Travel Blog: Kansas City
The past weekend I flew from the warm Florida into the cold Kansas for a wedding. A college roommate and friend since as early as I can remember was getting married so I flew up as both a groomsmen and friend.
I grew up in Kansas and it had been a long time since I had returned. The first thing I noticed was the massive construction at the airport, since the legacy 3 terminal structure of MCI was being destroyed for a new singular terminal.
For those who've never traveled into Kansas, the airport after being dropped off is a giant circle. Depending where you entered you can walk a few steps and be at your gate (40 years ago). This was the 1970 pinnacle of "drive to your gate" before the era of airport security was added.
Now that airport have shops, food, security and amenities MCI is frankly just ugly and dated. Terminals aren't connected and you could walk 20-30 gates just to get through security to then have to back-track back to your intended gate.
They closed Terminal A in order to start the massive construction effort that would take years to complete. After closing it, they destroyed it and then started re-purposing the 120,000 tons of concrete.
So long story short, the construction is just beginning and will be there for years to come.
After landing, thankfully the wedding venue was downtown so the Uber into town was not bad at all. In the past living in Kansas, the travel time to airport was easily 40-50 minutes. I arrived at the hotel way too early for check-in around 9am, but surprisingly my room was ready.
I walked in the freezing weather next door to grab an early lunch while waiting for other friends to arrive.
This food tasted great at the time, but didn't feel so great afterwards. I started glancing at the reviews of the place and it scared me how many other reviews said they got food poisoning as well. I left a bad review as well to save whoever from the pain I felt.
As the rehearsal neared, it was my first time visiting the Bride and Bauer, which was a cool little building downtown.
The wedding was a sweet little venue and was great to see another friend get married. I got to run into some old friends that I hadn't seen since College, even some that I hadn't seen since High School. It is amazing how fast you can just catch up with friends even though you haven't seen them in 4-8 years.
The night went late with stories and catching up, celebrating the marriage of two great friends. The walk home from bar to hotel reminded me that I hate the cold weather and below freezing temperature is not for me anymore.
As Sunday approached it was time to Uber around and visit all my friends still in Kansas. Dogs were met, food was eaten and all around a great time. For the first time in the history of my flying, sitting in the airport at 940pm on a Sunday, I learned only 47 people were boarding my Kansas to Tampa flight home.
The staff explained that every row could hold 1 person and no one needed to sit in the middle seats. I was tempted to sit in the available aisle seat of the first row, but instead opted for the first free row I found after boarding last.
The classic late night arrival to Tampa with Uber home, walking in the door around 1:40am. A weekend wedding adventure over, with another travel blog completed.