Things to Do in Missouri

This 14-square-block outdoor shopping and entertainment district is filled with romantic Spanish architecture, European art, more than 40 dazzling fountains and 50 sculpted works of art.

Country Club Plaza features boutiques and fashionable national stores. Seasoned shoppers will recognize fine stores like Anthropologie and St. John. In addition, original Kansas City stores like Halls and Tivol give local flavor to the plaza's reputation as a national fashion center....

This 14-square-block outdoor shopping and entertainment district is filled with romantic Spanish architecture, European art, more than 40 dazzling fountains and 50 sculpted works of art.

Country Club Plaza features boutiques and fashionable national stores. Seasoned shoppers will recognize fine stores like Anthropologie and St. John. In addition, original Kansas City stores like Halls and Tivol give local flavor to the plaza's reputation as a national fashion center.

With distinctive restaurants, outdoor cafes - more than 30, many with outdoor dining areas, live music and happy hour specials - and nightlife hot spots, the plaza is a great place any time of day. The Cinemark Palace at the plaza offers first-run movies.

Remember to bring your camera. The plaza's 40-plus whimsical and artistic fountains create fantastic photo opportunities. Check out the elaborate J.C. Nichols Fountain at 47th Street and J.C. Nichols Parkway; it remains Kansas City's most photographed fountain.

Designed as the nation's first suburban shopping district for the automobile, Country Club Plaza was the vision of developer J.C. Nichols. Seeking to create a real estate development that captured the allure of Spanish marketplaces, Nichols purchased several small lots of land in a swampy and undeveloped area in 1907 and opened the first buildings in 1922.

Set on 915 acres of lush, rolling hills and windswept meadows, Powell Gardens - Kansas City's botanical garden - offers breathtaking displays of intricate gardens and interesting architecture.

Along the garden's 12-acre lake, the colorful perennial garden features more than 6,000 plants in 3.5 acres, including 1,200 varieties hardy to this area.

The island...

Set on 915 acres of lush, rolling hills and windswept meadows, Powell Gardens - Kansas City's botanical garden - offers breathtaking displays of intricate gardens and interesting architecture.

Along the garden's 12-acre lake, the colorful perennial garden features more than 6,000 plants in 3.5 acres, including 1,200 varieties hardy to this area.

The island garden - a two-acre oasis of cascading water gardens, secluded gardens and a 600-foot "living" rock wall, is one of the largest of its kind in North America.

The rock and waterfall garden features a dramatic collection of ornamental trees, shrubs and perennials interspersed with native woods, meandering brooks and subtle waterfalls. More than 800 azaleas accompany this garden.

Encounter four creations by world-renowned architect Fay Jones, including a special meditation chapel.

The 3.25-mile nature and hiking trail leads visitors past frog-filled ponds, through woods of honey locust and into a field of meadow flowers.

Celebrate the region's agricultural heritage by exploring food's journey from seed to plate. Unlike any other installation in the country, the heartland harvest garden includes a stunning, educational, 12-acre landscape of field crops, orchards and demonstration gardens offering a chance to taste the day's harvest. Highlights of the harvest garden are a greenhouse exhibit chronicling the transition from early cultivation methods to modern production techniques.

The quilt gardens, inspired by the famous Villandry gardens in France, are filled with textures, shapes and colors of crops. Vegetables and fruits will comprise four-plus acres of ever-changing quadrants, symbolic of Midwestern fields and classic quilt patterns. A 45-foot silo's observation deck will provide picturesque views of the fabric design.

The glass-topped conservatory is housed in the visitor education center.

The museum serves as the first American and only national museum dedicated to The Great War. Designed by Ralph Appelbaum and housed beneath the Liberty Memorial, the 30,000-square-foot main exhibit features more than 50,000 artifacts - the world's second largest World War I (WWI) collection behind Britain's Imperial War Museum.

Visitors can experience the sights and sounds of WWI through the latest audio and video technologies, hands-on displays and realistic battlefield scenes....

The museum serves as the first American and only national museum dedicated to The Great War. Designed by Ralph Appelbaum and housed beneath the Liberty Memorial, the 30,000-square-foot main exhibit features more than 50,000 artifacts - the world's second largest World War I (WWI) collection behind Britain's Imperial War Museum.

Visitors can experience the sights and sounds of WWI through the latest audio and video technologies, hands-on displays and realistic battlefield scenes.

Begin by taking a surreal walk across a glass-floored bridge. A lush field of 9,000 red poppies lies below with each flower representing 1,000 military deaths. A large-scale, multi-layered timeline presents the domestic, social and cultural impacts of the war. A walk-in shell crater - more than 20 feet in diameter and approximately 15-feet deep - demonstrates the level of damage left by artillery shells. Other key exhibits include a re-creation of a 90-foot-long replica trench and a three-story screen depicting scenes from "the war to end all wars."

The Memorial Tower outside, above the museum, stands 217 feet tall and is capped with four large stone figures representing courage, honor, patriotism and sacrifice.

Liberty Memorial's two original museum buildings flank both sides of the tower. Memory Hall features the massive painting and a bronzed list of local citizens lost during the war. The exhibit gallery features the masterpiece, "The Pantheon de le Guerre," plus a giant British naval gun and other thematic displays. Two stone sphinxes - Memory and Future - guard the memorial's south entrance.

Housed in a renovated 1911 mansion on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus, the museum features 33 rooms filled with antique toys, dollhouses, marbles and scale miniatures dating from the mid-1800s to the present.

Of special interest is one of the most impressive collections of fine scale miniatures in the country, including intricate pieces like Noah's Ark and the Palace of Versailles, more than 100 antique dollhouses with thousands of antique furnishings...

Housed in a renovated 1911 mansion on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus, the museum features 33 rooms filled with antique toys, dollhouses, marbles and scale miniatures dating from the mid-1800s to the present.

Of special interest is one of the most impressive collections of fine scale miniatures in the country, including intricate pieces like Noah's Ark and the Palace of Versailles, more than 100 antique dollhouses with thousands of antique furnishings and a gigantic doll collection with an emphasis on pieces from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The marble collection is thought to be the largest of its kind on display in the world.

Two native Kansas Citians - dollhouse collector Mary Harris Francis and miniature expert Barbara Marshall opened the museum in October 1982.

A hotbed of jazz during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, the 18th and Vine District was revived in the 1990s. The area is now home to the American Jazz Museum with the Blue Room, where many top jazz acts perform, and the Negro League Museum, that chronicles its history from the Civil War to 1960. The restored 1912 Gem Theater now serves as a performing arts center. Out front, a statue of native son Charlie Parker offers a year-round reminder of the district's legacy.

A hotbed of jazz during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, the 18th and Vine District was revived in the 1990s. The area is now home to the American Jazz Museum with the Blue Room, where many top jazz acts perform, and the Negro League Museum, that chronicles its history from the Civil War to 1960. The restored 1912 Gem Theater now serves as a performing arts center. Out front, a statue of native son Charlie Parker offers a year-round reminder of the district's legacy.

Located in the 18th and Vine Historic Jazz District, the sights and sounds of a uniquely American art form come alive at the first museum in the country devoted exclusively to jazz.

The museum includes interactive exhibits and educational programs as well as the Blue Room, a working jazz club that spotlights local and national artists in an intimate and smoke-free setting. Highlights include:

• rare photos, listening...

Located in the 18th and Vine Historic Jazz District, the sights and sounds of a uniquely American art form come alive at the first museum in the country devoted exclusively to jazz.

The museum includes interactive exhibits and educational programs as well as the Blue Room, a working jazz club that spotlights local and national artists in an intimate and smoke-free setting. Highlights include:
• rare photos, listening stations, memorabilia and personal items tell the stories of jazz legends Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Charlie Parker
• Kansas City's unique contributions to jazz
• Studio 18th & Vine allows visitors to experiment firsthand with harmony, melody and rhythm
• changing exhibitions highlight art inspired by jazz, baseball and African-American life
• behind The Gem Theater's restored 1912 facade is a modern 500-seat performing arts center
• outdoors at 17th and Vine, the museum's Charlie Parker Memorial Plaza features at 17-foot bronze bust of the musician

During the 1920s and 30s, jazz flourished at 18th and Vine and on nearby 12th St. While the American Jazz Museum features four jazz greats, Kansas City was considered a mecca for many musicians; legends like Count Basie, Andy Kirk and Joe Turner played in Kansas City. For decades, the Mutual Musicians Foundation, also located in the 18th and Vine District, has been the after hours meeting place for some of Kansas City's most talented jazz performers.

In addition to this museum, the 18th and Vine complex also houses the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the Horace M. Peterson III visitor center.

Started as a livestock show in 1899, the American Royal aims to educate the public about agriculture and celebrates Kansas City's heritage - equestrian sports, rodeo and livestock shows.

The American Royal Complex, totaling more than 300,000-square feet of exhibition space, includes Kemper Arena and Hale Arena. The complex plays host to several large-scale events throughout the year including the American Royal Barbecue Competition the first weekend of October, followed by six weeks of rodeos,...

Started as a livestock show in 1899, the American Royal aims to educate the public about agriculture and celebrates Kansas City's heritage - equestrian sports, rodeo and livestock shows.

The American Royal Complex, totaling more than 300,000-square feet of exhibition space, includes Kemper Arena and Hale Arena. The complex plays host to several large-scale events throughout the year including the American Royal Barbecue Competition the first weekend of October, followed by six weeks of rodeos, horse and livestock shows.

At the American Royal Museum and Visitors Center, children can compare their weights with various livestock or train themselves to be an American Royal judge.

Housing the largest collection of pre-Civil War artifacts in the world, the Arabia Steamboat Museum features more than 200 tons of recovered artifacts from the sunken 1856 steamboat Arabia.

The museum's exhibits and "touchable treasures" tell the story of the boat's Missouri River demise and amazing rediscovery in 1988. When the Arabia struck a submerged tree on its fateful voyage up the Missouri River on Sept. 5, 1856, the boat was packed with cargo and people. The boat, which took...

Housing the largest collection of pre-Civil War artifacts in the world, the Arabia Steamboat Museum features more than 200 tons of recovered artifacts from the sunken 1856 steamboat Arabia.

The museum's exhibits and "touchable treasures" tell the story of the boat's Missouri River demise and amazing rediscovery in 1988. When the Arabia struck a submerged tree on its fateful voyage up the Missouri River on Sept. 5, 1856, the boat was packed with cargo and people. The boat, which took nine months to build, sank in a matter of minutes. Luckily, its passengers and crew made it to shore, but almost all the Arabia's cargo was lost. That is until a group of Kansas City treasure hunters decided to dig up the legendary ship.

Over the years, the banks of the Missouri River shifted. This left the Arabia buried underneath a Kansas farmer's crops. On Nov. 12, 1988, River Salvage Inc. broke ground above where they believed the Arabia was buried, and about four months later they saw their dreams realized.

In the end, more than 200,000 frontier artifacts that included 4,000 boots and shoes, more than 10,000 printed calico buttons, five million glass trade beads and tens of thousands of other priceless pieces were recovered. Called the King Tut's Tomb of the Missouri River, the Arabia's impressive cargo includes everything from tools and dishware to toys and still-edible sweet pickles.

On display find a full-scale replica of the Arabia's 171-foot boat deck with a 28-foot working paddle wheel. Alongside it is the skeleton of a mule - the only life lost in the Arabia's sinking. Stop by the working preservation lab to learn how materials are cleaned and preserved. This painstaking process will take an estimated 25 years to complete, with half the cargo on display and another 100 tons in storage.

The 30th floor serves as an observation deck. No longer the tallest building in the city, it does offer an expansive view of the skyline. Take the elevator to the 29th floor and walk up the balance of the way.

Note: access with city security personnel escort.

The 30th floor serves as an observation deck. No longer the tallest building in the city, it does offer an expansive view of the skyline. Take the elevator to the 29th floor and walk up the balance of the way.

Note: access with city security personnel escort.