Best Local Religious Apparition

Everyone's heard of Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe. But Northeast Kansas City? The rustic Grotto of the Virgin Mary is located a few blocks north of Independence Avenue. Turn at Askew (near the Askew Inn) and take a left on Garner, but don't drive too fast, or you'll pass the salmon-colored fence that nearly surrounds the turn-of-the-century home where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared in the front yard. Over the years, a stone-and-concrete grotto has been built around the potentially hallowed ground (the Catholic Church has not acknowledged the sighting), with a "statue" of the saint constructed from a department-store mannequin tucked into a smaller grotto and protected by a sheet of Plexiglas and dozens of plastic flowers. Yes, yes, it all sounds too kitschy, but a surprising number of people have visited the location (climbing up the steps, past the chicken-wire screen) and found both solace and positive energy after praying before the, uh, shrine. A woman caught hastily leaving a real red rose at the feet of the statue admitted that it wasn't her first visit to the place. "It looks kind of silly," she said, "but seriously, I've had prayers answered after coming here. Just don't use my name."