The Insurance Doctor

Category: holidays

  • 6 Reasons to Visit Kansas City

    If you do the proper research you will find Kansas City to be a fun, underrated and interesting place to visit.  We just returned from a 4 day long weekend and suggest the following;

    1. KC Barbecue: KC BBQ is the real deal!  My suggestions are Joe’s, the most famous place as well as Arthur Bryant’s and Gates BBQ.  You won’t be disappointed.

    Kansas City Country Club District
    Kansas City Country Club District

    2. Arrowhead and Kaufman stadiums: Arrowhead has cracked my top 10.  Unique structural design and shape as well as round reply screens set it apart from other stadiums.  We were told that the engineering firm that did Arrowhead was used for several other stadiums.

    3. Negro Baseball league Museum: This place was awesome!  There’s a mini movie theatre, cool exhibits, great history and a small field with bronze statues.  They let you run the bases as well. It’s a must.  The museum is directly across from the Jazz museum and you can see both for $15, tremendous value.

    4. Power and Light district: Cool downtown area on the Missouri border with tons of bars and restaurants as well as better than expected nightlife.  Open until 3am.

    5. Country club district area: Very interesting and high end shopping.  We were there for their 85th annual art festival.  Closed off streets with blocks of booths and progressive art.  Locals call it the “million dollar walk”.

    6. The people:  These are some of the friendliest people we have encountered in the USA.  Easy to talk to and they will welcome you with open arms, even Jet fans, lol.

  • 10 Fun & Not So Fun Facts About Puerto Rico

    After 20+ years I just spent a week at the El San Juan and learned that it’s not what it used to be.  Here’s what I found.

    The streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico
    streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico

    1. Leave your passport home: PR is a U.S. territory hence, you can ditch your passport!  Bring a valid / current photo ID though.

    2. The drinking age is 18 and currency is U.S. dollar    :  It makes things very easy to buy what you forgot to pack.

    3. There are 5 Miss Universe winners from PR: Unfortunately, I didn’t see any of them at the beach.

    4. PR has 270 miles of beaches and is an archipelago: which means there are more islands to explore.

    5. The west coast of PR has some of the best surfing and diving in all of the Caribbean: A hidden gem for sure.

    6. PR has some of the best coffee in the world: Having been on 5 of the 7 continents I rate them in my top 5.

    7. PR is the home of the world’s largest telescope: It’s called the Arecibo Observatory.

    8. PR is almost always between 70 to 80 degrees year round: Weather is steady but no guarantee.  We were just had 2 of 7 days that were sunny.  We did find that the humidity seemed lower and less bugs than before.

    9. PR is in deep debt that is currently $72B: Old town San Juan was noticeably run down with many closed businesses and less people.  There was actually a shortage of luggage earlier this year because so many people are leaving the island.

    Zip line fun in Puerto Rico
    Zip line fun in Puerto Rico

    10. Currently, PR has no bankruptcy protection: PR is in a deep recession and there’s no guarantee that the USA will bail them out.  They are having elections in may and corruption is rampant.  The relationship between the U.S. and PR is a “tricky” one.  We shall see how it plays out.

    In summary,  PR is still a fun place to visit.  That being said if you were there years ago like us you will notice the difference and might be disappointed!