Kansas City

What am I doing here? There is nothing to look in this flyover states. Yet I'm spending time driving through it and wasting money on these roach motels. It's depressing. And then another bedbug fiasco at La Quinta in Kansas City. I checked out at 4AM, again, and slept on their parking lot.  When I got up, I was surprisingly fresh despite the ordeal. Sleeping in the car seemed to have cure the depressing thoughts. 

Kansas City was as flat as, well, Kansas in my imagination. It's another boring midwestern city, in other words. In reality, however, it is quite hilly. And surprisingly impressive. It is more alike to SF than Kansas. The downtown, with a park around the convention center, looks somewhat like Union Square too. 

The Union Station in Kansas City looks somewhat like the Union Station in NYC. (The street in front of it is named Pershing as well). Just across it up on the hill happened to be the WW2 Memorial Museum. I climbed it, and it felt like Legionaire Museum in SF. And the Union Station like Palace of Fine Art. The view of hilly downtown felt like SF too. Who'da thought?

But I can't place the Country Club Plaza in SF. It is away from the city center and looks more like Rodeo Drive than anything in SF. Perhaps that's what they modeled it after. The Italianate buildings look a little chinzy, with a fake Plevi Fountain and all, but it was rather pleasant shopping district. To the north of it was Westport with chalkfull of new condos and to the south the river and older hotels and condos.

The Westport square is a cleaner version of Polk Gulch of SF, ith Broadway Blvd running alongside of it just like Van Ness. The vibe, however, was more like Piedment district of Seattle or Nob Hill of Portland. It's definitely more Western hip than Eastern.

The climate of Missouri, however, feel more East than West: it's hot and humid. Not quite like Lousiana or North Carolina, but you can feel the humidity. It's heavily forested like East too. The Bryantwood neighborhood along Shawnee Mission Parkway was lined with majestic trees with thick canopy. 

Overall, I'm rather impressed with Kansas City. It's nice blend of western vibe and eastern feel.