Great staff and amazing art shows. They are very informative and can tell you some history of…read moreLawrence, a place to shop or something to eat.

So, I'm going to add a Lawrence location to my "visitors to KC" list. I think this is the best…read moreplace to start for a number of reasons. The Kansas/Missouri border dispute is a tale with many sides and angles (fair disclosure, I come down on the "Missouri" side of it) and you're going to get a different take everytime you ask a Kansas or Missouri resident (at least one educated enough to have a legitimate opinion) about it. What the Lawrence Visitors' Center contributes is an excellently-produced (on what is clearly a limited budget) 45 minute film of the history of Lawrence, a significant portion of which very calmly and dispassionately explains the history of the border dispute and what both sides claim happens. Think Ken Burns' "Civil War" series if you want to conjure the tone. You're also going to find an absurd amount of brochures and guide books on visiting Kansas, all for free, along with friendly, often elderly, volunteers who will talk your darn ear off about their Sunflower State. Start your visit to Lawrence here.

Great place to go to find out about St. Joseph! Plan your day, weekend, or the rest of your life…read more.. I'm just sayin', there is a lot to do!

I'm a huge Restoration history buff, and so I expected Salt Lake City to have sent its very best to…read morerepresent the Utah Mormon side of things in the heart of Jackson County. Boy howdy, was I disappointed! We received a friendly but odd reception from a female missionary who, I'm pretty sure, was actually a gussied up automaton stolen from Disney's Jug Band. Our (Utah missionary) guide was personable but also well brainwashed to give standard LDS visitor center fodder for all his answers. (The almost North Korean zeal of these orthodoxies is freakish at best to us skeptics, believe you me. But the missionary quide in question couldn't have been friendlier, nor more eager to, uh, assist us. Creepy, dated, Sixties era reception room with plastic freaking flowers. (Seriously. It's like a well lighted funeral parlor.) Bad music on a taped loop throughout. I'm about as religious as a doorknob, but am fascinated by Restoration history given its distinctly and uniquely American nature. The RLDS at the nearby temple, though? It does a much better job of welcoming visitors and explaining Independence's crucial role in church history. (We had a very talkative, very helpful guide there, not some quasi-automaton who wasn't trained to honestly answer questions.) The history section here, though -- the one showing what life was like in rural Missouri in the 1840s? It was pretty good, albeit a tad staged.

Incredible visitors center. Beautiful, informative, and just enough tech to present the history of…read morethis area well without being distracting. The guide, a young missionary named Sister Walker, very much respected the fact that I'm a non-Mormon who is not interested in converting, and did not view me as "fresh meat" nor did she ignore me as hopeless. She presented fascinating facts about the early settlers here in Independence, and explained, too, what part of their struggles impacted her own life and touched her heart. And isn't that the marvelous part of tourism? Not just learning facts and dates, but learning the stories of real people and contemplating what those stories mean to us today. I highly recommend this venue for those interested in Pioneer history, the history of religion in America, and the philosophy of struggle.

Just south of Lawrence abutting the new bypass is 927 acres of outdoors like little else in Kansas…read more The Baker Wetlands may be one of the best kept secrets in Douglas County and the surrounding Lawrence area because its become a mecca of wildlife preservation that doubles nicely as an area rich with hiking, biking, running, or information at the visitor center, or the picnic tables, surely a sight from which to dine outdoors. Known properly as The Baker University Wetlands Research and Natural Area, it abuts the south side of the city in the Wakarusa River floodplain. The area contains 45 acres of native wetland prairie and acres of restored meadows, marshes, open water, shrubby and secondary growth and mature riparian woodlands. Why I love this area: it's outdoor Kansas as it might be unspoiled with some nice gravel paths for hiking and biking, and if you follow some of the access trails which are much rougher you can really get off the grid and deep into park and all its beauty. I counted three massive beaver dams along one creek on an extended walk today. There are literally hundreds of small birdhouses placed all over the park and one walk through will confirm that it's a haven for critters of all kinds. Most folks in town will know it from the view on the south side of the bypass where a mile long paved bike path runs next to the highway behind a sound barrier. And that's a beautiful view, but getting down into the middle of it is terrific. Access from the East where there's a parking area, the far Southwest (gravel lot), or the visitor center on the far West side (paved). This has become my go-to spot for long hikes and I've yet to not see a few others enjoying the same. Well worth the visit. Bring the kids. It's the anti-movie/mall/theme park experience which a little education and a lot of peace and quiet to boot. Pack a sack lunch and stop in one of the covered picnic areas out in the middle. It's a great place to have a gathering, or catch one of the quiet houses where you can enter and look out over a lake so the animals can't see you (mostly on the West side). No admission for anything that I'm aware of. Get there. If you're the outdoors type even only occasionally, this place is a breath of fresh air, literally, in more ways than one. From their web site: 487 Unique Plant Species 376 Vertebrate Species 75% of electricity is produced by a 10 KWH solar array.

What a beautiful hidden landscape in the heart of Lawrence! I never knew this existed and it's…read morereally not so hidden (right off the highway). I took my bike and wasn't disappointed. The views were stunning.