Rendezvous at the Kona Grill

Dulcinea went down to the crossroads to have her hair cut my Jimi at Imij (yes Hemingway that is a palindrome) yesterday afternoon. She called just as my day at school was ending asking me to come have a happy hour drink at the Kona Grill. She had commandeered a table in one of the large open windows of the bar that looks out onto the Plaza. She said she was in desperate need of help in fending off all the valiant knights that were intent on coming to her aid.

The Country Club Plaza was just a short hop south of my Hospital Hill location so I motored on down to join her. The breeze coming in through the open window was delightfully cool and our seating was shaded by a large ornamental pear tree. It was happy hour and several beverages and pupu’s were being offered at a goodly discount so we were determined to order from the happy hour menu as not to dilute our spending power. I love martinis, but not the sweet ones that were featured; I only drink beer when I plan to guzzle it so I settled on the baby Margarita. I think there was some tequila in among the salt and lime somewhere. Dulcinea had iced tea. After several drinks I was beginning to get a bit drowsy, although it may have been the sticky, sweet, hot spicy, fishy, delicious sushi rolls we were also consuming.

People watching being one of my favorite pastimes, I surreptitiously scanned the crowd. Surprisingly it was an interesting mixture of GenY, X and even a few baby-boomers thrown in for garnish. And evenly divided between X and Y chromosomes. The rumor was the big guys in the corner were team members of the KC Chiefs; if so they started in a league over their heads, failed to score and were being let go on waivers.

My Kansas City Walkabout: Day One

In Australia the aborigines have a term "walkabout", often a rite of passage for their young men into adulthood. They wonder about the bush, sometimes with little food or water which can induce a trance-like state that allows them to visit Dreamtime. From visiting Dreamtime they gain insight and wisdom into the creation of their world and culture. A religious experience if you will.

I’m not after a religious experience but after reading the blog New York City Walk I discovered that there is a whole movement of people walking all or parts of many of our urban areas: New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco. They often blog about the experience or document it with photography. So I have decided to mix the idea of a walking the city blog with the walkabout and tour on foot a few of the interesting parts of Kansas City.
Today I started Day One of My Kansas City Walkabout. I decided to start it were it all began in 1826 when Francois Chouteau moved his fur trading post up river to just south of the mouth of the Kaw River.


I parked at 2nd and Main, just above the Missouri River and the railroad that runs along the river. The original buildings of The City of Kansas are long gone. But some of the larger brick buildings built in the late 1870’s as citadels of commerce and industry still stand and have now been converted to lofts and condos.



I walked down Main, cut over at 3rd St. to Delaware, then south to Independence Avenue. On the way I stopped at a small cafe called A Dente', Italian of course, and had a sandwich called "The Rookie". It was eggplant, onion, tomato and other vegetables covered with cheeses and grilled on delicious bread.
There is a wooden and steel footbridge where Main ends at the Missouri River. It has an outlook over the Missouri River and stairs go down to the old levee below. I didn’t go down because the levee area was occupied with a few fellows that were relaxing with a few beers and more. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. In all I thought it was a good start to the first day of My Kansas City Walkabout.

Update: Links to other Kansas City Walkabouts.
Living in the Scoot Utopia