Mill Creek Park - Kansas City, MO

Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri is a popular but busy location. Full of trendy stores and restaurants, there is always a crowd shopping, eating, or just taking a stroll down the street and taking in some beautiful sites. But just a stone's throw away from the Plaza is a beautiful, natural respite from the bustling city - Mill Creek Park.

The sprawling, grassy landscape is a beautiful open green space. As someone who has lived in a large city for several years, I can tell you that the smell of grass, the beauty of trees, and the site of wide, open greenery offers a comfort to the soul that can be hard to come by in the urban cityscape.

The open space of the park appeals to groups for games, outdoor gatherings, fundraising events, and weddings. The main body of the park is circled by an trail, a little over a mile long, that has become popular with joggers. It has especially become popular with joggers training for the 5k, apparently a double lap will really help you prepare for the long run. For those with children, there is some playground equipment. But honestly, you don't need a jungle gym for Mill Creek Park. You really just need a picnic basket, a frisbee, a few friends, and maybe a dog (although the dog will have to stay on a leash according to park rules). One a nice day in the Plaza, Mill Creek Park is great place to take in a breath of nature and escape from the bustle of the city.

Mill Creek Park is also home to the JC Nichols Memorial Fountain, the most photographed and most famous fountain in Kansas City, the City of Fountains. But, I've already told you about that!

Total Time Traveled: 2 hours

Total Distance Traveled: 86 miles

Soundtrack: "Jukebox" Cat Power

J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain – Kansas City, MO

Kansas City is the “City of Fountains” and if there is one fountain that encapsulates the meaning of that title, it is the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain. It is easily the most famous and most frequently photographed fountain in the entire city.

Although the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain is a Kansas City landmark, it has an extensive and colorful history before it came home to the City of Fountains. The fountain was originally made in 1910 in Paris by French sculptor Henri Greber.

Later, it was moved to Long Island, New York where it adorned the estate of Clarence Mackay until 1949. (Fun Fact: Mackay disinherited his daughter when she married Irving Berlin against his wishes. You may know Berlin as one of the greatest American composers of the 20th century, writing such classics as “White Christmas” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business”). The fountain became the centerpiece of the large formal gardens and was known as “The Mackey Fountain.” But during that time, the estate was destroyed by fire and the figures of the fountain were vandalized. In 1951, the figures were sold for salvage.

Members of the Nichols family purchased the figures and transported them to Kansas City. The fountain was refurbished and dedicated in 1960 to J. C. Nichols, the developer of the Country Club Plaza. (Fun Fact: The Country Club Plaza was the first suburban shopping area in the United States.)

The J. C. Nichols Memorial Fountain consists of a large pool with a two-tiered basin at the center. The 80-foot diameter pool is encircled by four equestrian figures standing over a ten feet high. The four equestrian figures, representing four rivers: the Mississippi River, the Volga River, the Seine and the Rhine. I’m not sure which river is represented by each figure, but I do know the Mississippi River is represented by the Indian riding the horse fending off an alligator. At the center of the fountain is a two-tiered basin that shoots water up to thirty feed in the air and around the central basin are figures of children riding dolphins that shoot water towards the center.

If you're traveling through Kansas City or talking a stroll through the Plaza, be sure to stop and see the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain. It may have began in France and New York, but now it is part of the beautiful City of Fountains.

Total Time Traveled: 2 hours
Total Distance Traveled: 85 miles
Soundtrack: "Jukebox" Cat Power

Inappropriate Fountain - Kansas City, Missouri

Outside of the Starbucks in the Plaza of Kansas City is a thoroughly inappropriate fountain called "Boy and Frog." Why is this fountain inappropriate? If you can't tell from the picture, it is a naked young boy with his frog. When turned on, the water sprays from the little boy's peep into the frog's mouth. It is a little boy peeing in a frog's mouth! How is that appropriate for public viewing?!

I first saw the fountain when my friend Anna came to visit me last year. We went to the Plaza and to look at all high-fashion things we couldn't afford and be "ladies who lunch." For those who don't know, ladies who lunch are the ostentatious well-kept wives of wealthy business men. They don't really do anything except shop, look good, and go out to lunch to gossip with their friends. We found a nice little Italian bistro that looked like a place kept women would go. Turns out we were right. While Anna and I were enjoying a nice lunch, we overheard a group of first wives gossiping about the trophy wives who were being forced into their circle of acquaintances. Thus confirming the Plaza is the hangout for Kansas City's ladies who lunch.

After lunch we went to get some coffee. That was when we saw it. A boy peeing into a frog's mouth. We both stared for a while, trying to be sure of what we were seeing. Then I looked around for someone else who was shocked by the fountain, but nothing. People were buying their lattes and going on their way. Apparently public depictions of little boys peeing in the mouths of amphibians is okay in Missouri.

It was originally sculpted by Raffaelo Romanelli and was acquired for the Plaza in Florence, Italy in 1928 by John C. Taylor, the chairman of the J.C. Nichols Company. I'm all for artistic expression and extremely opposed to censorship, but I'm struggling to get what the creative merit to this fountain is. It is an allegory for something? A political statement? No, it is just a boy peeing in a frog's mouth. So everyone say it with me now - Romanelli, what the hell is wrong with you?!

Wild Boar Wishing Fountain - Kansas City, Missouri

In the Plaza of Kansas City, Missouri is a really odd wishing fountain - a wild boar. People shopping or wandering around can drop in coins and rub the nose of the boar for good luck - apparently many people do because the bronze statue's nose has been rubbed until it is golden.

The fountain is a copy of a Greek marble statue at the entrance to the straw market in Florence, Italy. Coins are dropped into the fountain in Italy for the benefit of children. Kansas City has adopted the charitable tradition as well as the statue. Coins from the fountain are given to the Children of Mercy Hospital.

Still, as altruistic and artistic as the fountain may be - why is there a wild boar in the middle of a city shopping center? Really? Why?

Also, looking at the fountain itself you start to notice more and more things that just don't seem right about it or at least don't scream "Help the little children." For example, the ...ahem... genitals of the boar are prominently displayed. The boar is also surrounded by a number of other little creatures - toads, frogs, crabs, snails, turtles and snakes. Apparently, they do not share the good will of the fountain's patrons because in at least one case a snake is eating a frog. I don't get how a demonstration of natural selection helps sick children.

I wonder if anyone has ever raised these similar issues in Florence?

Total Trip Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
Distance Traveled: 20 miles
Soundtrack: "Le Red Soul Comunnitte" Tokyo Sex Destruction