Oh My Aching Feet.....

Nancy and I left home at 9 a.m. this morning and got back home around 4 p.m.  During that time we took the tour though Hallmark Cards, visited a few of the shops in Crown Center, had lunch, visited Union Station, walked down to Brush Creek, took a drive through Loose Park, walked around in the Rose Garden, picked up a salad at the grocery store and came home.

Hallmark Cards began in 1910 and today is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. The self guided tour was really interesting. Starting with 1910 they have a display of products for each decade including popular cards for that period. Wrapping paper as we know it, was "invented" by them in 1917. We saw cards being printed on a special small printing press, watch a machine making little bows, saw an Emmy that they received one year for a movie, an oil painting done by Winston Churchill for a card and many other things. In 1957 they supplied a Presidential Christmas card for President and Mrs. Eisenhower shown above.  They have supplied the official Presidential Christmas Card every year since then. After the tour we went into the "Official Hallmark Store, in the Crown Center and it is beyond huge. Many, many things I have never seen before in a Hallmark Store.
After Crown Center, we went over to the Union Station and found a parking place right in front... The foot gods were looking out for me. 8-) 

The Union Station is just amazing! The Station was opened in 1914,  and was a replacement for the original Union Depot which opened in 1878. When it opened in 1914, it was the second largest train station in the country. Union Station's passenger traffic peaked in 1945 at the end of World War II when thousands of military personnel passed through the Station. The Station then spent the next four decades in gradual decline until its closure in 1985. In 1996, a public/private partnership began funding Union Station's $250 million restoration. By 1999, the station reopened as a series of museums and other public attractions. In 2002, Union Station saw its return as a train station when Amtrak began providing service again. Now the refurbished station, in addition to being a working Amtrak Station,  boasts theaters, ongoing museum exhibits, and attractions. As a guide told us, the Station was "refurbished" so all the flooring, doors, light fixtures, ceilings, etc in the Station are the original items - they were just cleaned up and repaired to the original condition. The interior is just stunningly beautiful.

The clock in this picture is the original clock from 1910 and is the only big clock in the Station. The floors are all marble. Think of the stories these walls could tell....
Tomorrow, even though it is supposed to rain, we are heading to downtown Kansas City to the City Market, Missouri River, etc.