This Weekend in Free Fun

As usual, it's 2nd Saturday up in Weston, MO - Shopping and tastings 'til 8pm, dining and entertainment 'til midnight. And it's a nice late-afternoon or evening drive up to Weston. A lovely little town, it is.

It's 2nd Saturday in KCK, too. They have an Artwalk.

More free fun in KCK - the Strawberry Hill Festival. Click the picture of their poster below for details:
The 30th annual Art Westport is this weekend, as well. Not that exciting to me. But it is all local Kansas City area artists. And it's free - unless you stop for cocktails. Which probably makes it a

LOT more fun, but a lot less free. (This is the problem with a lot of free fun, I am finding. Free stuff is more fun if it involves alcohol, but the alcohol portion of the fun is generally not free.)

Also, there is the usual wine tasting at CVS at 75th & Wornall, in Waldo. Gomer's South has their usual tasting @ 3pm on Saturday, as well as a witbier tasting on Monday evening. Gomer's Lee's Summit has a Friday night wine tasting.

By the way, the Case Man and I drove past the Gomer's in Parkville on our little road trip north. It's really really nice looking. We didn't go in, but it looked pretty cool- like a giant wine barrel and they had grapevines growing outside the building and a nice looking patio, too, I think. They have a beer tasting at the Parkville location this evening from 4-7, and a wine tasting tomorrow afternoon from 12-4.

Camping for Free

Yes - in the backyard. I know Neighbor Shane and Neighbor Fran will be perplexed when they see our tent set up in the backyard on Sunday evening, so now they'll know.

The Case Man and I really wanted to go camping this holiday weekend, but there is just too much going on - pool parties, planting new grass, blah blah blah. Plus, even though it's really cheap to pay for a campground at a state park or whatever, you still have to pay for it. And the bathrooms aren't as comfortable as they are at home. And we have a fenced yard at home so Libby won't have to be tethered. And all we would have to pay for are the S'mores and the beer. It's basically free. So we are going camping in the backyard this weekend.

Although, and I'll have to run this past the Case Man, but I think we should have some backyard camping ground rules. Like you can only go in the house to go the bathroom, or if you need medical attention. I think we should actually camp - just in the yard, right? We'll have to establish these rules this weekend, and then I'll post them later for reference.

Road Trip!

So last Saturday, after a nice morning at the City Market, the Case Man and I went on a free fun road trip. It was a beautiful day to just drive around and site see, so we journeyed north of Kansas City through Parkville on our way to Weston. We tried to take as many country roads and stay as parallel to the Missouri River as possible for the most scenic drive possible. Weston is so charming - lovely old (several antebellum) homes and charming little shops and cafes - couldn't really go inside any because we had the dog with us (Libby loves a good road trip) but we enjoyed walking around town and through the historic neighborhood.

Then we continued north up to Atchison, KS, where we saw a really cool Victorian house with gargoyles!

There is also a road called Riverview in Atchison that runs above the Missouri River. All these neat houses are along it and they have a beautiful view of the river and the fields and stuff on the other side, which is actually in Missouri.

And we saw a couple of foxes! I had never seen a fox before. I didn't get a photo but they were really pretty.

Our way back into the city took us through Leavenworth, past the Penitentiary, and back down through Parkville. It was a really nice way to spend about five hours, and the only money we spent was on lunch - and we could have packed a picnic lunch (we will next time) and saved ten bucks. So it was really pretty much free fun!