Kansas City Life

Kansas City is a big city; it has nice parts and it has yucky parts just like all the other big cities. On the whole, it is a generally a very nice city. I actually like it much better than I like Chicago. The population is small enough and the infrastructure is large enough that the traffic is really not bad most of the time. KC has slow-downs and accidents, but they are pretty tolerable. Kansas City has a highway that goes all the way around the metro area, just like Indianapolis. The highway makes it somewhat easy to get around without having to take surface streets that would make a long trek really tedious.

KC is famous for babeque, and they do indeed like their barbeque. As far as I have seen, they like the "wet" barbeque sauce method more than the spicy dry-rub barbeque, or a combination of the two. I actually prefer the dry-rub barbeque without the sauce so that I don't have to endure the copious amounts of sugar in the average barbeque sauce, but the food out here is excellent nonetheless. I have yet to find bad food here, and I have been to several barbeque places in the past few weeks. They also have all of the normal places that you find in all of the big cities, like: cheesecake factory, buca di beppo, chili's, applebee's, p.f. chang's, etc...

One of the biggest draws for KC is an area called "The Plaza". It is the equivalent of the magnificent mile in Chicago, but the people are friendly, and there are only a few bums. There are a bunch of really nice stores, including designer clothes stores and neat little downtown shops. This is weird - four lanes of traffic will actually stop when you step off the curb to cross the street. No one honks, and no one gives you the finger. The plaza has horse drawn carriage rides and everyone appears affluent. THE DOWNTOWN PARKING IS FREE, AND THERE ARE FREE PARKING GARAGES ALL OVER THE PLACE. Can you imagine this in Chicago? Karen and James and I have already been to the plaza twice in the past two weeks. It's a great place to go to shop, eat, and generally hang out. They have street musicians, artists, outdoor festivals, cafes, and all sorts fo stuff to see and do. We really like it.

KC is also famous for fountains, and they are everywhere. Some of them are really cool, and some of them seem like the crappy songs that an artist puts on an album just to have a full album. I think that if someone is going to have a fountain, they should at least make it interesting. What is the point of spending all sorts of money putting in a boring fountain, just so you can say that you have a fountain out front? Whatever, I guess. They even have fountain tours, if you are so inclined. That seems really geeky to me.

The area that I live in is southwest of the city, in an area called Overland Park, in the middle of Johnson county. Johnson county is one of the richest counties in the US, and it definitely shows in the houses and in the autos. (Not my house, BTW, I live in a normal house) There are gigantic mansions all over the place, there are more houses over 350K than under, and the local amenities are designed for the wealthy. I often find myself sitting in traffic next to Ferraris and other various super-pricey exotic sports cars. I must say it is a little weird for me, sitting in traffic next to cars that I usually only see at car shows. I am afraid of looking at them wrong, let alone bumping into one of them. I have no idea what it would be like to have that kind of money to spend frivolously. I don't think I want to know, they certainly don't look any happier than me.

The closest I can come to explaining Overland Park is to say that it is a very upscale suburb, kind of like Naperville. The shopping is absolutely phenomenal and there is a ton of stuff to do and see each weekend. The schools in this area are the best in the state, and some of the best in the nation. It has been routinely named one of the top ten best areas in the country to raise a family. The people around here have a lot of the midwestern charm and genuine friendliness that I was hoping for. I really like it here, and I was very skeptical when I first decided to move here. I honestly think that we will be very happy here.

I am not saying that this is the best area in the world, but there are a lot of things that I like about this area so far. I think that the best thing that the area has going for it is the people. I have met some of the nicest people just walking down the street and in the grocery stores.

So far, the pizza is not as good as in the Chicago area. We had a pizza tonight that was almost cheeseless. Weird...