The BIG 50-
Ok, I was dreading the celebration. Not really the age, but the opportunity it gave all my kids to make old jokes for the day. Surprisingly, they were darned nice about it all. We went to dinner in Branson and Carrie and JJ, Megan and Debbie joined us. Sure there were a few jokes about it being a "cold day in Hell" and "when Hell freezes over" because it WAS darned cold that night.
I had such a good time. Some guy from the restaurant sang Happy birthday to me in Italian (with a very lovely voice) and honestly, the gifts were surprising. Maura bought me two shirts that were very nice for my figure. Tyler found Munys for me (I love those plastic guys) and Steve really surprised me with plans for a trip to Kansas City.
We left the next morning and got to Kansas City in plenty of time for Museum number one- the Toy and Miniature Museum. OK, so there's WAY more miniatures than toys there and, after awhile (not being that enamored with tiny stuff) it got tedious looking so many dollhouses and miniatures. The women working there were VERY enamored with tiny things and several of them waxed on and on about their collection. I would have liked to see more dolls from different time periods and more toys too. I don't think I cared much about the room full of marbles. The special exhibit was "50 years of Barbie" but, I gotta tell you- it was lightly covering the subject matter. Even so, there were a few things that caught my eye. The very old teaching toys were fun and a fortune telling doll was fun too. It was great seeing the doll Barbara Vannoy made. I remember when she made it and marveling over all the details. I expected more of that kind of thing in this museum.
If I were to give any advice about the museum, I'd tell them that it was great that they had two founding collectors who shared all their hard work but that they really needed to keep asking for a variety of things to round out their collections. I'd say that the "toy" part of their collection was light. I'd tell them that having more dolls covering all the different major eras and production would be better than seeing every variety of toy stove. The space dedicated to stoves vs dolls was shocking. More toys! fewer marbles.What about paper dolls? Ask someone to donate their hotwheels collection.
Real ethnic collection would be good too. Heat the building in the winter. Volunteers should ask if you need help but refrain from lectures. We had 5 different women go on and on about stuff, but the one question I had, they couldn't answer. LOL
Finally- let people take pictures. What's the big deal about that? Better gift shop.
We left feeling a bit overwhelmed by tiny stuff and underwhelmed by fun and we headed to the motel. It was a lovely room and we settled in then headed back out to discover more.
We noticed the market wasn't far from the motel, but it was not really open. I think this is something to do in warmer weather and something to look forward to another time. We drove to the Power and light area which is supposed to be the hot new entertainment area in town but really, nothing grabbed us. It looks like the kind of place you go for a specific destination- a certain restaurant or club, but isn't really conducive to walking around and discovering a place.
We drove on to the Country Club Plaza which is much more the shopping/ dining destination.
Quite a few high end stores there but we were hungry and ate at PF Chang's. Afterwards we did a bit of shopping then headed back to the room for some nice romantic one on one time.
This was day one.