Marceline

 Welcome to Marceline, the hometown of Walt Disney!!

 This is my kind of traveling!  Recently, Sean and I flew into Kansas City to go to a family reunion in Nauvoo.  My parents, Peyton and Cat also went along.  Peyton found out that Marceline was right off the freeway we were traveling on so we did a random stop to see Walt's hometown.  I really enjoy stopping at random locations between point A and B.  It makes the trip a little more adventurous.

One of our first stops was at the Dreaming Tree.  This tree was in Walt's backyard and he would spend time here observing nature and letting his imagination go.  The tree was hit by lightning so now its just the trunk.  I thought it was reminiscent of Rapunzel's tree in Tangled.

Near the Dreaming Tree was Walt's barn.  This is a replica but the original was where Walt would put on shows for a dime.  A couple years back they reconstructed it and now its a place where fans can go to tell Walt what he means to them.  I thought it was a very creative use of space.  Most places shun the idea of writing on the surface, but not this barn!

Peyton climbed the rafters to place his message.

The barn was just covered with messages!

My parents message

My message

Sean's Message

Sean writing his message

Dad taking a picture of his message

Next we walked Kansas Street which was the inspiration for Main Street USA.  At first glance it definitely did not look like the picturesque quaint street at Disneyland but as you looked around you saw similarities.  Things just looked familiar.  Like the placement of a window and a door, or the shape of the building.  Just little things.  I think if you put Victoria facades, then it would look like main street.  The theater was the one building that look the most similar to its counterpart.

Disney's home

Kansas Street, AKA Main Street USA

This looks very similar to the one in Disneyland

Inspiration for Coke Corner

Notice the name in the windows

Notice how the door faces the corner instead of straight on?  That's like Disneyland.

Peyton and Cat enjoying the Gazebo

Lastly we visited the Museum which was housed in the old train station.  It was really neat to see that.  Peyton had previously met Kay, the director of the museum (she also lives in Disney's old home) and we saw her at the museum.  She was absolutely tickled pink to have an imagineer at her museum.  

They had on display miniatures of Disneyland.  It was just a hobby of a fan.

Creative.  The bathroom has never been operational.

Map of Disneyland, although some of these did make it into the early days of the park, others like the Edison square didn't.

Can't leave without a shot of Mickey!

 

I definitely learned a lot more about Walt, the Man.  He was a great guy who, as I wrote in the barn, I believe was truly inspired!