My boots:
About halfway into our walk, I glanced at my watch and noticed we were running a little slow. So we ran a little faster. These boots, by the way, aren't made for runnin'.We made it to our stop in plenty of time (turns out my watch is about 5 minutes fast). We boarded, took our seats, and off we went.
We got off at Crown Center:
And entered the Link--a completely enclosed walkway that more or less will take you all through the Crown Center/Union Station area without having to set foot outside.
We entered Union Station and I took some photos:
We went through the railroad "museum" first:
Most of the displays are tacky and cheap-looking, but I did get a couple of shots of the very cool neon signs for KC Southern and Union Pacific:
I love the KC Southern one--something about it makes me feel like I'm about to step on a WWII era train and go somewhere fascinating.We bought our tickets to Science City, where the most exciting thing that happened was Bob got attacked by a bronze alligator in the sewer line exhibit:
I have to say, Science City was disappointing. In the ten years or so since its very expensive and controversial opening, very little has apparently been spent on its upkeep. Many of the exhibits were missing parts, and the whole thing was kind of dirty and gross. I would have rather spent the money to see the dinosaur exhibit, but Bob said dinosaurs "freak him out," so we didn't. Hmph.Eventually, I convinced Bob to head back over to Crown Center for lunch at the sushi bar:
Then we wandered around for a bit, and eventually decided to head home. We sat at what we thought was our stop, but soon realized it wasn't--after our bus came and went. So, having another hour to kill before our bus returned, we got ice cream and wandered up the hill to where our stop was and waited.
All in all, it was an enjoyable day. I've realized my issues with KCATA and the Metro--(1) there aren't enough buses covering the routes to make it an efficient method of travel and (2) it's not really convenient if you live in the burbs, where there isn't service on Sunday at all and only limited service on Saturday--are very real. I've also realized it is very helpful to know where all the stops are on your route so you don't end up walking all over the place trying to find one. But I'm already looking forward to my next public transportation adventure--this time, I'll be taking my bike--next weekend.
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