R&R Part III: Fantastic Failures

Our fourth anniversary was approaching and we knew we could use a couple of days to rejuvenate. So we called up the rents and asked if they could stay the weekend. We headed to Kansas City for a three-day, two-night, baby-free adventure. It was full of ups and downs and many, many people dressed as pirates. But it was a weekend I won't forget any time soon.

When planning this trip, we called upon our friend Lacey (and her boyfriend), who are KC experts, to give us some pointers. They sent us a six-page, choose-your-own adventure guide to a weekend in KC. It. Was. Awesome.

If only we would have followed it better.

Mistake #1: We were fairly tired when we got to KC, so instead of choosing one of the super nice restaurants Lacey outlined for us, we opted for the food court at Crown Center. We're very sophisticated. But where we went wrong was eating bad chinese food. I mean really bad chinese food. So bad, I took two bites and couldn't eat anything else.

Mistake #2: We grabbed a cab, headed for Power & Light, hoping to find something to eat. After much searching, we opted for Jimmy Johns. Tasty, but not exactly anniversary-tasty. Oh, and apparently cab drivers don't like it when you pay with credit cards. The night wasn't a complete failure. We did enjoy some good times rocking out to a 90s cover band.



Mistake #3: On Saturday, we decided to see a movie at this fancy schmancy movie theatre in P&L. We got there a little over an hour before it started and it was sold out. The next showing wasn't for another 4.5 hours. But we were feeling carefree and "young," so our plan was to just walk around, get a drink and enjoy our alone time. Then it started raining. I was wearing flip flops. We slipped (literally) into the nearby bowling alley.



We paid about $25 for about 25 minutes of entertainment — that's a dollar a minute for those of you counting at home — and were left wondering how else to spend our afternoon. The upside, though, was when we got to the movie. It. Was. Awesome. Leather recliners. A waitress at the press of a button. Delicious movie theatre popcorn. Funny movie.



Mistake #4: Saturday continued to be kind of drizzly and coldish, so we went back to the hotel and decided to take a dip in the pool … the climate-controlled pool. After hopping in it for about 90 seconds, we both decided that when the website said "climate-controlled," it meant controlled by the climate of the Earth. As in, freeeeeeezing.

Those were just the biggies.

Here's the weird thing though. Even though we have had much more "perfect" getaways, this trip was one of my very favorites, failures and all.