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8230 N Church Rd
Kansas City, MO 64158
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Attractions

There's more to Kansas City than meets the eye. Unique attractions throughout KC beckon locals and visitors alike to find the city's hidden gems. Explore the nationally recognized World War I Museum. Let curiosity guide you at Union Station. Walk in the steps of America's 33rd President in Independence. Uncover the city's charm by discovering its attractions.

Kansas City Zoo

6800 Zoo Dr. Kansas City , MO 64132

Phone: (816) 595-1234
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Price: Adults $13.50, Seniors $12.50, Children 3-11 $10.50
Hours: Open Daily 9:30am-4pm

More Zoo for you to explore with more than 200 acres of adventure filled with more than 1,100 animals. See penguins like never before at Helzberg Penguin Plaza. Watch King, Gentoo and Rockhopper penguins torpedo through the water in their 100,000 gallon cool pool and see the Humboldt penguins laze on the beach and take a dip in the 25,000 gallon warm water pool. Journey to the Polar Bear Passage and marvel at the polar bears' beauty and strength. The belly flops and underwater flips entertain all ages. Wander down a peaceful jungle path in the Tropics for nose to nose views of primates. Take a walk-about through a mob of kangaroos. Climb a meerkat mound. Watch otters whirl. Lumber with elephants. Take a spin on the Endangered Species Carousel, ride the train, then continue the journey on the tram to Africa. Get a birds-eye view of zebras, giraffes and rhinos on the African Sky Safari. Swing into the Orangutan Canopy, opening late Spring 2015.

Polar Bear Passage boasts Midwest Travel Treasure by AAA. America's Best Zoo book featured the KCZoo as one of the top 60 Zoos in the United States boasting the best African, Kangaroo and Chimp exhibits. The Zoo continues to win the favorite family day trip from KCParent Magazine and best kids' attraction as voted on by tourists.

An always changing, always fun family experience for all ages. Open daily, year round. It's always a new adventure at the Kansas City Zoo!

Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead

Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead was established in 1978 to depict a turn of the century farm. Activities, attractions and programs are provided April 1 through October 31 in a 12 acre educational farm environment that cultivates an appreciation of farm life, wildlife and Kansas Heritage.

Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead is located at 137th Street and Switzer Road in Overland Park, KS, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri.

Visit Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead for detailed information on activities, attractions, programs, rentals and birthday parties.

Combo packs are $12 and include one mining, one wagon ride, one pony ride, and one bottle of milk for the baby goats and fishing. Visit the City's website, Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead , for detailed information on combo packs and other activities, attractions, programs, rentals and birthday parties.

Extended park hours Memorial Day to Labor Day
Tuesday and Thursdays only - 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., activities closed after 5:00 p.m.

Admission
Monday through Thursday: free
Friday through Sunday and Holidays: $2 per person
Under age 2: free

SEA LIFE Kansas City Aquarium

2475 Grand Blvd. Kansas City , MO 64108

Phone: 816-471-4FUN (4386)
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Price: $19 adults ages 13 and over, $15 for kids ages 3-12, toddlers 2 and under free
Hours: Open daily at 10am-7pm

SEA LIFE Kansas City Aquarium will transport you into the amazing underwater world. Come nose to nose with sharks and prepare for astonishingly close views of everything from humble starfish and seahorses to graceful rays. To get any closer you'd have to get wet!

Over 5,000 sea creatures
30 incredible displays
180 degree tunnel
Over 260,000 gallons of water
Interactive touchpool experience
Fun talks and feed shows throughout the day

Open daily from 10am (except Christmas Day).
Closing times vary, please call or check website for details.

Advance tickets available online at www.sealifeus.com . Combo tickets that include visits to SEA LIFE and LEGOLAND Discovery Center also available.

Lakeside Nature Center

4701 E Gregory Blvd. Kansas City , MO 64132

Phone: (816) 513-8960
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Price: Admission free
Hours: Open 9am-4pm Tue.-Sat., 11am-3pm Sun

Wildlife education programs for all ages with live animals. Nature Center is free, has a hiking trail, picnic pavilion and native Missouri wildlife exhibit. Rental facilities in wooded area for corporate events, receptions and business retreats; capacity: 100 people.

Burr Oak Woods Nature Center

1401 NW Park Rd.
Blue Springs, MO 64015

Phone: 816-228-3766
Fax: 816-655-6267

Area Information

Hours

Area trails

Nature center

Directions

Located one mile north of I-70 on Highway 7, then one mile west on Park Road.

Regulations

No pets or hunting dogs

Adventure Oasis Water Park

Region: East

Phone: (816) 325-7843

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Adventure Zip KC

Region: West

Phone: (913) 302-8881

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Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum

Region: Regional

Phone: (913) 367-4217

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American Jazz Museum

Region: Downtown Area

Phone: (816) 474-8463

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National World War I Museum and Memorial

100 W. 26th Street, Kansas City, MO 64108 816.888.8100

Museum and Memorial

Built By Kansas Citians, Embraced By the Nation

Soon after World War I ended, Kansas City leaders formed the Liberty Memorial Association (LMA) to create a lasting monument to the men and women who had served in the war. In 1919, the LMA and citizens of Kansas City raised more than $2.5 million in just 10 days. The equivalent of roughly $34 million today, this staggering accomplishment reflected the passion of public sentiment for the Great War that had dramatically changed the world.

In 1921, more than 100,000 people gathered to see the supreme Allied commanders dedicate the site of the Liberty Memorial. This was the first time in history these five leaders were together in one place.

LEGOLAND Discovery Center Kansas City

Region: Crown Center Area

Phone: 816-471-4FUN (4386)

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Cedar Cove Feline Sanctuary & Education Center

3782 Hwy K68 Louisburg , KS 66053

Phone: (913) 837-5515
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Price: $7 adults, $5 seniors & children 4-12yrs., 3yrs & under Free
Hours: Open April- Oct.10am-5pm Sat., 10am-3pm Sun., Nov.-March 11am-3pm Sat.-Sun., Weekday tours by appt.

Cedar Cove is a non-profit organization devoted to the care and preservation of endangered large cats while educating the public on their behavior, physiology, habitats and the threats & dangers of extinction.

We're making great progress in many areas of the park . Please bear with us during the changes and come visit the park to see what's new!

Aside from our public hours on the weekends, Cedar Cove arranges hosted tours for schools, special interest groups, families or any group interested in visiting the park during the week if your schedule prevents a weekend visit.

Arts and Culture

Philip Haas: The Four Seasons

Philip Haas, a contemporary artist and filmmaker, has created four monumental portrait busts entitled The Four Seasons. Haas's 15-foot-tall sculptures are 3-dimensional interpretations of the Italian Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo's (1526 – 1593) portrait series of the same name.

As in Arcimboldo's paintings, the physical features of the four sculpted figures are rendered in botanical forms appropriate to each season. However, Arcimboldo's paintings only depict the figures in profile, so Haas sought to transform the images into three dimensions requiring the imaginative creation of motifs not depicted in the two-dimensional paintings.

America's Creative Crossroads

This city—one whose Crossroads Arts District is a seductive perfume for publications like USA Today and The New York Times—has metamorphosed from pimply teenager into coveted ingenue. But more than just a city boasting an arts district branded as the “Crossroads,” Kansas City is becoming a creative crossroads. Regionally. Nationally. Undeniably.

“You reach a critical mass where there's such synergy between the business world, the scientific world, the industrial world and the art world,” says Jan Schall, the curator of modern and contemporary art for The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art . “People want to be part of that, and they come here.”

The Nelson is a voice in the national arts conversation, thanks to the recent addition of the Bloch Building. In 2007, Time magazine named it the number-one “best new or upcoming architectural marvel in the world.” That helped validate the national importance of a museum with works by Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Pollock.

But more important for Kansas City, the Bloch anchors a multifaceted arts movement that helps define a city once known nationally only for barbecue and professional sports.

Says Schall, “The Bloch Building demonstrated that the museum was committed to art of this time and moving forward. But it's not the only one. The Kemper Museum is doing it. The Kansas City Art Institute is doing it. And so is the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art . It's kind of a landmark demonstration of faith in art and the creative world to build this building and to fill it with the treasures that we have of modern and contemporary art.”

If the 1933-built Nelson is the seed of Kansas City's creative crossroads, the Crossroads Arts District is the bud, and art havens like Blue Gallery —representing fine artists like landscape painter Rich Bowman—are the flower.

Blue Gallery is one of dozens of independently owned galleries, retail spaces and design studios centered around 19th Street and Baltimore, the district's core. Together, they practice, manufacture and promote creativity. On the first Friday of every month, all possible shades of it are on display well into the night. This clockwork event—called First Friday —bears testament to this region's remarkable appetite for art through the throngs of people who descend upon the neighborhood.

“There's excitement in the air,” says Blue Gallery co-owner Kelly Kuhn. “What am I going to see tonight that blows my mind, that captures my imagination? There's an electricity of ‘anything is possible.'”

On Stage

Credit an organization like Quixotic Fusion for co-generating that electricity. Whether it's hanging aerialists from cranes, projecting art installations onto buildings or marrying original music with unique expressions of modern dance, Quixotic is one of this city's symbols of its intrepid creative renaissance. So is its founder, Anthony Magliano.

He says, “When we first started Quixotic, although we used movement and dancers to tell theatrical stories with the bodies, we never really labeled ourselves as a dance company. There's a lot of unexpected things that happen with our group. Everything is all about collaboration and innovation—just always trying to change things around and push ourselves to create multisensory experiences for our audiences.”

“Did you see the YouTube video of the projections that Quixotic did on the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts ?” mused Frank Byrne, executive director of the Kansas City Symphony. “Show that to anybody, anywhere, and if anybody can top that, bring it on. The fact that that happened here as an original expression of this building is the tip of the iceberg.”

The Kansas City Symphony is a likely candidate as the envy of the majority of the world's symphony orchestras. In fall 2011, it moved into its new home, Helzberg Hall, the 1,600-seat performance venue inside the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts . The Kauffman, which is also the new home for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and the Kansas City Ballet , is the Moshe Safdie-designed building that will live among the most acoustically sound performance spaces in the world.

Byrne says, “The number-one comment that I heard on opening weekend is, ‘I can't believe I'm in Kansas City.' And then walking into Helzberg Hall and hearing something that is like the world's greatest stereo times 10—I don't think you can be in many places in this world that can offer that kind of experience.”

"THERE'S AN ELECTRICITY OF 'ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.'"

Word of mouth led Time magazine critic Richard Zoglin into a seat at Copaken Stage, one of the two performance spaces where Kansas City Repertory Theatre challenges its audiences with a brand of original and classic theater that requires them to journey into the depths of creativity and expression. When Zoglin left the performance of the original hip-hop musical, Venice, co-created by KC Rep's artistic director, Eric Rosen, he proclaimed it the best musical of 2010. This is the feather in the cap for the company that consistently recruits those residents of Broadway like Moises Kaufman, Gary Griffin and David Kroner to direct its shows.

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