Baseball, brews and rain delays

This past weekend Chad and I traveled to KC to see the Yankees take on the Royals.  Chad was pretty excited about the trip given that he hasn't seen his beloved Yankees in person for about 3 years.  So we decided to grab some good seats and make a weekend out of it.  We stayed down at the Marriott in Country Club Plaza...away from the stadium but in a very nice area that I'm familiar with from my frequent business trips to that area.  We did some shopping as soon as we hit town  The Plaza is a beautiful, Mediterranean-themed, outdoor shopping/dining area.  Then we headed out to an early dinner at a place my friend, Ashley, told us about...Swagger.  It was featured recently on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network!! Yumm-o!  Chad got the Dead Texan (a hamburger sandwiched between two grilled cheese sandwiches), and I got the Portabella-bachi (a portabella burger, deep-fried and service with spicy sauce and wasabi coleslaw).  Can you feel your arteries clogging already???  The place was a total dive but very awesome!  Here's a pic of our food...

Chad wanted to hit up the ballpark early, so we could check out the stadium and watch the Yankees take batting practice.  Kauffman Stadium is absolutely beautiful!  I haven't been before, but they recently renovated it.  There is a ton of stuff for kids to do...mini-golf, wiffle ball diamond, playground, etc.   The outfield houses a ton of fountains and waterfalls that go on and off during the game.  I'm assuming this symbolizes KC...the city of fountains.  It was 103 degrees when we arrived at the stadium Friday, so I can't tell you much about the food/drink.  There was no way I could consume anything.  We ended up encountering two very extensive rain delays, which made the game last until 1:30am Saturday morning.  Being the good girlfriend that I am...and the fact that it was Chad's bday trip...we stuck it out together without any complaints.  : )
Here's a few of our pics... 

Saturday we slept in a bit and then headed out to experience a bit more of KC...parts that I don't get to see on my business trips.  We hit up the Power and Light District 
first and drank a brew or two at The Flying Saucer.  Then we headed out to the River Market area where they have a very large Farmer's Market that is open 7 days a week.  It was huge!  They had different areas for different ethnic foods...Vietnamese, Italian, etc.  We even found a vendor that was selling tons of spices for $1 per scoop.  We came home with crushed red pepper (since we use it like ketchup), jalapeno pepper spice & chipotle pepper spice.  Man, if I lived near there, I would never buy another spice in the grocery store again!!!  Here's a fuzzy pic of that vendor (from my iPhone)...

After grabbing another early dinner Saturday afternoon, we headed down to the ballpark again.  Thank goodness this game was of normal length...and we won!!!  Woo hoo!

Sunday we planned to head out to my step-sister's house in Columbia on the way back and visit with her, Ben and my niece, Lehni.  We stopped at Starbuck's on the plaza first to get our morning jolt.  While we were waiting for our coffees, I was standing next to A.J. Burnett...the starting pitcher for the Yankee's that day!!!!!  Too bad that Chad didn't tell me that until A.J. was walking out the door.  Darn it!  I so would have said something to him!!!!  You know I love baseball players!!!  Oh, well.  It was still a fun weekend!!  Happy Bday, baby!