A Family Weekend: Enjoying Hidden KC Gems

You may remember that these two cuties got married in June:

Bro-in-law and seester!!!

Even better than getting married, they CAME TO VISIT US!!! (Okay, so that probably wasn't better than getting married. Not better at all. But still pretty awesome to have your little sister and NEW hubs visit for the weekend!)

While they were here, we discovered a few hidden gems in KC that we'd never experienced before!

The Orchid Cave
This is literally what it is. A man owns an orchid shop, in a cave. It's pretty freaking awesome. I took a billion pictures, but just so you can get the effect, here's a collage:

Yes, there seriously were that many orchids. Here's the $1000 one. Not kidding.

Christopher Elbow Chocolate on Friday Fridays
So, if you're not from KC, Christopher Elbow Chocolates don't mean anything to you...but they're awesome. And expensive. Christopher Elbow creates artisan chocolates right here in KC. And they're expensive, did I mention that? $1.75 for one piece of chocolate. BUT. On First Fridays, chocolates are $1 each! You can bet that we spoiled ourselves with a few. (And you can bet that it's on my calendar and in the budget until infinity to continue spoiling myself each month.)

Me with our chocolates. Pretty excited.

Close-up of these "works of art"...guess I could have taken them out of the bag for a better picture...but whatever.

Tasty Thai Friday Night Seafood Special
Kay and Luke wanted to try some type of food they'd never had before, so Thai it was! We have a great little hole-in-the-wall Thai place 5mins from our apartment that we've enjoyed, so we went there...only to learn that they have a Friday night special of no $5 up-charge for seafood...what?! That was pretty fantastic. And delicious. If you haven't tried Tasty Thai, go immediately.

City Market
While we've definitely already enjoyed this time and again in KC, we're sure to always bring our visitors here b/c it's really something to see. Kay and Luke got a great haul for $12!

West Bottoms Antiquing 
How I haven't enjoyed this until now is beyond me. Kay and I went for 3hrs and then we only stopped b/c our bodies said no more! We went in store after store and floor after floor that were jam-packed and filled to the rafters with antiques. We were so enthralled we didn't take any pictures. It was pretty awesome though. If you're into antiques, this is the place to be. This is also on my calendar until kingdom come.

Swope Park Frisbee Golfing 
While us girls enjoyed antiques, the men headed over to Swope Park for some excellent frisbee golfing, or so we were told. Then they also enjoyed bbq, which is a must if you're in KC.

All too quickly it was Sunday morning and Kay and Luke had to head back to SF for their jobs. We loooooved having them and are SO SAD that they're moving to Rapid City...which makes them 12hrs away from us now. They'll be moving again in December/January after Luke graduates and gets a job. We've been letting them know that there's lots of positions for mechanical engineers here, so if you all could do the same, that'd be great. There's nothing I'd like more than having my sis in the same city as me!

Relaxing, Romantic Weekend Getaway

After buying a Groupon in March and making reservations in April, our (extremely late) anniversary weekend was here ("here" as in, the last weekend of July...)!

We spent our weekend at Circle S Ranch, near Lawrence, KS (about an hour from KC) in their Celestial Room:

Double whirlpool tub! I want one of these in our "someday" house...

This room is usually $250 a night on Friday and Saturday night, so we were feeling pretty good about our $279 Groupon deal. After checking in, we each enjoyed an hour-long massage (normally $80, but included with our Groupon!) and then spent our evening walking around the grounds, playing card games, and relaxing. 

On both Saturday and Sunday morning we woke to a delicious country-style breakfast buffet with bacon or sausage, french toast or pancakes, fresh fruit, eggs, juice and more. 

We start our Saturday off with a 2hr "hike" on their pasture trail.

There's a donkey in this picture. I can't even see him anymore though.

Yay! Hike!

Jordan trying to coax the donkey closer.

Me. Farmer style.

Longhorn cattle that I was sure Jordan was going to be speared by. "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear." applies to pictures as well.

After our hike we went back to the ranch to pick up our picnic lunch (normally $25/person, included in our Groupon):

That's a bbq brisket sandwich, cheesy pasta with tomatoes, chips, fresh tomatoes, and brownies. 

Me eating tomatoes "dad-style" - fresh with only salt and pepper. They were pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Saturday afternoon we heading into Lawrence where Jordan enjoyed some Kansas Free State Beer samples and I got a mocha java coffee from an eclectic coffeehouse. It even had a cereal bar: 

Note old-skool b&w TVs playing retro cartoons.

After exploring some shops, we ventured out to Davenport Winery for a free wine tasting and then headed back to the ranch for their Tomato Festival (cost also included in our Groupon). The food was great and the music was fun:

Sunday morning we packed up, enjoyed our breakfast and then headed back to KC (after making a pitstop at Holy Field Winery for another free wine tasting).

It was a wonderful weekend, and we're hoping to keep making it a priority to take little trips like this together in the future. And after adding it up and realizing that a weekend like this would normally cost just under $800 - we were even MORE thankful for our $279 Groupon (which we used wedding money to pay for...so to those of you who gave us $$ as a wedding gift, thanks for the romantic weekend getaway!!). 

What sorts of special things do you do to keep your relationship from falling into the same ol' same ol' routine?