Russ and I had another wonderful Post-Tax Day Getaway! We were looking back at our past trips, remembering our time in so many fun Kansas towns including Cottonwood Falls, Lindsborg, Council Grove, Wamego, Winfield, Fort Scott, Paola, and Valley Falls. Similar to our Fort Scott and Valley Falls trips, this one was chosen based on its proximity to Calvin's track meet. We'd also been looking at this awesome Cedar Crest B&B in Pleasanton for awhile, so it was the perfect time to try it out! After dropping the kids off at school, we headed south and stopped in Wea. We hadn't been here since our friends Brent and Laura were married here over 20 years ago, and it brought back good memories. We enjoyed a morning stroll around the cemetery and church grounds.
From there we drove on to Louisburg and the Powell Observatory. Russ could remember playing baseball at these ball fields when he was a kid, and I'd always wanted to see the Observatory. So there isn't much to see during daylight hours, but I'd love to come back and bring the kids for one of their night events that begin in May.
After this, the Civil War Education portion of our trip began. We had no idea how much history there was in this area of Kansas and it was so interesting! We started at the Marais des Cygnes Massacre site, an off-the-beaten-path destination for sure.
As this sign details, a couple dozen pro-slavery men came to this site in May 1858 and proceeded to capture and gun down 11 free-state men, 5 of whom were killed. We listened to the story of Sarah Read, wife of Reverend Benjamin Read, one of the men who was shot, as she remembered hearing the gun shots at the ravine and running quickly to help.
We walked down to the ravine and imagined how it must have felt that day for these men. John Brown arrived here a few weeks later and built a log cabin fort, where he lived for a few months. This stone house was constructed by a follower of John Brown and still stands today.
As we left the site of the massacre, we traveled along State Line Road and happened upon State Line cemetery. Yep, this gravel road is it!
The next cool Civil War history we came upon was at the Battle of Island Mound. This battle was significant because it was the first time black soldiers engaged in combat in the Civil War.
Unlike that time in 1862, this area is very peaceful and we enjoyed hiking all around the battlefield area, which is now covered in native grass.
It was a really nice day, albeit just a little windy.
We continued on to find some lunch and settled on a local pub in Butler, Missouri.
Butler is the county seat and the Bates County Courthouse was really neat!
There was a memorial to the "First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry" that we had just learned about at Island Mound.
But there's still more history to learn! We continued back over the state line to the Battle of Mine Creek, where they had a beautiful visitors center and museum.
I'm pretty confident that I've never heard of this part of the Civil War before and it was fascinating to learn about one of the largest cavalry battles in the Civil War occurring right here in Kansas!
In the museum, Russ checked out the uniforms and I checked out the surgeon's kit.
We watched a History Channel documentary that was filmed on-site here and then went out to the battlefield to learn some more.
The confederates were defeated in this battle and the Civil War was almost at an end! The Mine Creek Battlefield was so interesting!
After a full day of exploring and learning, it was time to head to our Cedar Crest B&B to get checked in.
Our room was the Painted Desert, and everything was so nice! We even had a s'mores kit waiting for us :)
The place was so pretty, inside and out!
And the views were awesome!
They do wood-fired pizzas on the weekends. We may have to go back sometime for that.
This property is on 100 acres and they have lots of hiking trails marked, so we set off to see what we could see.
It was very peaceful with multiple ponds, chairs, and hammocks for relaxing.
One thing extra-special about this B&B is that it was also a B&D! (Breakfast and Dinner) And the dinner was AMAZING. We were able to order off of their menu when we booked the room and all of the options were so good! They were so nice to accommodate an early dinner for us so we could get to Calvin's track meet.
I had the salmon and Russ got the steak (although we shared both entrees). Seriously, SO GOOD.
We were so full at the end of dinner that they wrapped up our desserts for later and we headed to Louisburg. Calvin got a new PR in the 110 hurdles and got 2nd place in both the 300 hurdles and the 4x4 relay. He had a great night!
Thankfully the track meet went pretty fast so we could get back to our "vacation." (Although we did miss what was sure to be a gorgeous sunset while at the track meet. I guess we'll just have to go back sometime!) We took a bottle of wine and a blanket out to the fire pit and got a good fire going.
We stayed out for a couple of hours (when our fire was done) and then called it a night. Such a great day we had together!
The next morning we enjoyed more of those gorgeous views as we drank coffee out on the balcony.
The breakfast was an Italian egg bake and we practically licked the dish clean. All of the food is farm-to-table (they grow a lot of it on-site even) and it was de-licious.
Cedar Crest Lodge was AWESOME! I would definitely recommend it and would love to go back sometime!
We took the scenic route home, driving through a couple of the smaller lakes in the area (Sugar Valley and Linn Valley) where friends have lake-homes.
We stopped to read about the Frontier Military Historic Byway. We had been to most of the places mentioned, and it was fun remembering our visits to each location.
Our only other real item on the agenda for the day was the Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge. (By the way, we learned on this trip that Marais des Cygnes means "Marsh of the Swans" -- can't believe we'd never heard this before.) Well, we struck out on this one as the visitors center was closed for staff training and even the trails were roped off for some reason. Oh well, we'll have to check out the wildlife some other time.
One final stop on our 2023 Post-Tax Day Getaway was at an adorable "new" place outside Paola. One of Russ' clients bought and renovated this old schoolhouse and did a fantastic job! There is a boutique upstairs and a lounge/coffee bar downstairs.
The outside area was also super-cute. I'm sure it's a really fun place to hang out in the evenings. We'll definitely need to go back with friends sometime!
Every year when it comes time to plan our Getaway, I'm afraid that we've exhausted all of our fun Kansas towns, but somehow we always seem to find another one! We loved Pleasanton and the area surrounding it. And most of all, we loved this time together to reconnect after a busy and stressful season. Yay for my hard-working husband and the end of another tax season!
