Kansas City, Parkville, & Weston Staycation

Lifestyle

Jul 7

For the Fourth of July this year, Ben and I decided to stay close to home and explore our city and a few surrounding small towns. We knew we wanted to 1. eat good food, 2. spend lots of time outside, and 3. focus on quality time with each other (our love language, y’all!). I think we built a solid itinerary for the 2 days and wanted to share it with all of you. Here we go!

Friday, July 3rd:

Our Agenda:

Brunch in Kansas City
Hike & Explore Parkville, MO
Find a cute hotel or B&B to stay at

First up, BRUNCH!

We had been wanting to go to the Snooze Westport location so made that our first stop. They don’t take reservations so there’s usually a wait. Advice: go early! We went around 8:45 and only had a 10 minute wait. I have been to a few of the locations in Colorado, but Ben had never been. We both got 2 different Egg Benedict options and drip coffee. I had the Smashed Avocado Benny (8/10) & the Bella! Bella! Benny (9/10). Ben had the Ham Benedict III (8/10) & the Chile Verde Benedict (7/10). Overall, a very yummy start to the day!

Next, we did a bit of shopping on the Country Club Plaza. Anthropologie was having a 70% off tag sale so of course I just had to look. Ben is such a trooper! Westport has some really fun restaurants and a few shops worth checking out. Since we didn’t want to hike in the heat of the day, we made our way to Parkville.

Parkville, MO

We had never been to Parkville, so we drove around a bit and looked at the cute historic homes. For our hike, we ended up at the Parkville Nature Sanctuary. It was nice and shady for the entire hike and a very nice loop with a waterfall.

After our sweaty, but fun hike we went downtown to explore and grab lunch! There are a handful of boutiques and shops to check out. We ended up getting brews and burgers at Riverpark Pub and Eatery, which was very tasty. Probably some of the best fries I’ve had in a longgggg time! (I am a total fry girl ;))

We then tried to decide if we should check out another small town nearby, but we were both sweaty and it was starting to rain. On our way home to re-group, I searched nearby boutique hotels or Bed & Breakfasts.

Bed & Breakfast

I stumbled upon Southmoreland on the Plaza, which is deemed as an urban inn. We saw we could use Credit Card points, chose our room, packed our overnight bags, & hit the road! It was very spur of the moment for us, but so fun!

Southmoreland was lovely! The perfect couple’s staycation. They had (maybe always have) contactless check in which made it so slick. We found our cute and cozy room on the 3rd floor. The entire property was quiet and private from the rest of the neighborhood. There is a great patio and porch for hanging out and socializing. It is also within walking distance of the Country Club Plaza and Nelson-Atkins Museum, along with very close driving distance to Westport and Downtown Kansas City. They had white wine out for happy hour when we arrived, which was such a lovely detail!

We opted for the George Caleb Bingham 3rd floor room with a queen bed, full bath, & private deck.

Saturday, July 4th

Our Agenda:

Breakfast at Southmoreland
Explore Weston, MO
Hike Weston Bend State Park
Maybe find Fireworks

Breakfast at Southmoreland

The breakfast was delicious! We were served juices, a yogurt parfait, lemon loaf slices, and an egg frittata with peppers, cheese, and bacon and buttery baby potatoes. Coffee and water were serve yourself. (Excuse the bed head ;))

Post-breakfast, we got ready and headed out to Weston, MO for the day.

Weston, MO

Weston has a charming downtown strip with shops and restaurants full of quirks! We had been to Weston before and just didn’t feel like we had to do absolutely everything. Here are a few fun stops to check out in addition to where we went:

Tin Kitchen: fun lunch or dinner spot with southern comfort cuisine
O'Malley's Pub: unique Irish pub with an underground bar and live music
Whiskey Snug: bar in the back of an Irish shop with tastings
Historic Weston Orchard & Vineyard: pick-it-yourself orchard outside of downtown

We did a wine tasting at Pirtle Winery. It’s in a cool, old church building and has some yummy wines! Ben really liked the Port. I liked the Rosé, which was very surprising because I usually am a fan of very dry, full-bodied reds. It will be a nice drink to have to share this summer!

For lunch, we made a reservation at The Vineyard's Restaurant. I have to say, this was probably one of THE BEST lunches I have had in a long time! Ben had the Reuben, which was incredible. It had homemade corned beef and sauerkraut. I had the Waldorf Chicken Salad Wrap. It was delish and had a bit of a curry spice to it. Both came with a side of soft, buttery potatoes. Of course, we had to finish with a dessert: Flourless Chocolate Cake. One word: decadent. Needless to say, we were left very satisfied!

Next, we headed to the Weston Bend State Park for our afternoon hiking. The park has campgrounds and miles of hiking trails. We loved that there was more of a challenge with this hike! We did about 5 miles in the park. We will definitely go back. It’s probably the best hiking we’ve found that’s close to Kansas City.

After our hike, we thought about sticking around for the Weston fireworks, but ultimately decided not to. We headed back to KC and stopped at our new favorite tennis courts, Loose Park Tennis Courts, for a little practice before the storms came rolling through. We are starting to really get back into tennis. We even bought legit tennis shoes… we actually mean business! After all that, we were exhausted! We ended our night with the all American flick, Ford v Ferrari.

I hope you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend. Let me know if you ever come to Kansas City! I would love to share some of our favorite spots.

What are you must-dos for a staycation? Please share in the comments!

xoxo,

Paulina