KANSAS CITY • St. Louis may be the Gateway to the West, but it's also, in many ways, the last Eastern city. In contrast, Kansas City definitely looks toward the Pacific. Missouri's two biggest cities share Interstate 70, an aversion to rural politicians and some serious intrastate rivalry.

KC is distinctive, a city of fountains, statuary and parkways. Just four hours away by car, it's also a great destination for St. Louisans, with doable museums, great restaurants, outstanding shopping and more.

I'm a Kansas City native, and I make regular trips back. I'd never stayed on the Country Club Plaza, though — the landmark 55-acre center created by pioneer developer J.C. Nichols in 1923 and still one of the nation's premier shopping, dining and entertainment destinations. It was clearly time to correct that situation.

A friend and I booked a room in the Raphael, a historic boutique hotel within easy walking distance of the Plaza's varied delights. The rooms aren't overlarge, but they're modern and designed for pampering, and our view of the Plaza's distinctive Spanish architecture gave us a definite sense of place.

LUXURIOUS EYE CANDY

Nichols was a genius whose mark on Kansas City can never be erased. The Plaza's beautiful buildings — not an ugly or an ordinary one among them — have retail stores on the ground floor and medical and other offices above, guaranteeing a regular customer base. They're decorated with luxurious eye candy, visually rewarding touches like tile mosaics, fountains built into walls and statues.

I grew up expecting to reach my doctors' offices through lobbies sumptuously decorated in colorful handmade tiles, passing handsome fountains and admiring the Thomas Hart Benton mural in the flagship Harzfeld's department store. Harzfeld's is long gone (the mural is now on view in the Smithsonian), but the commitment to visual beauty on the Plaza lives on.

That's true elsewhere in the city as well; Kansas City boasts a surprising variety of museums. With the assistance of a faithful native guide — my father, Tom Miller, who once had an office on the Plaza overlooking the elaborate J. C. Nichols Fountain — we visited three of the best: the Arabia Steamboat Museum, for a glimpse of 19th-century frontier life; the Liberty Memorial's stunning museum of World War I; and the Nelson-Atkins Gallery of Art.

After all that concentrated art and history, we needed a break. The Plaza is home to everything from the original Winstead's Restaurant, immortalized by writer Calvin Trillin as the home of the world's greatest hamburger (eat your heart out, Steak 'n Shake) to barbecue places to fine dining. We took in some of each and ventured across State Line Road to the Kansas suburbs of Johnson County for a superb French dinner.

And then, of course, there is shopping. The Plaza has been repositioned in recent years as a high-end shopping center. When I was growing up, Sears and Woolworth's had big stores there, cheek by jowl with the über-premium destination shop Halls.

Now Halls is just the most notable emporium in an area filled with mostly luxury-class emporia, including clothing stores like Burberry, Sperry Top-Sider and Armani and an entire Brooks Brothers family, along with boutique jewelers and other specialty stores from Restoration Hardware to Coach. On a beautiful day, the Country Club Plaza was an irresistible place to window-shop.

We spent some time prowling but ended up spending most of our time and money at Halls. There, everything from exotic kitchenware to antique furniture to exquisite art glass and designer clothes beckon the shopper seeking something out of the ordinary.

At night, visitors can take a horse-drawn carriage through the Plaza's quiet streets. You can do that in St. Louis, though. We opted for something unique: a gondola ride on Brush Creek.

A TRAGIC FLOOD

When I was a girl, Brush Creek, which runs along the Plaza's southern boundary, was known locally as "Flush Creek." The bed had been paved in the 1930s by the almost Chicago-esque mayor Thomas "Boss" Pendergast (Harry S Truman's first patron), who owned a cement company. The creek flooded regularly in heavy storms, and when it did it was an open sewer, an unappetizing element in an otherwise elegant area. No one would ever have expected to find a living thing larger than a microbe in its waters.

It's not a joke anymore. After a tragic flood in 1977 that killed 27 and caused more than $65 million in property damage, the city worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to build a three-mile riverwalk. Completed in 1996, it contains the water and provides natural beauty.

Brush Creek, now beautifully landscaped, is crossed by attractive bridges; it's the home of assorted ducks and of the Ambience on the Water gondola company.

The sight of gondolas plying the creek to the accompaniment of Neapolitan songs proved irresistible. Ambience on the Water, with a two-boat fleet, is aimed at romantic couples and larger tourist parties. A private ride for two is normally $50.

That was a little pricey for us, but it was a slow night; in the name of news research, the manager offered us a short ride for 20 bucks. Above us, the handsome buildings of the Plaza went by in slow motion as ducks paddled nearby. On the street, carriage horses clopped past; strollers along the bank watched and waved.

It made for a memorable conclusion to a great day and a timely reminder of the riches to be found in St. Louis' rival on the other side of the state.