring impact on the global community.” The skies had grown overcast again as the day progressed, so that by afternoon the sun was completely hidden. It was like the morning, but without rain. At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I found the whole memorial disquieting and had no desire to visit the museum portion. I did climb to the top where the Liberty Memorial is located, and it was from that vantage I grabbed several photos of the Kansas City skyline.

After leaving the memorial I drove in a generally northern direction and happened upon the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. It’s an odd, if interesting looking structure. I parked close enough to walk around it a bit, but wound up around what is ostensibly the back side of the structure. It does have a far more conventional front, but I wasn’t motivated to photograph it. Rather, I was drawn to the back side, especially the grassy area that’s allowed to grow around it. I kept imagining it was some alien structure in the middle of an alien prairie.

My goal for Sunday is to wake up and stay up, and head back to downtown Kansas City. There’s a bit more I want to see, such as the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. And there’s the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. And some other structures around Kansas City that caught my eye today. I’m not planning on resting tomorrow.