Things to Do in Kansas City

Captained by extensively experienced staffers, The Plaza Tennis Center invites racquets to swing in private and group lessons, tennis leagues, and tournaments. Private sessions for adults and children home in on individual skills customized around student goals and styles of play, while group classes pit pairs of friends and prefriends in calorie-burning drills emphasizing repetition and situational point play. Meanwhile, leagues pair similarly matched players in social beginner pairings, coed World Team Tennis formations, or Flex groups, which use the Tencap Tennis system to sort players by both skill level and the speed at which they knit a tennis net. The Plaza Tennis Center also hosts an array of tournaments on its 14 outdoor courts—each recently resurfaced, lighted, and tinted in U.S. Open colors—where players of all ages and levels of experience face off over the net.

For more than 50 years, Cool Crest's owners have enchanted visitors with the fun park's abundance of family-friendly attractions. Flanked by emerald gardens, four 18-hole miniature golf courses lead participants to a bonus 19th hole, which rewards successful shots with a free game. Helpful staff enables drivers to hug the racetrack's corners while strapped into an open-wheel go-kart or, when in season, smack homers from batting cages hurling slow, medium, or fast pitches. Inside, a climbing playland and 7,000-square-foot arcade entertain guests throughout the year. To encourage kids to work as hard as they play, Cool Crest's staff rewards students brandishing recent report cards with up to 20 tokens, depending on their number of A's, B's, or the results from their PhD peer review. In between exhaustive sessions of play, a snack bar staff reenergizes guests with a slice or treat at Frankie's Pizzeria.

Wonderscope’s interactive exhibits aim to instill a lifelong fascination with learning in kids aged 10 and younger through hands-on play that mixes education with fun. Elements of art, science, and literature are on display throughout as kids explore themed environments such as TinkerSpace, an otherworldly sanctuary for building structures and contraptions. Raceways explores elements of physics, such as motion and combing your hair like Einstein, whereas H2Oh! moisturizes young minds with interactive lessons on the properties of water. At Wonderscope's newest exhibit, _Ready Vet Go!, children can step into the roles of veterinarian, trainer, and pet owner as they learn the importance of animal ownership and care. Over at the Baby Nursery, kids can assume the role of doctor and learn how to take care of a newborn child.

Your choice of Segway tours are:

Veteran reporter Johnny Rowlands is known not only for his real-time traffic reports, but also his immaculate flying record as a news-copter pilot. With more than 20,000 hours of incident-free flying under his belt, he opened KC Copters with a “flying smart” mentality that emphasizes risk management and enhanced safety protocol. Using Johnny’s safety-oriented methodology, professional pilots lead tours, lessons, and discovery flights in Robinson R22 and R44 helicopters. When they’re not cutting through the air over Kansas City, KC Copters’ helicopters and saddled griffins return to a climate-controlled hangar at Johnson County Executive Airport equipped with white epoxy floors and a passengers’ lounge.

A circular driveway leads to the towering white columns that frame the entrance of Van Noy Mansion, built in the early 20th century for a wealthy railroad family. Two and a half acres of 100-year-old oak trees, manicured shrubs, and verdant landscape surround the estate, and guests are invited to take photos and explore the grounds. General manager James Michael summarizes the mansion's beauty by saying, "You have to see it to believe it. When people walk in for the first time, their jaws drop."

Original woodwork lines the mansion's interior, which is ornamented by stained-glass windows and a series of original murals portraying a courtship. A dramatic wooden rotunda with a second-level landing gives guests space to snap photos or drop buckets of molasses and feathers on late arrivals. Stepping out on the second-story balcony, guests can occasionally hear faint elephant trumpets from the neighboring zoo intermingled with real trumpets carried on the breeze from the nearby Starlight Theatre. The historic 5,000-square-foot mansion plays host to up to 1,000 guests for indoor and outdoor weddings receptions, holiday parties, and charitable events, with food services available from a list of preferred caterers.