I haven’t posted for the last two days as we just returned from our first family trip in nine months! It was so good to be together and get away. We kept planning trips and for one reason or another we canceled them but this time we did it.

We drove to Kansas City, Missouri for a feis for my daughter. We stopped in Springfiled, Illinois the first night so that we could stop at the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. I knew my son would love it but my daughter was NOT pleased we were doing this. We bought our tickets the night before for 11 am. They are selling timed tickets to control the number of people in the buildings at any one time.

I cannot recommend this museum enough. It was interesting for all of us. Even my daughter who admitted she was not thrilled about going said after about 30 minutes, “This is so much better than I thought it was going to be.” She love the White House display with all the historical outfits of Mary Todd Lincoln’s peers and The Ghosts of the Library showing. The Union Theater program might scare some, there are loud bangs and the floors shake. My daughter almost jumped out of her seat. But, overall we loved the entire experience and spent about 2 1/2 hours in the museum.

From there we headed to Kansas City, Missouri. It was only a 4 hour drive but it seemed to last forever. Lots of corn fields, train tracks, and giant political signs but not much else. But, once we got just outside of Kansas City we knew we were going to love it. I forget how much we all love being in the city. I would have no problem moving to a city again.

Our hotel was downtown across from Union Station. There were Kansas City Chief Super Bowl Champions flags everywhere and a giant T-Rex wearing a Chiefs mask.

There were some places open for limited dine in but we choose to order out everywhere. When we go to a city we ask for recommendations from local as to what we should eat. Their recommendations were shockingly barbecue and pizza.

We were directed to Minsky’s Pizza to order from. We chose the FIVE STAR CHEESE – Alfredo sauce topped with their signature house cheese blend of mozzarella, provolone, Monterey Jack, Swiss and Feta. Finished with Romano and sprinkled with rosemary. I have to try making this at home. We were worried about the alfredo sauce and no red sauce but it was amazing! The hint of rosemary really made the pizza.

Our second pizza was PAPA MINSKY’S – Pepperoni, Italian sausage, salami and roasted red peppers with our sweet Minskitoni sauce. Topped with mozzarella and Romano cheeses. This was also excellent. It was perfectly blended flavors and not too much on any one thing. The kids thought the salami was going to be weird but I reminded them they love bacon on their pizza so why not salami.

My daughter danced on both Saturday and Sunday. She was happy to get back at it after six months. Though she did not place she was happy to compete again. Her dance school has just been given permission to open to in person classes in groups of 10. So, she can start next week with live lessons. Zoom lessons were a disaster for us as lagging internet and sound were difficult for her. Between her hearing loss and the audio delays she was basically dancing to silence. She is very excited.

Of course we had to get barbecue because everyone was telling us to get burnt ends. I was skeptical. Burnt meat did not sound good to me. We ordered from Plowboys. The place everyone told us to go to had strange sides for my family. We wanted macaroni and cheese, brown beans, and green beans. The other place had pasta salad with tomatoes and olives, cheesy corn (my kids thought that corn was good, cheese is good but together?) and creamy coleslaw. I would have eaten it but I wanted to be accommodating for the kids especially on the macaroni and cheese.

This was really good. The burnt ends, lower right on the plate, were good but I love the brisket. The pulled pork was really good too. I was worried because it is usually too dry when we order it out but this was perfect. Both kids were shocked at how much they liked the meat. The sides were good and the only thing we all wished they had on the menu was corn bread.

We didn’t want to leave Kansas City so we ended up driving the 10 hours home on Monday. That was not the plan but we were enjoying our time so much. The trolley tour, Union Station…. We made a list for the next time we go as there was so much more we wanted to do but just didn’t get to.