Wuzza’s Blog

Crown Center Kansas City

Dec 27th, 2008 by wuzza

Yesterday, we met up with one of my kids’ teachers and her family. My kids take some courses via an online private classical education school. This particular teacher lives on the east coast, but happened to be visiting relatives in the area. We thought it would be a great chance to meet in person, so we did.

After some discussion, we decided to meet at Crown Center in downtown Kansas City. Crown Center is a beautiful indoor multilevel mall. There are a ton of things for kids to do including a locally owned famous restaurant called Fritz’. The original Fritz’ was near the Kansas City railroad hub by the river. So, naturally Fritz’ has a railroad theme. Model trains run on tracks right beside the booth where you eat. You look out a train style window to see them. Even more exciting for youngsters is that a model train brings you your food. It runs on tracks near the ceiling. As the train goes by, a container of your food is slid onto a lift. The lift slowly lowers the food to your table. The whole process is automated and is fascinating for adults too!

In this photo, if you look behind Engineer Bob’s head, you can see the track on the wall near the ceiling and the individual lifts that lower the food to each table. On the right are the “windows” overlooking the model trains. I should’ve gotten better pictures…but I am learning!

This is a photo of my kids’ teacher’s daughter. Isn’t she the cutest little girl you ever saw! If you look to the left of the picture, you can see the “window” through which folks can observe the model trains. They go all around the restaurant.

Out front, while you wait in line-and there is always a line-the kids can climb on and sit in a cutaway of an engine and a little car. This area is inside the mall also, so waiting in line is not uncomfortable if the weather is extreme.

One store in Crown Center is dedicated to model train devotees. There are displays set up for kids and adults to enjoy. This is Mrs. P, my kids’ teacher, holding her son. He’s a cutie too. He let me squeeze his cheeks. Nothing better than squeezing a baby’s chubby cheeks.

This is Mrs P’s brother holding her daughter. He came along for the ride. He’s a loyal, die-hard Chiefs fan. I knew I liked him.

Here is my “baby”. His chubby cheeks are fading fast, but he’s still my baby.

After exploring Fritz’ and the model train store, we went outside so the kids could burn off some energy. Crown Center has an outdoor ice-skating rink open during the winter season. In the center of the outdoor area is an enormous Christams tree. The base of the tree sits in a huge toy drum Surrounding the drum are wooden replicas of cars, trains, bulldozers, firetrucks, and farm animals built large enough for kids to climb on. Lucky for us, yesterday’s temp was 65 degrees! That was a record for Kansas City-most unusual for this time of year.

Here’s the whole gang as we enter the outdoor area. Minus my hubby, the camera man. Note my wonderfully mature 16-year old front and center. Actually, he has a great sense of humor and has turned out to be a pretty decent guy in spite of his parents. That’s the grace of God, I tell ya.

a kids version of heaven…..toys they can climb on and lots of Christmas lights and fountains they can run through…

looking up from underneath the big tree. Enchanting.

I took these shots from across the street so you can see just how big the outdoor area is. The big top tent over to the right is the outdoor ice-skating rink. Over Labor Day weekend, this is the site of Kansas City’s Irish Festival, but that’s a subject for another day. The first shot is without a flash, so it is blurred due to the slowed shutter speed. The second shot used a flash so the shutter speed is quick and the shot is clear, but it is dark. My camera man hubby could get a good shot with the tripod. He has patience for that kind of thing. I don’t. I cheated and used Microsoft Office Word 2007 to tweak the second darker photograph. Increasing the brightness gave me the exposure I wanted without all the blur. I posted the tweaked one at the end of this post.

Hope you enjoyed the photos! We had a great time. Thanks for hanging out with us, Mrs. P and family!

Wuz