Thrifty Thursday - Visiting KC

Last weekend, my friend Lynna and I met in Kansas City to hang out and spend some time together. Jeff and I used to meet there when he lived in Omaha and I lived at the lake. We really enjoy exploring the city and finding low-cost or free things to do.

A few of my favorite free things are touring the Boulevard Brewing Company (the tours were booked full for this trip – if you ever want to go, check the online reservation board three months ahead of time, if you still can't get in, try calling or e-mailing them – they're good about squeezing in a few extra people), visiting the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum and browsing the Power and Light District, the Country Club Plaza and Union Station. On this trip, we also walked around the City Market.

On my to-do list of free things to do in KC is tour the Harley-Davidson factory and visit the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

For low-cost attractions, you can't beat going to a Royals baseball game. I've bought tickets for as low as $6 a person! Last fall, Jeff and I visited the KC Zoo and really liked it. I would definitely recommend it.

I really want to tour the new Kaufmann Center for the Performing Arts and go to Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun. Look around for coupons for those – I've seen them out there.

My favorite accidental stop was Ameristar Casino. We were using our GPSs (yes, two) to navigate our way to some delicious KC BBQ. The first restaurant we went to was dark and dingy and in a sketchy neighborhood – we were scared and looked up another place to go. We thought we were about to our second destination when we ended up under train tracks in the middle of nowhere – awesome.

We decided to give up our search and just go inside the casino we passed. Neither of us are experienced casino goers so we were amazed at how cool it was inside! After getting the most giant plate of BBQ ever, we decided to try our luck on the penny slots (we felt like big-ballers pulling the levers on the slot machines). Lynna broke even – I ended up $6 in the hole. It was a good time though. We were however, the youngest people in there. That was a little awkward.

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Giant plate of BBQ at Arthur's

Just inside Ameristar Casino (I love the fake sky ceiling – it reminds me of Vegas)

Lynna winning big! ($4 is big, right?)

At the art museum

The giant shuttlecock on the lawn at the art museum


I really love Kansas City and enjoy weekend getaways there. Check out visitkc.com for other places to visit, more free things to do, suggested itineraries and coupons!