Dulce et Decorum Est

We decided to do the patriotic thing on Memorial Day and go visit the WWI museum and memorial, something we've been meaning to do since we moved to KC. So what better day to do it? (Answer: any other day, apparently. As we waited in line for the elevator to the top of the memorial, one of the volunteers told us that this is the most crowded weekend of the year to visit.)

Kansas City is the site of the National World War I Museum, as in, THE official WWI museum for the entire country. Take that, every other city in America! But before we could get to the museum, we walked through an area, apparently set up for the holiday weekend, with vintage vehicles and mannequins dressed like soldiers. I don't think it was done by the museum, as it was pretty rinky-dink and the museum itself was very professional. But there were some good photo ops (watch out for the creepy mannequin in the back!)


We didn't get any good photos inside the museum, but it was pretty cool. One neat part was the walkway from the ticket area into the exhibit halls--you go across a see-though walkway over a field of 9,000 poppies (one for every 1,000 war deaths). We give the museum two thumbs up--make sure to put it on your itinerary when you come to visit us.

Above the museum is the the Liberty Memorial, which was built shortly after the war. At its groundbreaking in 1921, the supreme commanders from each of the Allied powers were in attendance; it was the only time they were actually all in the same place at one time.


We rode the elevator up to the top of the memorial to see these great views of the city.



Meanwhile, back at the ranch...