Local, Near and Far: Our journey of exploring the world.
From Texas to Beyond was about to publish our 100th article, and the four of us were looking for an excuse to celebrate a bit. Well, what better way to celebrate than a trip! Since we didn’t have an all-inclusive trip to an international resort in the budget this year, we decided on a day trip to Deep Ellum.
I am the token non-Texan here at From Texas to Beyond, and Kansas City, MO is my hometown; it holds a very special place in my heart as I spent the first 18 years of my life there. It is a beautiful, diverse, and unique town that is proud of its history and truly reflects Midwestern charm.
One of our weekend getaways during our first year of marriage and time in Chicago was to my hometown. We had visited San Antonio (Matt’s stomping grounds) multiple times, but he had never seen Kansas City–or tasted Kansas City barbeque–which is probably the bigger crime!
It’s about a 8-9 hour drive from Chicago to Kansas City, so when we first decided to visit, we searched options for routes to drive, etc. BUT, also wanting to have a quick weekend trip, we decided ultimately to see if we could find a relatively inexpensive flight. Thankfully at the time, we had built up some miles using our credit card and were able to find plane tickets for only $10! Score! That totally beat trying to make the drive!
Once we had settled on flying, I made the remaining preparations for a rental car, hotel, and figuring out places and restaurants I could share with Matt, as well as making arrangements with friends and family who lived in the area. Last but not least, we set out to see if we could obtain some Chiefs tickets!
Our itinerary had us coming into Kansas City Friday morning and leaving early enough Monday morning so that Matt could still get to work that day. Considering all the people I wanted to see and introduce Matt to, as well as visit the places I had in mind, we would have a jam packed weekend. It was so fun to be able to put this itinerary together, I wanted to give Matt a picture of my growing up experience as well as do some touristy things that I remembered enjoying as a teen.
You’ll be hearing from both of us over the next couple weeks as we recount our time and I hope you’ll enjoy getting a glimpse of my hometown as well as inspire you to visit this Midwestern gem! We’ll be featuring the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Gates Bar-B-Q, the Harley Davidson Factory Tour, the Country Club Plaza, Union Station, and the National World War I Museum & Memorial; stay tuned the next couple weeks for reviews, photos, and recaps!
After two full days enjoying Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic, Rebekah and I were looking forward to a change of pace as we explored a small portion of the Czech countryside!
We boarded a train at Praha Hlavní Nádraží Train Station in Prague’s New Town, and were on our way to Český Krumlov, a small town located in the Bohemian area of the Czech Republic.
With an early departure, we wanted to make sure we had everything prepared. The day before our departure we purchased one-way tickets for 240 Crowns each, roughly $11.50. Overall, we found the rail tickets to be very reasonable as long as we did not cross country lines, which can escalate the prices.
The four hour train trip was comfortable. Rebekah LOVES trains, and this leg of the trip was a highlight as we watched the Czech countryside pass before our eyes! The only disturbance from the peaceful views was a large group of college-aged students having an overtly good time with alcohol. We changed trains once in České Budějovice, where we found the locals extremely helpful in successfully making our connection.
At 1:00 PM, we arrived in the Český Krumlov! The main attraction of Český Krumlov is the town itself, dominated by its imposing Castle. We loved exploring this UNESCO World Heritage Site! Český Krumlov is situated on a double oxbow on the Vltava River, with the Castle Town occupying the larger oxbow, and the Old Town occupying the smaller oxbow.
Traveling to a new place can be daunting, let alone to a city that has so much to offer. How do you even try to figure out what attractions to see, where to go, and which are worth skipping? This is especially important when you are going for a short trip and you want to maximize your time. Wasting your time by going to an attraction that is not worth it or worth the wait is a point of frustration for me.
My goal today is to provide a Chicago itinerary of what attractions to visit on a two or three day trip (or more). Every traveler will have different tastes/interest and likes/dislikes, so not all of these recommendations will be suited for everyone. Also, Chicago is a huge city and there is no way that every attraction, great restaurant, or event could be handled in this one post. This itinerary will focus mainly on the top attractions that we recommend visiting while in Chicago. In the future, we will revisit this great city to hopefully fill in the gaps by providing more information and reviews as far as attractions, events, restaurants, etc.
Whether you are a relaxed traveler or an active tourist, have young kids, teenagers or no kids, we all travel differently. Even at various stages in our own life, we may have times where we are not as quick as we once were. In the past, you may have been able to see six attractions in a day, now you are lucky to see four. The point is you know what will serve you best to make this or any trip the most memorable and enjoyable. We are here to help and give some recommendations from what we have found during our time in Chicago. Even if you are staying longer in Chicago, use this itinerary as a guide to know what to expect.
A few years ago when David and I traveled to Italy, we were trying to decide what the best option would be to take all our gear and what would be versatile enough for the type of trip we were going on. We were going on a 11 day multi-city tour of Italy and would be doing a lot of walking from one transportation site to the hotel/destination and vice versa. We did not want to be to burdened with having items in our hands while we try to figure out where we needed to go or in case we needed to hold onto a rail in a subway/train. We were left with the age-long conundrum of do we use a suitcase or do we get a backpack? We decided to go to a local Backwoods store and see what our options were and if there was a backpack that would fit our trip.
Before we knew it, we stepped into a whole new world that I was never expecting. There was a backpack for every occasion! There were backpacks that talked about liters and weight, and the next thing I knew I was lost. I never had to think about all this with a suitcase. There were straps everywhere and some had secret compartments for valuables or sleeping bags. After thinking about it and looking at our options, we thought the backpack was best for this trip, but we also had to weigh any future trips since the initial investment was around $300-$350. Would we be able use these bags more than once? Can we use them for hiking trips? Are they durable enough to go on multiple international/domestic flights? Neither of us wanted to spend all this money for just one trip. After weighing our options and thinking about future trips, we decided on the backpack.
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