A Kansas City Native shares her favorite staycations, tourism tips and events

Hi, name is Andrea Bergmann, and I'm a Kansas City native with a lifetime of local experiences to share with you. Currently, I live in a suburb of KC with my wonderful and supportive husband and daughter. My parents, who are as amazing as my husband and daughter, live nearby in the home that I was raised in.

My husband, my daughter and my mom are all Kansas City natives, too. My dad may as well be a native, as he's lived here almost 50 years!

Dear daughter and me at the Plaza Lighting Ceremony 2008.

Without my family, this site wouldn’t be possible. Especially my daughter. She has been the catalyst for so much of our Kansas City tourism, long before there was a thought of www.Tour-My-Town-KansasCity.com . We love exploring the greater Kansas City area with her and have even had several memorable family vacations or “staycations” here.

“Huh? What did she just say?” Yep, we have vacationed right here in Kansas City. We rent a hotel room (our daughter judges hotel rooms based on bed bouncability, LOL), take our dogs out to Pete and Macs' doggie day care for their own staycation, and then set out to tour all sorts of places that we might normally take for granted, simply because, we are Kansas City natives.

My parents have fostered our daughter’s love of exploring Kansas City by spending countless non-school and summer days wandering much of the eastern part of our area with her. Especially the historical sites, adorable boutiques (the girl LOVES to shop--Grammy's influence, no doubt!) and delicious diners, drive-ins & cafes (Papa's area of expertise!) in the Independence area.

My husband and I are fond of searching out all that Kansas City has to offer “foodies“. We love to try different locally owned restaurants . Let me tell you, no matter what your taste or what you’re hungry for, Kansas City has something to offer you. Of course we have our famous barbeque and steak, but we also have Mexican, Asian, Italian, Greek, Argentinean, micro brew pubs, fusion, soul and so much more.

We also tend to be KC event junkies. We love to attend everything from small neighborhood, group or church programs like St. Dionysios' Greek Festival each spring to major city-wide festivals like Independence's Santa-Cali-Gon every fall.

What makes me an “expert” on Kansas City? Love. I love to tour Kansas City, and I want to share that passion with you--through my experiences as a native.

Come on and “Tour-My-Town-KansasCity” with me.

I’ll lead the way,

Andrea