In addition to the golf course or the recliner with remote control in hand, there’s another way to celebrate Father’s Day this year in Kansas City, and you don’t even have to be a father.

The Rhythm & Ribs 18th and Vine Jazz Festival will blend two of Kansas City’s richest traditions, jazz and barbecue, creating a delicious recipe for family fun. The three-day festival will be held June 16–18 in Parade Park and the Jay McShann Pavilion at the American Jazz Museum on the eastern edge of the downtown loop.

The festival will feature 40 national and local blues, jazz, gospel and R&B artists, including Al Green, Shemekia Copeland and The Original Superstars of Jazz Fusion. Guests also will enjoy a wide range of educational and recreational activities, much like the traditional festivals during the heyday of the 18th and Vine District, an area where Kansas City’s jazz legacy was nurtured in the 1920s and ’30s.

In addition, there will be an array of finger-licking food from Kansas City’s top barbecue vendors. Every food imaginable that can be smoked and slathered with sauce will be available.

With more than 30,000 people attending last year’s inaugural festival, Rhythm & Ribs is attempting to become one of the Midwest’s largest festivals.

The festival is a collaborative effort by the American Jazz Museum, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the Black Economic Union, the Jazz District Redevelopment Corporation, the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association and the Downtown Council of Kansas City.

Advance one-day tickets are $15 for adults and $6 for children 6–12. Multi-day and family packages are available. Call (816) 474-6262, or click on www.kcrhythmandribs.com.

The sprawling Museum of Transportation in St. Louis is in motion, unveiling new additions and attractions that will ensure a bright future for the storied past of planes, trains and automobiles.

In the last year, the museum has spent $4.5 million on major renovations and additions to better showcase America’s transportation heritage. Located on 150 acres in west St. Louis County, the museum features one of the largest collections of transportation vehicles in the world.

Among those vehicles are a fascinating array of historic cars, which now have a better home, thanks to a major renovation to the Earl C. Lindburg Automotive Center at the museum. The exterior of the center has been transformed into a modern glass and steel façade, resembling a contemporary auto dealership.

The interior has been updated, as well, and boasts a brand new exhibit, “It’s an Automobile Life: Car Culture in St. Louis and Beyond.” Included in the new exhibit is St. Louis’ oldest delivery truck–the 1908 Galloway Express Truck–a 1959 Ford experimental gas turbine truck and a 1901 St. Louis Automobile made by the St. Louis Motor Carriage Company.

Also, the museum has unveiled a miniature railroad that travels on a mile of track around the museum grounds. The locomotives are detailed 24-inch scale replicas of the famous 1863 C.P. Huntington steam locomotive, and the trains can carry 42 people.

In the museum’s permanent collection are buses, streetcars, aircraft, horse-drawn vehicles, boats and a trolley on which visitors can ride. However, the more than 70 locomotives on four miles of track on the property will impress visitors the most.

Admission to the museum is $4 for adults and $2 for seniors and children 5–12. Children 4 and under are free. Unlimited train rides during the week are $4, and unlimited train and trolley rides on weekends are $5.

Located at 3015 Barrett Station Road, the museum is open 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Sunday from May 1–Labor Day. The museum stays open until 7 p.m. on Thursdays. Hours are somewhat reduced the rest of the year. For details, call (314) 965-6885, or visit www.trackourprogress.org.

Theme park aficionados will have a lot to be thankful for this spring as Holiday World in southern Indiana celebrates its 60th anniversary with its largest expansion ever–a new holiday themed section dedicated to Thanksgiving.

When the park opens for the season on May 6, it will unveil its $13.5-million expansion, with the Thanksgiving section joining existing areas themed for Halloween, the Fourth of July and Christmas. With the new section, the park has more than 100 acres of rides, shows and games.

The centerpiece of the new area is The Voyage, a roller coaster with three drops of more than 100 feet, a top speed of 67 mph and five underground tunnels. The “air-time” wooden coaster will offer riders the feeling of weightlessness for a total of 24 seconds during the 1.2-mile ride. The Voyage joins the park’s two other wooden coasters, The Raven and The Legend.

Other new attractions include the Gobbler Getaway, a turkey-chase-themed family “dark ride” and the Plymouth Rock Café. And Splashin’ Safari, the adjoining water park, will unveil Bahari River, a new action river with spray jets, waterfall and more. The water park opens on May 13.

Guests always enjoy free soft drinks, and free use of inner tubes and sunscreen in Splashin’ Safari. Both parks are smoke-free. AAA members who show their card at the gate receive $4 off general admission and $2 off tickets for seniors and children under 54 inches.

Holiday World is located off Highway 162 in Santa Claus. For additional information, call 1-877-Go-Family (1-877-463-2645), or click on www.holidayworld.com.

America celebrates Mother’s Day once a year with cards, flowers and phone calls, but at one quiet site in mid-Missouri, it is Mother’s Day year-round.

The National Shrine of Mary, Mother of the Church, is dedicated to Mary and to all mothers. Located on the grounds of St. Patrick’s Church in the small community of Laurie at the Lake of the Ozarks, the shrine features an inspiring 14-foot stainless steel sculpture of Mary with her arms outstretched. The sculpture is situated above fountains, which form a waterfall that flows into a large pool.

Surrounding the sculpture are large slabs of polished black granite that form the Mother’s Wall of Life, into which are etched the names of 2,400 mothers, living and deceased, from 37 states and 14 countries so far. The only requirement to be on the wall is to be a mother. The cost to have a mother’s name engraved on the wall is $325.

The Mother’s Shrine, as it is known, stands in a natural grotto surrounded by 25,000 flowers and a terraced amphitheater that seats up to 6,000 for outdoor services at 8:30 p.m. on Saturdays and 8:30 a.m. on Sundays from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Guests can visit the shrine anytime of day. It is located midway between Versailles and Camdenton on Highway 5.

For details, call (573) 374-MARY (6279), or visit www.mothersshrine.org.

Illinois has the National Road to thank for some of its early growth and development, and this summer several cities are extending their gratitude with festivals honoring the 200th anniversary of the thoroughfare.

Today called U.S. Route 40, the road was authorized by Congress in 1806 to unite the developed eastern part of the country with its western frontier. It went from Maryland to the Mississippi River and carried mail, goods and people.

In Illinois, the route covers 164 miles across the south-central portion of the state, linking Marshall on the eastern edge of the state to east St. Louis. Over Father’s Day weekend, June 16–18, about a dozen communities along the route will hold celebrations in honor of the National Road.

Among the communities hosting festivals will be Vandalia, Greenville, Pocahontas, Troy and Collinsville, as well as Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Highlights of the festivals will be carnivals, yard sales, period craft demonstrations, car shows, concerts, food and more.

For a schedule of events, call the National Road Association of Illinois at (217) 849-3188 or visit www.nationalroad.org.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum is commemorating the fifth anniversary of its opening by hosting “The Enemy Within: Terror in America–1776 to Today,” the first in a series of three national exhibits the museum will display in the months ahead.

The exhibit, which is on view through Aug. 6, explores more than 230 years of hatred and terror this country has encountered on its own soil. It reveals nine major events when Americans were threatened by enemies within its borders. These include massive explosions in New York’s harbor on July 30, 1916; the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City; Sept. 11, 2001 and beyond.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, dedicated on Feb. 19, 2001, was created to honor “those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever” by the 1995 bombing. The museum and its exhibits educate visitors about the impact of violence and inspire hope and healing.

Admission to the memorial and museum is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors, $6 for students. For information call 1-888-542-HOPE or click on www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org.