After our outing last night, the whole clan spent the night on various surfaces around my house. Rob had to take off early for an appointment, but the girls were lucky enough to get breakfast once we were all somewhat alive.
eggs + potatoes + strawberries = yum (:
Ali had to take off for a few hours, too, so Catie and I put ourselves together and made our way to the MetroLink to tote ourselves off into St. Louis. I had promised her a visit to the City Museum, so with that as our primary destination, we trekked through downtown St. Louis past some of the other monumental spots on the way.
just a couple of metro riders.. no biggie ;)
As I expected, the City Museum proved to be just as fun as it usually is, especially with one of your best friends there to enjoy it with you. We voted to come back again in the summer when the rooftop is open.
cegg & drenn hit the city museum (:
w/ frisch's big boy | a hand-painted banister
... & the entire pizza that we demolished btwn the two of us.
... don't jude ;)
We had a blast. Catie even ran into a lady with whom she played back in her day with the Cincinnati Orchestra. Pretty stinkin' random, but proving again that the world is a lot smaller than we give it credit sometimes. Haha.
On our way back to the metro, we happened by CLR-MNSTR downtown, and ventured in. GOOD CALL! It's a new little boutique that just happened to be reasonably-priced, and pretty awesome at that. Catie and I both snagged up some new gear, which I'm sure you'll see featured here sometime in the near future. haha.
clr-mnstr | st. louis!
Needless to say, we were spent by the time we got back to Belleville on the Metro. Both Ali and Rob had made their ways back to the house by the time we rolled in; the four of us piled onto the couch and ended up asleep to a background of The Hunger Games.
... Insert Nap...
And then.................. it was full force party mode. We got ready and headed over to McGurk's in STL [duh, of course I would take my two Gingers there!] for dinner. It was amazing.
mcgurk's. perfect for my little ginger loves! lol..
From there, we stopped off at Broadway Oyster Bar for a little bit, then made our way down to The Landing to meet up with Kyle and a few others. That part got a little outta control. I promise.
me & my lovely gingers! ♥ ♥
cegg & dren... some things don't chage ;)
hey hey hey
All was going well until Ali decided to bust out an ink pen.... Womp womp womp... We are still trying to figure out how Ali escaped unscathed while the rest of us walked out covered in Pitch Perfect quotes, fortune cookie tidbits, and statements about all things Asian. Hahaha. I love 'em.
ink pens + creative people + arm canvasses + liquid encouragement.. = not a great idea.
All in all, a successful night. This is of course backdated, but we made it home safe and sound and that... is... that. (: Good friends... better night. Love.
There was no movement in our house today before . I think the dog was probably up hours before anyone else was stirring. Hah. Once we did get moving, sluggish as that may have been, Joe took Tim & Lynn over to base to tour it. Heidi, Paul, and Jonathan made a stop over at GuitarCenter to get some things straightened out for the new guitar that Paul’s been arranging to get for Jonathan. It’ll be his first Martin; we’re all pretty excited for him.
Early afternoon rolled around, and found me in the backseat with Jonathan as Paul drove us and Heidi into St. Louis for their first go at the CityMuseum [take 2, Cori!]. I was so excited to show them everything, as simple explanation does it very little justice. In no time at all, I was back in the museum’s lobby for the second time in 12 hours. We wasted no time in getting right to it, and spent the next four hours consumed in all of the twists of the interactive playground.
There’s an antiqued piano on the upper level, and Jonathan made himself right at home to entertain some passing patrons. I’m so proud of him and impressed by his musical talents! I thank God constantly for blessing me with the family He has, and for blessing them with the talents they have to develop.
All music aside, we happened by a room inhabited by Marion Nichols, author and craft master. It didn’t take much persuading to lure us into a free craft session. Of the wide span of Ms. Nichols’ genius, she has a whole line of books dedicated specifically to paper snowflakes. She can pretty much translate any object into a design for paper snowflakes. The tutorial we joined today involved us using paper snowflake-specific scissors to cut out the necessary parts on a template to create our own. We didn’t do too bad! Heidi’s was a fairy, Jonathan’s a musical treble clef, Paul’s an acoustic guitar, and mine a seahorse. Yeah, like I said. This lady’s got it all.
crafty. oh so crafty.
Once we were through with the snowflakes, we decided to stick around for one more session with Ms. Nichols, who moved seamlessly into copper plating. This I’d never really done, so it was a bit interesting. For this one, Heidi landed a tiger, Jonathan a spider, Paul a treble clef, and me a fish. They actually came out pretty neat, in spite of our apparent inabilities to fold straight edges to finish them off before mounting. Haha. Oh, well. Still fun.
It was mid evening when we finally rolled back into our driveway. Paul & Heidi took off for a date night dinner, and I whipped up some Italian for all of us here. Once P&H returned, we took to some DIY and light guitar jam sessions before calling it a night. Here’s another Pinterest pin. Love love love.
I was greeted by Joe, Tim, & Lynn when I got home from work. I had every intention of cooking dinner, but by unanimous vote, we decided on a more relaxed option of Eckert’s. Off we were to enjoy Joe’s favorite fried biscuits and some good country food. Taking visitors there has always been a favorite of ours, and it was no surprise that everyone enjoyed the experience.
now that's coffee!
Back at the house, it wasn’t long before my sister and nephew rolled in from Ohio, bringing with them all kinds of delectable edibles from either Mom or the farmer’s market. Tim had brought with him some authentic coffee beans, complete with manual grinder. I never thought I’d regret having traded our traditional coffee maker for our Kuering [and I still don’t], but now would be an excellent time to have both, as selfish as that sort of seems. It’s funny how the upgrade in technology can almost be, at times, inconveniencing. Hah. In any regard, while we were forced to momentarily postpone fresh coffee, we weren’t hindered at all in terms of regular eating. No sir, we were entirely prepared for all of that. J
fun @ the city museum
We’d already decided to take Tim & Lynn into St. Louis, specifically to the CityMuseum downtown. For the natives here, I don’t believe it’s considered much of a new relic, but we’re still enamored by its creative intensity, so naturally we show it off to our friends whenever possible. To our disappointment, we didn’t realize until after we got there that my 14-year-old nephew could’ve easily gone with us, as the rule for 18yrs+ doesn’t apply if you’re there with someone who is 18+. Oh, well. It’s probably for the better, so that Paul wouldn’t be excluded in the trip, and was there at our house when we returned anyway. At the museum, Tim & Lynn were beside themselves taking in the child-like visualizations brought to fruition on adult-sized scales. Joe and I had only been there once before, so it was a refresher of what was to be offered. We climbed, crawled, ascended, descended, and slid down the 10-story spiral slide, loving every minute of watching each other maneuver through tiny tunnels and crawlspaces.
It’s now almost ; we just got back moments ago, and I… [aside from post-dating...] am… beat.
What do you do on a Saturday, in a new city, with no little one?
You explore! Well, we did, at least.
We started off the day by working out. That’s always fun.
After running a couple miles on the base track, Joe and I cleaned up and headed right back to base to try out the Metrolink. For my fellow country bumpkins who have no clue what I just said, the Metrolink is a train-like mode of transportation, in this case routing from Scott AFB all the way to the St. LouisAirport, making stops along the way. Think bus, on rails.
scott afb metrolink
So we finally figured out how to ticket ourselves, which was half the battle starting out. We rode the metro through IL into MO, getting off at the Convention Center in downtown St. Louis. Now, it’s never a real outing unless I’m either forgetting, leaving, losing, or dropping something. This time it was me leaving my cell phone on the Metro. Smooth. In a moment of panic, we attempted to backtrack our steps, until, at the advice of a sweet older woman, we called it. On the second try, a girl answered, and told me my phone was being held in one of the ticket lobbies at the Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals). Hallelujah. I don’t usually get this lucky with my misplaced things, but this time it really was as easy as hopping back on the metro for two stops deeper into the city and finding the right lobby. I never found the girl who’d turned it in instead of stealing it, but I hope she knows she’s appreciated.
the dubliner
Resuming our quest of exploration, we foot-trekked our way out of the gameday crowd and back into the city to pick up where we’d left off a half hour before. We crossed a few city blocks and landed at the Dubliner, a very Irish pub in the middle of the city. We ate there, and decided we’d just play the rest of the day by ear.
The woman at the visitor’s center had told us about the CityMuseum, an obviously popular attraction for both tourists and locals alike. After a few hours of aimless exploration, we located this museum on a map and hiked the city blocks to find it.
I don’t know why I was so blown away by this place. It’s likely because the only thing I’ve seen that would even remotely resemble it is COSI, and even its luster is dulled to a mute point once you turn 10.
city museum cave section
No. This place is pretty much an industrial playground, for adults. I’ve never seen so many structures, holes, ladders, crevices, slides, or caves 1) indoor, under the same roof, or 2) built with the sole purpose of being conquered up, over, around, under, and through, by any able-bodied person, regardless of age.
giant puffer | i'm in love
The city museum is 10 stories tall. It’s an old industrial building that was converted into a jungle-jim on steroids. Not only does it contain a 10-story aluminum spiral slide, but the rooftop is home to a ferris wheel and a school bus suspended out over the roof. There is a floor with nothing but stone caves and waterfalls. Everywhere you go, there is an option to slip into some sort of hole and travel through it to another room. There is also floor after floor of museum: We saw everything from taxidermy exhibits to an antique doorknob gallery; a room with walls made from the aluminum salad bins you see at restaurant buffets to a half-basketball-court-sized foam pit; a ballroom with a grand piano to a room with human-sized hamster wheels. There’s even a circus school on one of the higher floors, and whole floor with an aquarium housing everything from sloths and sugar babies to adult nurse sharks and sea turtles; an alligator and stingrays to a two-headed python and full-grown river catfish.
Plus there are about 4 restaurants throughout this place, and there’s a full bar on rooftop.
Did I also mention there’s a full-sized circus arena up there, too?
10-story industrial slide!
I could go on.
It was by far one of the most bizarre, far-out places I’ve seen in St. Louis, and it sits right in the middle of downtown.
I would suggest you visit, if you haven’t yet.
Plus it’s open on Saturdays until .
What we thought would be a 1-2 hour visit quickly morphed into almost 5 hours, and we still didn’t see it all. If you ever come and visit us, we’ll be taking you there J. It was a long day, but definitely worth it. We even managed to make it back home via metro without me leaving anything behind.
