We did something a little different for Thanksgiving this year. Instead of heading home to western Nebraska, we decided to travel to Kansas City and take in some sights. It's only a two and a half hour drive (compared to the six hour drive to western Nebraska!) and since we had four days of vacation, we decided to take the plunge!
Now we did get lost and made several illegal traffic maneuvers (heh), but the hubby and I managed not to kill each other and our first stop was the Toy and Miniature Museum. (I don't have any pictures of it since photos were not allowed.) My daughter absolutely LOVES miniature stuff and this place had thousands upon thousands of items in dollhouses and displays. Absolutely amazing how people can make things so small!
The next day I had to stop at the Victorian Trading Company's retail store. I drool over their magazine every month, so I had to go and see all this great Victorian stuff in person! I wasn't disappointed, either, and browsed to my heart's content and made a few purchases, of course.
Then we headed out to Cedar Cove Feline Conservation Park and Education Center located in Louisburg, Kansas, about 20 miles from Kansas City. As my daughter wants to save the tigers when she grows up and is a HUGE big cat lover, she absolutely loved this place.
Look at this gorgeous Siberian tiger:
Most of the animals here are rescues. It still amazes me that some people in this world think they can have exotic animals as pets and expect them to behave like domestic animals. One woman bought a leopard as a companion for her Rottweiler dog. Are you kidding me??? So I'm very thankful that they have places like this that will take these animals and give them a forever home. And even though the pictures show them all in cages, rest assured, they get out and play!
Once back in town, we headed down to Crown Center and saw the ice skating rink, a huge Christmas tree, and visited Chip's Chocolate Factory. Ohhh. Good, good stuff to be found there!
Sunday we met my best friend and her husband for breakfast - it was great to catch up with her. She is like me in so many ways...down-to-earth, realistic, and sensible. We both have our master's degree in history and we both married men that like to cook. Thank goodness, since neither of us is too great in the kitchen!
It was a great trip overall, and we'll be making the drive down there again in the not-too-distant future. There's some other great museums I want to visit next time like the World War I Museum and the Jazz Museum, not to mention all the great shopping.
How was your Thanksgiving?
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Sounds like a fun way to change up the holiday, being thankful for all the interesting sights around us. And now I've got the song in my head ... "I'm going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come ..."
ReplyDeleteSo many lovely links. I'm glad you had such a fun holiday. Over here it was a normal working day, so no fun trips anywhere.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a great time! Yeay!
ReplyDeleteWe have a big cat rescue place near here too and I just love to go see them especially around 4 at feeding time. They get wild. This place posts each animal's story and where they came from on the front of their cages. Some truly horrible, sad, stupid stories that have landed these beautiful animals there...
It's amazingly wonderful your daughter wants to save them. I hope she does it some day.
Joanne - Yes, it was definitely different! But we really enjoyed it. :-)
ReplyDeleteDebs - Here's hoping you can take a fun trip soon! :-)
Hi Colene! Thanks for stopping by! Yes, my daughter has been a HUGE animal lover (especially of the big cats) for years. She desperately wants to rescue them and would love to work at a place like this. It's such a shame that these beautiful creatures are hunted.
I'm glad you had such a nice getaway!! Our neighbor invited us over for dinner and it was really nice:)
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a wonderful time! I wish I accomplished half of that! I sat around and well, ate. ;) BTW, I love the Victorian trading company too!
ReplyDeleteTraveling is great fun in my opinion. I like to get away whenever I can and prefer driving throughout the U.S. Haven't been to KC in over 20 years and don't remember much about it. Sounds like you had a wonderful time.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I stayed home for Thanksgiving. I cooked a grand feast for about 25 people, mostly my wife's family. My dinner has turned into a tradition for them.
First time here at your site. Saw your comment at Rebecca Miller's site and thought I'd check out your blog. Looks like you write about some good topics. I'm following now.
Lee
Tossing It Out
Terri - Yay for good neighbors! :-)
ReplyDeleteT.Anne - Oh, I was SO EXCITED to go to that store. I've been receiving the Victorian Trading Co.'s catalog for years.
Hi Arlee! Thanks for stopping by! Very cool that you cooked a feast for so many people. My husband does the cooking in my household, too. :-)
All of your stops would have been the ones I want to see! Wild animal rescue? Yes! Miniatures museum? Oh, yeah! And the Crowne Plaze sounds divine. So glad you had fun!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great trip! It's so much fun to do something off the beaten path. All your stops are ones I would have made!
ReplyDeleteAnd re big cats...yes, too many people are absolute idiots, and it's the animals who suffer. I believe now there are more privately-owned tigers (ie, owned by individuals, not zoos) in the US than there are in the wild. Big cats are NOT pets!
Kudos to your daughter for already knowing this at her age! Some adults still haven't figured it out. (Can you tell I get passionate about this?)
Jill - It really was a lot of fun. I love going to places not normally on the tourist route. :-)
ReplyDeleteChristine - Oh, her goal someday is to work at a place like that. She passionately wants to save the tigers. I hope she continues to have that passion the older she gets!
I used to love the Victorian Trading Company catalogue as a kid. I would use the clothing pictures from the historical pattern selections as inspiration for my paper dolls' clothes!
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