Kansas City & Kolaches

Whoa! Long time, no blog. Here it goes - lots of randomness, but it'll catch everybody up!

March 25th marked our 6 month anniversary - which is so weird. Sometimes it feels like we're still dating; other times it feels like we've been together for 25 years. Anyways, we'd both had a really long week - lots of work obligations, which made for crankiness from both of us, which led to little quality time together. We woke up that morning and started to get ready for work (from 11-7:30). Brad approached me and asked what I thought about going to our favorite getaway (Kansas City) after work and getting in some quality "us" time. Being the eternal pessimist that I am, I immediately thought of about 37 reasons why we shouldn't go (i.e. we'll get there late, it goes against our "saving money" plan, we're on a diet, I'm tired, etc...).  Then I thought to myself, "What the heck!? How often does your husband ask to whisk you away after work to a romantic weekend, chalk full of quality time and good food??? So, I agreed. The fun part was that we decided to keep it a secret. :) We didn't tell anyone at work, our family, friends - no one. Just our little secret.

We got in to KC about 11:30 (after we ran home, grabbed our bags, deposited my paycheck, etc). We got settled into our hotel room and went to bed. We agreed that we would sleep in and enjoy the next day......yeah right. Brad was up at 6:00am - which means that he felt it necessary to wake STACIE up at 6:00am. Oh well, we got an early start to the day. First stop? Our favorite breakfast place THE KOLACHE FACTORY in Overland Park. (We're incredibly thankful it's not in Omaha, because we'd both go into weekly diabetic comas.)

What is a kolache you may ask? Let me inform you. Kolaches are from eastern Europe (mainly The Czech Republic and Poland) and are a type of semi-sweet pastry, filled with all sorts of things (same concept as a runza). Throughout the times we've been there, Brad and I have had all sorts, including a polish sausage kolache, a potato-egg-cheese kolache, a sausage and gravy kolache, and a cream cheese and strawberry kolache. They are amazing.

After breakfast, we putzed around Overland Park and then headed to the Crowne Center in downtown KC. We did some shopping and ate at another favorite place Sheridan's Frozen Custard. It is better than Dairy Queen, Culver's, Zestos...sorry Omaha - but it is. They have the most amazing "Wedding Cake Concrete Mixer." It's so good! They take actual frosted sheet cake that they make fresh daily and blend it up with some frozen custard! We always add cherries or some other fruit to. (Amanda, I always think of you - you used to mix your cake in with your ice cream. Do you still do that?) 

"The Link" in KC between Union Station and Crowne Center

We then walked "The Link" from the Crowne Center to Union Station. It was amazing - the weather outside was cold, drizzly, and windy. It was so nice to be able to walk almost 3 blocks "inside." We went to a nice steak house inside Union Station for lunch. It was nice to sit down after walking all day.  Brad then suggested (because he knew I'd like it) that we go to the "Diana, a Celebration" exhibit. It had been traveling the world (it included her wedding gown and lots of her famously "skanky" dresses - ya know, as a princess, she was supposed to show no leg or shoulder) and was making it's last stop in KC before heading back to her family's home in England. It was actually very interesting - and I learned a lot about her that I never knew. I listed a few things below...


1) The media always made Diana out to be some poor peasant girl who just so happened to meet the Prince of Wales and marry him. What a lucky girl! Yeah right - she may not have been royalty, but the lady and her family had some money - which included one of the largest English country estates, Althorp.

2) Prince Charles dated Diana's older sister before he married Diana. WHAT? No way - I couldn't have gotten over that one. Diana really must've been a "lady."

3) The Queen didn't like Diana and didn't want them to get married - apparently everyone else besides me knew that.

4) Diana was only 20 years old when she got married to Prince Charles, and only 21 when she had her first baby. That's quite a bit of responsibility at such a young age - becoming royalty and giving birth to the future King of England.

All in all, it was a great weekend - we were exhausted, but it was worth it to have the time together.  Sorry for the long update - more blog posts to come!