A few weekends ago a few people from my Christianity class and I went up to Kansas City for the day. We went to the Mormon Temple up there and decided while we were there we might as well make a day of it.
The Kansas City Temple is the 137th Mormon Temple in the entire world, and we got to tour it because it wasn’t blessed yet. Two ladies from my class, my professor and me toured the temple and we were completely amazed by the beauty of this church. It was really beautiful, and there was a ton of beautiful artwork in there. (We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but I took some pictures of the brochure that we got up there.) We went into the room where they change into their white robes, we saw the baptismal font- which was HUGE and beautifully ornate, and up into the different teaching rooms. My favorite room in the temple was the Celestial Room. It was so well lit with these intricate chandeliers, and these massive windows. There are also huge mirrors that help reflect the light all over this room. It seriously looked like heaven’s glow in there. I loved it! My other favorite thing about the temple is that they commissioned this artist to paint these beautiful paintings. The artist was a local and he painted scenes that were inspired by the Ozarks! I learned so much about the Church of Latter Day Saints, and found it all very interesting- it was a really great experience.
After touring the temple the girls and I headed downtown to the Jerusalem Cafe for some delicious Mediterranean food! We had stuffed grape leaves, hummus, tzatziki, lentil soup, kabobs and other amazingly delicious things! It was great and very affordable. Plus, I was in great company and all talked about our travel experiences- I love other people who really value travel!
We were completely stuffed and decided while we were up there we might as well do something else, so we decided to go to Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art! It’s a great little museum and admission is FREE! (I love free things!) There were a lot of really great works of art and I wanted to share my favorites with you guys!
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(Left: Dale Chihuly’s “Campiello del Remer”. Right: Georgia O’Keef’s “Maple Cedar, Lake George”.
(Diana Blok’s “Portrait of My Mother and Father”)
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(Left: Hung Lui’s “Grand Canal”. Right: David Bates’ “The Coming of the Storm”.
It was a great day trip up to Kansas City and I hope I get to go up there more this summer and do some more exploring up there!
7 Comments
Travel Bugster
May 1, 2012 at 1:17 amGlad you took the opportunity to learn more about the LDS faith and how and why Mormons have temples. Young and open-minded..Go girl!
ashleypaige4
May 2, 2012 at 6:20 pmThanks for reading! I’ve always felt that the more you know the better off you are and I think experiences like that are the best way to learn! Thanks for the comment!
liz
May 1, 2012 at 4:55 pmsounds like a fantastic little trip!
ashleypaige4
May 2, 2012 at 6:22 pmThanks for reading! It was a great experience and I love to get away any chance I get!
Chris Cicala
August 12, 2014 at 8:48 amSo glad you included the Diana Block image, a genuine heartfelt declaration of love and admiration. Next time you go to KC, give the Nelson-Atkins Museum a shot too. Also free, but not the special exhibits. They are small but concise in their collections, especially the Chinese rooms where they turn the displays into vignettes. I spent 2 weeks in KC taking workshops in repousse, and treated myself to a B&B that was a 5 minute walk from the museum (also the Kemper), and went there everyday after breakfast to walk the outdoor sculpture gardens (many great works for free), and visited the galleries inside any day I got out of class early enough to.
Continue to live your life the best you can, you’ll still have regrets, but hopefully less of them.
Chris Cicala
August 12, 2014 at 8:52 amOh, it’s Blok not Block, sorry! http://www.dianablok.com
PaigeBrown
August 21, 2014 at 8:10 amThank you for the lovely comment, and for correcting me! I had it written as ‘Block’! That image was on of my favorites in that exhibit. I haven’t been in the main part of the Nelson-Atkins, but I went to the Bloch Building. I need to get back there and visit the rest. It sounds like you had a really wonderful week in KC! Thank you so much for the comment and words of encouragement!