Kansas City Crossing, Part One: The Trip

Helen and I just spent a weekend in Kansas City for her birthday, staying out in Overland Park. The main reason for the trip was an Animal Crossing event at SEA LIFE, but the weekend turned into a lot more than that. This post covers the trip itself and the initial visit to the aquarium.

For Atlas9, the surprise headliner, check out Part Two.

Our usual happy place

On the way in Friday, we stopped at our usual happy place: Kura Revolving Sushi Bar. No adventure with Helen and Aaron is complete without it.

Animal Crossing at SEA LIFE

Saturday morning was the main event: the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Aquarium Tour at the SEA LIFE Kansas City Aquarium. The exhibits came with Animal Crossing overlays and creature factoids in the style of the game, plus a stamp rally through the whole aquarium.

We completed the stamp rally. There was a small reward - a scout patch with Kapp’n on it and the paper itself showing that we did it, which I guess is still nice since there wasn’t any other cross-branded merchandise. Blathers would be proud.

The real highlight was the meet-and-greet with K.K. Slider, who happened to be there the weekend we visited. He’s arguably Helen’s favorite character, so naturally we had to get photos. Sadly, I’ll never get to meet my own favorite, Brewster, the pigeon who runs The Roost café inside the museum. Another Animal Crossing museum favorite, and fitting for an aquarium trip, but apparently not meet-and-greet material.

The aquarium itself deserves its own credit, too. It’s super well done and visually pleasing throughout. Our favorite part is always the rays, which have slowly become one of my favorite sea creatures. They’re just so peaceful. Watching them glide by effortlessly is genuinely calming.

It also takes me back a bit. Marine biology was one of the original degree paths I wanted to explore, and places like this remind me why.

The visit was surprisingly short, clocking in at about an hour, but for a pair of longtime Animal Crossing fans, it was an hour well spent. The series has been part of our story for a long time. Back in our school days, we shared a single town in Animal Crossing: Wild World, passing the DS cartridge back and forth so we could each take our turn. In a way, it was our “first” time living together.

Crown Center

Afterward, we explored the nearby Crown Center shops. Nothing much came of it, aside from a giant Hallmark store and the Crayola Kansas City store. I had to emphasize that we needed to make it brief. Otherwise, Helen could spend a whole evening there.

Helen also thought she remembered that Kansas City was where Hallmark came from, which sent me down a little research rabbit hole. Fun fact: she was right. Crown Center was built around Hallmark’s headquarters, and Hallmark later acquired Crayola, which explains why both stores are there. Visit KC has the full story.

A callback to Hawaii

Later Saturday night, after a long day at Atlas9 (more on that in Part Two), we capped things off with dinner at Gyu-Kaku in Overland Park. We went with the prix fixe course for two, which was mostly beef, harami and filet, along with some pork and shrimp.

This one was 100% for Japan nostalgia. It was also a callback of its own, since the first time we ever had Gyu-Kaku was in Hawaii. As always, I was the designated chef for the two of us, which is no different from home, where I’m already the one doing the cooking. I just genuinely love the culinary arts, and a grill right at the table is about as fun as cooking gets.

Back to the grind

Next up is the drive home and back to the working grind. At least Hammy, our Pembroke Welsh Corgi, will be waiting for us when we get there.

For the rest of the weekend, and the six hours that took us by surprise, head over to Part Two.