We got some visitors last weekend!! My mom and Mike came to visit last weekend so Russ finally took a weekend off down here and we took in some KC attractions. Our first stop was President Harry Truman's house in Independence, Missouri, which is just outside of Kansas City. President Truman's wife, Bess, grew up in this house and when the two were married, they moved into it (because Bess had to help take care of her parents) and this is where they lived until they died. Stepping into the house was like stepping back in time. The home is exactly how they left it. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take any pictures of the inside of the house.
Next, we drove by the Vaile Mansion and decided to stop and take a look inside. The mansion was built by Colonel and Mrs. Harvey Vaile in 1881. The mansion has 31 rooms, but that's a little deceiving because our tour guide told us that the closets were considered a room for tax purposes since they have a door on them. That's why you don't see a lot of closets in homes this old. They used wardrobes instead. When built, the mansion also had a 6,000 gallon water tank and a 48,000 gallon wine cellar! The man liked his wine and that's also evident in some of the painting on the ceilings and some of the carvings on the marble fireplaces.
The home has 9 marble fireplaces.
The home has 9 marble fireplaces. 
Several of the rooms had ceilings that were hand painted with some kind of picture. This was Mrs. Vaile's bedroom. Word is that the woman's chest in this painting was originally exposed. Mrs. Vaile was very sick and bed-ridden but her lady friends wouldn't come visit her in her bedroom because of the painting. So Mr. Vaile had the artist come back and paint the top of the woman's dress to cover her up!
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After the Vaile Mansion, we went downtown to the Liberty Memorial Tower and World War I Museum. We didn't have time to check out the museum but we did go up in the memorial tower, which is 217 feet tall. I'm not a fan of heights so I was a bit nervous but the view was worth it.
Near the top of the Memorial Tower are 4 different carvings which stand for Sacrifice, Courage, Honor and Patriotism..JPG)
The Kansas City skyline from the top of the tower.
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Next, we took a quick stroll through Union Station. Union Station was built in 1914 and was the second largest train station in the U.S. at that time. "Union Station made headlines on June 17, 1933, as four unarmed FBI agents were gunned down by gang members attempting to free captured fugitive Frank Nash. Nash was also killed in the gun battle." This event is referred to as the “Kansas City Massacre” and resulted in the arming of all FBI agents.
Inside Union Station.
I thought the ceiling inside was beautiful.
Kansas City is known as "The City of Fountains." This is Bloch Fountain, which is in front of Union Station.
Last stop for the day - Kaufman Stadium. We watched the Royals host the White Sox..JPG)
On Sunday we went downtown again. This time to Country Club Plaza which is a really nice shopping area. I love the Spanish architecture down there. There was a HUGE art fair going on and about a billion people down there, which was a bit overwhelming, so we didn't stay too long.
We did check out the J.C. Nichols fountain before we left though.
We had a great weekend and were really happy to have my mom and Mike come down for a visit. Now if only I could get Russ to take off another weekend so we could check out some other things in the area! Who's up for a visit to KC? :-) 
The Rupp family was also able to make it to Alex's party so we had fun catching up with them.
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