KC Area for Kids (St. Louis, Liberty: loft, credit, how much)

[TakesTwo]

Hi, was wondering about the following for kids. More specifically, has anyone taken kids and what is the consensus? Child is a girl young tweenager, athletic and musical. May have some younger cousins along.

We will be visiting family in Lawrence and used to live in KC (on the Plaza, in Merriam and in OP) decades ago. Have done some searching and see so much new...wow. To bad the Trails KC Wizard area isn't ready yet.

What can you tell me about the Narnia exhibit at Union Station? Is it worth it? I think the WWI museum and Tower look good, plus the architecture alone at Union Station. Am thinking of the Grand Canyon movie, but we can see that anywhere.

How about the Federal Reserve Museum?

Any review on the Tex-Rex restaurant at the Legends? or is Cheeseburger in Paradise better?

Steamship Arabia? Is this worth it for young kids? Is this by the RiverWalk City Market?

I had forgotten how much KCMO had to offer, with Crown Plaza, the Plaza. Always said this was a gem in the rough.


We're stopping at GateWay Arch and City Museum in St. Louis on the way in. Any thoughts about that?

[kcmo]

I wish people would post these types of questions in the KC forum and not the Kansas forum. You will get more responses. I’ll go weeks without reading the Kansas forums, but keep up with the KC forums.

Have not seen the Narnia exhibit, but most of the traveling exhibits at Union Station are excellent and worth the admission. If you have time grab an Imax, sure you can see them anywhere, but hey, why not and the KC theater is 3D, many Imax theaters are not.

Liberty Memorial is really a must see attraction in KC, even if you don't go into the actual Museum (although you should), at least walk around the memorial and take in the views of the city from near the tower or from the top of the tower.

The Money Museum is really neat, it's free and you can do the tour in only an hour or two. Just do the Liberty Memorial and the Money Museum at the same time, they are next to each other.

T-Rex is a really neat place, even though I like Cheeseburger in Paradise, if you have not been to T-Rex, go there, it's much more of a destination type restaurant. That area is really far from everything though so you will want to plan around that.

Steamboat Arabia is really neat and most kids like it. I would go there.

Other ideas...

Also Fritz's in Crown Center is a really neat place that kids (and adults) love, trains bring you your food.

The Hallmark Visitors Center is cool and it’s also free, allow an hour or two.

The College Basketball Experience is great and a lot of fun. So much interactive stuff to do there and you don’t have really have be a college basketball fan to enjoy it.

The KC Zoo has really improved and is really is nice zoo in my opinion. You also have the Royals, and Worlds of Fun.

Depending on what your tastes are and what your younger ones are into, there are other high quality attractions that you may want to consider.

The Nelson Atkins is amazing and is world class.

The Negro League Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum are both really cool museums as well.

You also might want to check out areas like the Plaza and the P&L District as the plaza has grown quite a bit and the P&L district is and interesting.

As far as St Louis, I’m surprised you know about the City Museum. Most people don’t. It’s awesome and I think it’s one of the top attractions in the city. Prepare to spend a solid day there. Make sure to check out one of the restaurants along Washington Ave (reborn loft district) near the museum.

The Gateway Arch is very cool if you have not seen it. I go to St Louis so much that I don’t even think about going to the arch, but if you have not been, it’s one of the nation’s top tourist attractions. If you plan to go up I the arch, get there early and try to go on a weekend otherwise, it could take hours of waiting or you may not even get a ticket to go up.

St Louis is a great urban city with many really cool urban districts much like KC. If you have the desire to do so, check out areas in the city that will give you a true St Louis experience.

Go to the Hill area and dine in one of the dozens of the Italian restaurants there in all price ranges. StL has the best Italian food.

Go down to Soulard and do an Anheuser Busch tour and be sure to drive around the district check out the neat historic neighborhoods.

Go out to the Central West End for more shopping and sidewalk type dining and cafes.

Most people from KC talk about Union Station. I think it’s overrated, but if you have not gone, go walk through it at least. You can go to Hard Rock or watch them make fudge inside the station.

The StL Science Center is great and it’s free (plus parking) and the StL Zoo is also a top national zoo and it’s also free. Both are in Forest Park, so you could do them together.

The Magic House is really cool for younger kids and they just did an expansion.

Other things in St Louis include the river boat tours, helicopter rides near the arch, the new city gardens downtown, the Missouri Botanical Gardens, the Grant’s Farm, Six Flags and much more.

The Mills Mall near North County (technically St Charles County) is a decent suburban mall with gocarts, ice skating etc if you want something like that to kill time.

It’s a very easy city to get around, very little traffic and most of the attractions in the city are in the downtown to forest park corridor, but many attractions are near MetroLink light rail lines.

I think I just gave you at least a weeks worth of things to do, oops...

Have fun!

[TakesTwo]

Thank you for the reply. You've given much to consider.

Regarding, City Museum in St. Louis. I have been wanting to go there for some time. We live on the east coast now so it really has to be a destination stop on the way to Lawrence KS. Too bad it's not in the middle.

Not going to have as many kids along on this leg.---- is the city museum something that one child can enjoy with their parents?

[TGS]

Originally Posted by TakesTwo

Thank you for the reply. You've given much to consider.

Regarding, City Museum in St. Louis. I have been wanting to go there for some time. We live on the east coast now so it really has to be a destination stop on the way to Lawrence KS. Too bad it's not in the middle.

Not going to have as many kids along on this leg.---- is the city museum something that one child can enjoy with their parents?

Whether a kid can enjoy the city museum with parents really will depend on the kid and the parents.

If you both enjoy the thought of climbing, exploring, and aren't afraid of heights, then the City Museum is the place for you. If anyone is a couch potato, then it probably won't be as much fun. There is a three story slide that we went down about thirty times the last time we were there. I will admit that I was a little sore the next day!

[TakesTwo]

Thanks for the replies. Sorry about posting in the wrong forum...and I used to live on both sides of the state line. Oops. Still, a really great place to live and I'm glad we have family in the area, causing us to travel back often.

Well, that was about 15 years ago, and I guess I instantly went to the KS forum since our trip was going to be further west into to KS. Married a KS native. Thanks again.

[RjRobb2]

Crown Center is well worth checking out. My daughter loves going there.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by TakesTwo

Thanks for the replies. Sorry about posting in the wrong forum...and I used to live on both sides of the state line. Oops. Still, a really great place to live and I'm glad we have family in the area, causing us to travel back often.

Well, that was about 15 years ago, and I guess I instantly went to the KS forum since our trip was going to be further west into to KS. Married a KS native. Thanks again.

Not a big deal. People just post in the KS forum all the time about what there is to do in KC when just about everything there is to do in KC is on the MO side. Missourians pay for that stuff. We like to at least take credit for it .

As far as City Museum. Not sure I would go there without the kids. It's an awesome place to go with the kids and be a kid, but not sure if it would be as fun without kids.

Although, the museum is sort of a trendy hangout for Washington Corridor residents and it has some very odd hours. Fri and Sat, it's open till 1 AM! It's also a teen hangout.