Anniversary at the Plaza

This year, to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary, Gregg and I spent a day and night at K.C.'s Plaza District. We stayed at the Seville Plaza Hotel, which was a nice little walk from all of the shopping, restaurants, and art museums. We started our day with lunch at Chili's in Westport. Checked in at the hotel and dropped our luggage in our jacuzzi suite. And, then prepared to discover the Plaza.

Are you ready for a walking tour?!
We stopped to look at a sculpture garden before continuing on to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

The museum has many of its own sculptures including this enormous spider...

And this poor man with a hershey kiss for a head...

This one reminds me of a calla lily - Gregg and I used calla lilies in our wedding flowers, and they are the state flower of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where we went for our honeymoon.

After the museum, it was on to the Plaza's shopping district. It was designed by a man named J.C. Nichols, who was inspired by his travels to Seville, Spain. Everywhere you look, you can see the Spanish influences. There were many musicians performing on street corners and in front of stores. This was one of the first bands that we saw (below) - they had a modern jazzy sound.
We stopped to admire and photograph many of the statues, like this man eating a cheeseburger in front of a McDonald's.

I love all of the spanish architecture and art work throughout the Plaza.

So, I have included some of my favorites in this weblog, like the tiled wall mural below.

It's kind of difficult to tell from the camera's angle, but this eagle just fed a worm to her baby.

Here's another band - they had a much softer sound than the first band. I was expecting a Mariachi sound, but instead they sounded kind of whimsical.

This gothic bench/street light caught our attention. You can see all of the details here at the bottom of the bench, including my handsome husband!

And this was the light fixture at the top.Here is a wall mural of bull fighters.

The colors really drew my attention.

The tower below has a petite bell inside of it. The columns and faux balconies remind me of something out of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. This building actually houses the Cheesecake Factory!

The original architecture included these short little doors, which are not being used at the moment.

There were so many fascinating street lamps. I have to say that I love those old-time wrought iron street lamps! The Plaza has some of the simpler lights decorated with hanging baskets of spring flowers. Other lights were in no need of embellishment, like the one below.

I had Gregg pose by this one with the gargoyle faces. Normally, this street light also acts as a fountain, but there wasn't any water in it this time...

Here's a street view with all of the bustling traffic and the beautiful floral hanging baskets! The Plaza is one of the most challenging places to drive through because of all of the pedestrians.

The statue below is one of many in the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain. The fountain is a popular places for newly weds to have their photographs taken directly after their wedding ceremonies. Last year, Gregg and I ate at a restaurant right across the street from this fountain, and during dinner we witnessed two couples actually getting married in front of the fountain!

Gregg and I wanted to make sure that we got some pictures of us together on our anniversary, so we carried the tri-pod around with us. Here we are sitting at the Fountain of Pomona - Goddess of Vineyards and Orchards.

I had to take a picture of this tiled mural because it's a very creative way to dress up a public pay phone, and also because it has calla lilies!

The medians and street corners are gorgeous! This street hardly had any traffic, so we set up the tri-pod and ourselves in the median!

After walking for such a lengthy period of time - thankfully, it was an overcast day - it was time to rest and watch a movie. We watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End at the Plaza's Palace Theatre.

Immediately following, we went for dinner at Uno Chicago Grill. We sat outside and enjoyed a lovely dinner. I ate the most wonderful chicken stuffed with spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, and mozarella cheese. Gregg went with haddock, coleslaw, and potato bake.

We enjoyed a nice, leisurely walk after dinner. The weather was calm and slightly cool. It was the perfect atmosphere for a romantic night! Gregg took this picture of me in front of the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain, but you obviously can't see the fountain! Night photography is definitely a challenge.

The next two photos are also night shots that were taken without a tri-pod, which explains the blurriness. But sometimes a pretty picture doesn't have to be crystal clear, so I've included these! The first picture is of the Cheesecake Factory's bell tower.

And this second picture is of the Pomona Fountain at night.

Gregg and I walked back to the hotel. By this point, we were worn out from all of the walking - I'm not sure how many miles we ended up walking?! I don't usually sleep very well at hotels, but I slept like a baby this night!!!

Gregg took me to the Northland for breakfast the next morning. We parked in front of a restaurant named Nonni's Kitchen and thought that Nonnie Bolinger might get a kick out of that!

We actually ate at the First Watch restaurant - yummy omelettes!!!!!!!!!!!
A nice lady offered to take our picture, so I didn't have to set up my tri-pod.And then it was time to go home! My mom and dad babysat the kids - they were worn out by the time we returned! Gregg and I brought home some bubble blowers for the kiddos. They had a great time using up ALL of the bubble solution!

So, to sum it up: Gregg and I had an absolutely wonderful seventh wedding anniversary! Gregg took me to Westport for lunch, the Plaza for dinner, and the Northland for breakfast - these are all different sections of K.C. We walked and walked and walked exploring the Plaza! And, we finished the Pirates trilogy with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
I hope you have enjoyed this weblog tour!!
Have a great day!