Things to Do in Lawrence

The Overland Park Convention Center kicks off summer with the Just for Her Event, where can women shop, expand their knowledge on topics such as health and wellness, and peruse more than 200 exhibitors. Booths showcase the latest in summer fashions from local boutiques, as well as luxurious spa services at area oases. Some lucky attendees will win daily raffle prizes and shopping sprees, which are much nicer rewards than the typical shopper’s prize: a free paper bag.

Now in its 51st year, Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church's festival once more celebrates the rich history and culture of Greece with live dance, traditional food, and Hellenistic arts and crafts. Visitors can watch displays of traditional dancing as troupes of costumed performers whirl and leap to folk tunes. Open-mouthed onlookers can snack on souvlaki, gyros, and baked pastitsio or shout out traditional Greek exclamations such as "Opa!", "Yassou!", and "Don't drop that Olympic torch!"

Church tours introduce festivalgoers to the stunning gilded iconography of Annunciation's sanctuary, and also give them a brief lesson on the symbolism, teaching, and history of the Greek Orthodox Church. Outside, kids get their faces painted, play games, and bounce inside a moonwalk, while adults stroll through the gift shop area, which attempts to tempt them with colorful wares imported from Greece, including fisherman's hats, gold jewelry, and worry beads.

At Brazil Academy, Ninja Pinto fulfills his lifelong dream of bringing the martial arts capoeira and jujitsu to American audiences from his native Brazil, where he spent his formative years training in these fighting techniques. Now a contra-mestre with more than a decade of teaching experience, Ninja leads instructors who, in addition to martial arts, guide groups of all ages and fitness levels through foot-spicing Latin dances, yoga, and cardio workouts. Students in need of more focused attention can opt for private lessons, during which instructors teach skills and fitness techniques on a one-on-one basis.

Witness high-flying college teams making it rain from three-point range while defending shots with their armbrellas. Established in 1937, the inaugural NAIA Tournament has called Kansas City home for 74 years. Featuring 32 teams pivoting and sprinting atop a lustrous hardwood battlefield, it has grown to be known as the longest-running collegiate national championship tournament in the country, not counting the infamous Skull and Bones Underground Cavern Games that took George Washington's real teeth. This year’s tourney will feature several trophy-hungry NAIA teams, such as potential participants Martin Methodist College, Texas Wesleyan University, and NAIA top-ranked Mountain State. Behold a flurry of high-flying buzzer beaters and frustrating defensive schemes at the Kansas City tradition that has featured such big names as John Wooden, Dennis Rodman, and Terry Porter.

A glass bridge is suspended above a field of 9,000 red poppies, each flower representing 1,000 soldiers who died in the Great War. This living symbol is one of the many powerful exhibits within the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial, the only museum in the US dedicated exclusively to World War I and dedicated by Congress as the nation's official WWI museum in 2004.

Designed by Ralph Appelbaum, who also lent his expertise to such landmarks as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National World War I Museum integrates first-person accounts into a narrative that flows through its permanent and visiting exhibitions. The museum's collection comprises WWI artifacts such as field artillery, a 1917 Harley Davidson motorcycle, and unopened cigarette packs from a 1914 Princess Mary Christmas Box. Beyond the exhibitions, the museum extends to Over There Café and a gift shop.

Your choice of Segway tours are: