Kansas Field Trip (Days 5 & 6)

First stop of the day on Friday, August 15 was the National WWI Museum at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri. This was one of our favorite places of the huge week-long field trip.

After the helpful informative introductory video, we procured a tour guide that moved us through the museum pointing out key events and exhibits, covering a lot of history and keeping it interesting at the same time. The children had some time on the interactive tables while I peeked at the menu in Over There Cafe which included Trench Stew and similar dishes.

We squeezed into a tiny elevator that zoomed us to the tower top, 217 feet in the sky, enabling a fantastic view over Kansas City.

We said our goodbyes to one family in our group, ate on the picnic tables in the great lawn of the museum, then drove the short distance to the Federal Reserve Bank Money Museum.

We watched the employees sort and stack bills behind glass walls, and a robot cart transport them inside the vault. Annie and Caroline made their own currency with a photo of themselves in the middle and everyone grabbed a souvenir package of shredded money. It was a great run-through stop before our next tour at Steamboat Arabia.

We drove through town to hear the discovery story and view uncovered artifacts from the Steamboat Arabia. While waiting for our tour to begin I strolled the produce market just across the street where they had phenomenal deals on strawberries, grapes, potatoes, cabbages, and more. If we had been going straight home I would have piled every nook and cranny of the van with cheap yumminess! As it was we did fill in a few cracks with fruits and veggies.

our enthusiastic tour guide

Cora slept the through the entire museum and video

We spent the night at Stony Point Baptist Church in KS City. Before retiring we watched a DVD on renown abolitionists. 

Day 6
The next morning we explored the grounds of the Shawnee Indian Mission.

They still have several small gardens that are tended still today: an herb, a flower, and vegetable.

We drove southwest for an hour or so to the town of Osawatomie where a cute little museum and Adair log cabin gave us more insight into abolitionist John Brown's family, life, and part in "bleeding Kansas", prelude to the Civil War. We enjoyed our last meal together in the shelter at the town park.

Back on the road, we cruised along the Kansas Frontier Military Scenic Byway, stopping at Mine Creek Battlefield, the largest Civil War battle fought in Kansas.

And ending at Fort Scott which was originally built to protect settlers from Indians in 1842 and eventually used as an army outpost in the Civil War. 

Annie and Caroline filled out the Junior Ranger books which included a few activities like brushing the horses tail in the stable...

and washing a uniform shirt.

That ended our week-long KS Spiritual Heritage Tour, (what I refer to as the ultimate state field trip). 

People and places we'd never heard of, some we'd always wanted to see... now a picture and memory in our minds, all wrapped up with new friends and experienced historians.