Kansas City - Day 2

 We stayed at the Sheraton connected to Crown Center.  It was huge!  This was the view out our 24th floor window.  I can't imagine what it would have been like on the 40th floor!

 We're pretty consistently Comfort Inn guests, but this was such a great combo deal with hotel, parking, Legoland, & Sea Life Aquarium tickets all together.  Plus, we were able to walk everywhere!

 We packed up early & enjoyed the fountains in the lovely "cool" morning weather.

 Then we got in line for Kaleidoscope.

 There were lots of families (& a few day cares) in line to enjoy the free Hallmark remnants that would spark our creativity.

 It was decorated very cool with different stations set up all over that would get your imagination working.  Most papers were just leftover cut-outs from cards, strings, ribbons, & stickers.  But these masks were pretty cool.  We all painted one.

 You could also draw your own picture & have it cut into a puzzle!  Very cool.

 Afterwards we headed to the Sea Life Aquarium just across the square.  I wasn't expecting much, because I think Henry Doorly is pretty awesome, but I was impressed!  They had it all laid out in such creative ways.  This touch tank was a definite highlight.

There was a guide for the kids to find the answers to questions throughout the aquarium to turn in at the end & we learned a lot of cool facts, too.  After all that hard work discovering, the single sticker prize at the end was a little disappointing, though.  Or as Andrew put it,

"That was a kind of lame."  !!!

 Then it was over to the Crayola Cafe for lunch.

Our final stop was the WWI Memorial museum.  It's very well done.  They had a scavenger hunt for the kids, too, to find different artifacts throughout the museum, which was fun.  Definitely not the same kind of war anymore.  I think that the neatest & most sobering exhibit was under a glass bridge we crossed as we walked in.  There was a field of 9,000 poppies each representing 1,000 combatant deaths during WWI.  Overwhelming.

Soon we were back on the road again with three very tired kiddos.  They ALL slept for at least two and a half hours!  With them all asleep, it was kind of like a date.  :)  What a quick but fun vacation!