Adventure Weekend in Overland Park, Kansas: Where to Play, Eat, & Explore

We happened to visit during the annual Overland Park Fall Festival in Downtown Overland Park. Even though it rained during our visit, we still found plenty to see.

The festival fills Downtown Overland Park with food, entertainment, activities, and more than 75 booths featuring art and handmade items from local and regional makers and free admission.

Saturday’s festival also coincided with the Overland Park Farmers Market at Clock Tower Landing. We couldn’t believe how many vendors there were!

We found everything from produce and baked goods to specialty foods, flowers, art, and locally made items. The Farmers Market now runs year round since it has a large, indoor space.

We also spent some time exploring the Johnson County Museum which does a great job of bringing the history of the area to life. The exhibits cover different periods of Johnson County’s history, with plenty of interactive displays that keep things interesting for both kids and adults.

One of our favorite parts was the 1950s All-Electric House. This isn’t a replica but an actual house built by Kansas City Power & Light in 1953 and opened to the public as a model home in 1954. More than 60,000 people toured the home during its original six-month run to see what was then considered the latest in modern living.

Today you can actually walk through the house inside the museum. We loved seeing what was considered cutting-edge technology in the 1950s and comparing it to our homes today. The house later became a private residence before eventually being moved inside the museum.

Kids will also want to save time for KidScape. This imaginative play area features a kid-sized community where children can shop at a market, work on a farm, teach in a school, serve food in a diner, and more.

One of the biggest highlights of our weekend was iFLY Kansas City. We have tried a lot of different family adventures over the years, but indoor skydiving was a new one for us! It was so much fun, and one of the best parts is that both kids and adults can participate.

Instead of jumping from an airplane, iFLY uses a powerful vertical wind tunnel to create the feeling of freefall in a controlled indoor environment. Before flying, we went through a short training session to learn the proper body position and hand signals. Then we suited up and headed into the tunnel with an instructor to keep you safe and in the right position.

If you have the option to add the High Flight to your visit, I highly recommend it. During the High Flight, your instructor takes you much higher inside the wind tunnel. This was one of our favorite parts of the experience and definitely worth adding. If indoor skydiving has ever been on your bucket list, this is such a fun way to try it without actually having to jump out of an airplane.

Normally I wouldn’t include a sporting goods store on a list of things to do, but SCHEELS isn’t exactly a normal store. Where else can you shop for hiking gear, wander through a huge toy section, play arcade games, and ride an indoor Ferris wheel for $1?

There is much more than shopping here too. We found an arcade, a huge kids toy section, and plenty of other things to explore. If you actually want to shop, you could spend a long time checking out the massive selection of outdoor gear, sporting goods, clothing, and more.

If you like fun breakfast food, add Snooze to your list.

We tried both the Pancake Flight and stuffed French toast during our visit. The Pancake Flight is a fun option because you can sample several different flavors instead of having to choose just one.

The menu also has Benedicts, breakfast classics, and plenty of savory choices.

At Chicken N Pickle, dinner can easily turn into a couple of hours of family fun. Along with the restaurant, there are pickleball courts and games like ping pong, cornhole, shuffleboard, Battleship, and Jenga.

We liked that the kids didn’t have to sit around after they finished eating as there were plenty of games to play. The menu is family friendly too with plenty of choices for my picky eaters.