I figured it shouldn't be too hard, we could go any friday/weekend of pretty much the entire semester. Then I went to Boulevard's website. Did you know it is nearly impossible to book a tour with them? There wasn't a single tour slot that had space for 2 people for the next 3 months. And they only allow you to book a tour three months in advance. So we quickly figured that if we wait for them to post tour slots for the very last weekend in April and by checking on a daily basis were able to book a tour slot for April 28th way back at the end of January.
We decided to just do a quick 30 some hours in KC because we didn't want to pay for two nights of hotel and I had to get home to write a paper (woot!)
Friday night we went to get barbecue at Jack Stack which is a nice sit down bbq restaurant. It seemed weird to me, BBQ shouldn't be served in a dimly light restaurant. After that we hung out at the hotel for awhile until it was late enough and then went down to the power & light district. This was kind of weird too, it was like a giant outdoor dance party surrounded by different bars. The bar we went to was called flying saucers (apparently it's a chain) and they had a ton of different beers on tap. It was a cool place.
Saturday we first went to KC city market. Its a lot like the Soulard Farmer's Market in STL, but less crowded and claustrophobic. It was cool. They were selling a lot of plants and it seemed like a lot of the farmers were small farms instead of the large distributors that sell at Soulard.
So many spices! And they were so cheap!
Next it was time for the main attraction! Boulevard! It's a pretty cool brewery. They have grown a lot in the last 20 odd years, quite impressive! They are now the 10th largest craft brewery and the 17th largest brewery in the country.
The most exciting thing was that their bottling line was running while we were there. They said it is quite unusual that they bottle on Saturday and they must be behind somehow! Impressive considering I've done the STL Anheuser-Busch Brewery tour 3x and they are supposed to be bottling 24/7 and yet it has never ACTUALLY been running when I'm there. = LAME!
After the tour you get to sample 4 of their different beers. Most of the ones they had available I had already tried which was a little disappointing. But, it was fun and I'm glad I went!
After the tour, Chris and I went and explored the various parks throughout KC. They were very nice and have sooo many fountains. Fountains always make things look prettier!
For lunch we tried another BBQ joint - more our expected hole in the wall type place. Turned out to be even more hole in the wall than I expected. It was in a gas station! With a line of at least 120 people stretching out the door. And it was good! The meat was delicious! Especially the ribs. I'm always going to compare every BBQ place to Pappy's, but I'd say that the meat was just as good but the sides and the atmosphere completely lose out to pappys.
Kansas City was a great trip! Worth the gas and one night of hotel!
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