Overland Park’s Prairiefire combines history, shopping
“Jurassic World” goes shopping is one way to describe Overland Park’s Prairiefire retail and entertainment district. The Kansas City suburb is home to the local chapter of the American Museum of Natural History and some upscale shopping.
The Museum at Prairiefire may be the best attraction at the center. It’s home to the fossils of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The first T. rex discovered is one of three in the world made from the original cast. The first T. rex was discovered by Kansas’ Barnum Brown.
Brown was considered the world’s foremost paleontologist during his day. As we learned during our visit to the Great Hall at the museum, paleontology has changed little over the years since the T. rex was discovered in the early 1900s. Some equipment improvements have been made, but the process pretty much remains the same.
The Great Hall is free to visit. As visitors arrive, they may see dinosaurs roam the floor on a monitor. As a matter-of-fact, I was “crushed” by a dino during our visit. LOL.
In addition to the T. rex, visitors can catch pterosaur fossils flying overhead. The Great Hall is also home to the museum’s gift store and café.
The hall also is home to a view into Kansas’ history as a sea. Fossils of giant-sized animals give a look into life under water.
The museum offers a unique view outside. Colored glass highlights the museum’s appearance. Its appearance changes as the day progresses. The museum is the only building in the United States to use Dichroic Glass. The NASA-created glass accents the limestone structure. It creates one of the most beautiful views we’ve ever seen.
It was almost as much fun checking out the building’s exterior as it was the exhibits inside. To see the light shine through and move over the prairie grass and other objects was impressive. At one point, yellow light shining brightly on some of the prairie grass appeared on fire.
The museum also offers visitors a chance to check out some other permanent exhibits, as well as special ones. They currently are hosting an exhibit on the history of the horse. Children can check out things at the Discovery Center.
The Museum at Prairiefire is only one of several interesting attractions at the center, which opened about 18 months ago.
The movie theater – Cinetopia – appears eager to show the new “Star Wars” movie later this month. One side wall had nothing but “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” posters. It also has “May the Force be with you” planted in the sidewalk.
We checked out some of the stores and restaurants at Prairiefire. The Art Shop offers customers a chance to view artwork created by professional artists, while enjoying an adult beverage, such as wine. On the weekends, the gallery hosts musical acts. They can range from Indie Pop to jazz or blues. You may also find portraits of Walter White and Jesse from “Breaking Bad.”
Pinstripes combines restaurant dining with bocce ball or bowling. It has an eight-lane bowling alley. Sunday brunch is available at a very reasonable price for what we saw served.
I liked the Made in Kansas City store. Everything there was made in…Kansas City. Or has Kansas City on it. T-shirts galore are available there. We both liked one related to “Back to the Future” and the Royals’ World Series title. Kansas City last won the baseball title in 1985, when the movie was released. Then, 30 years later, the team did it again, during the height of the 30th celebration of the movie.
Upstairs in the building is the Threshing Bee, an upscale market consisting of eight vendors. They share the space. This is definitely a woman’s store. Lisa did point out a couple of possible Christmas or birthday gifts. We’ll have to see. The staff was very friendly and helpful.
We finished our visit to Prairiefire with lunch at Rock and Brews. It combines a music theme and sports. The restaurant has a strong music them, with posters of album covers or artists. Several TV screens have sports on them. They will also ask if there’s a particular game you’d like to see. We had two screens on the Minnesota Vikings game.
The food was great. I had a steak sandwich with a side of potato salad. Lisa went with a club sandwich.
Oh, a side note: even the parking garage gets into the attraction business. The exterior has a subtle appearance. The main floor of the garage has a large mural of a T. rex running amok, while its rhino owner tugs at its leash.
Prairiefire may be a newer mall, but it is a growing one. It’ll be interesting to see how it looks next time we’re in time.
For more information, please visit www.visitthemap.org or www.visitprairiefire.com.
