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.
Due to the continuous construction that comes inevitably as part of our office build-out, we were granted two consecutive casual days; we all took full advantage of it and geared up in our jeans and t-shirts for the day. Mine was almost thwarted by an early morning client visit; luckily for me, this particular client happens to be within earshot of my house, so if you think I went home after my client meeting to ditch the business garb, you would be totally correct. Haha. Perfect timing on the casual day, too; I was headed straight from work to the Cards game.
baseball time!
Before I get into this one, let me first clarify that in my heart, I'm still Cincinnati, through and through. That being said, I also believe that if you're gonna live somewhere, be there. I'm leading up to the fact that I was pretty excited to get down to Busch Stadium tonight for what was my first Cardinals game this season.
* I never thought I'd hear myself say that. What can I say, I love baseball games. Period. :)
with dawne! :)
Anyway, what made tonight's game that much cooler was the fact that each seat purchased by a Towerview member was from a fundraiser we'd done a few months back as one of our Relay for Life fundraisers. Originally, it was planned that Joe would be accompanying me to this one, but with him in Atlanta this week, that clearly wasn't going to happen. I contemplated just passing our tickets off to someone, but then I remembered that I do in fact know people outside of our church [because everyone there was already going, hah]. I asked Dawne is she wanted to come along, and long story short, we partnered up and made a night of it. I saw some other familiar faces tonight; I'll tell ya what, this St. Louis place sure is starting to grow on me. Yeah, baseball :)
Dawne and I linked up and took the metrolink with Syd [who ended up overnight back at Dawne's because she is just that awesome] into St. Louis and rendezvoused there with the rest of the Towerviewers to enjoy the night. I definitely had no complaints for my first season run at the park. Speaking of which, Courtney from work was down there somewhere too, we just never found each other. Oh well. Next time.
cori. mo. lara
*Note to self, also. The MetroLink is not a force with which you should reckon if you're not entirely prepared. Haha. That is all I have to say about that. Be careful where you stop, and pay attention to where you load, otherwise you could very well find yourself traversing back and forth on that sucker for hours. I'm just sayin'. :p
Anywho, it has been some sort of night.. baseball and all. I loved every second of it, but I think it's about time I grab some sleep before I try to tackle Friday. TGI[backdatedthursdayentrymadesuperearly]F!
One of my favorite things about Towerview Baptist is their diligence in putting fellowship at the top of their priority list. A church cannot be a church without God as the center foundation, but likewise it is, as an organization, nothing without its people. Up to this point, we've found that the people of Towerview are incredibly dedicated to creating and enjoying fellowship opportunities. From Sunday and Wednesday services, to the weekly small group breaks, to random scheduled outings, we are all about socializing with each other and with the community.
busch stadium | some cute guy walking down the bleachers ;)
Last night, we received a phone call from our pastor about 4 tickets that had just opened up for the Towerview outing to the St. Louis Cardinals game v. the Pittsburgh Pirates for tonight [Friday] at Busch Stadium. Let me note: We are still and probably always will be Cincinnati Reds fans through and through, but baseball is baseball, and it's fun going no matter how you spin it. Hah. Originally, we had thought about it, but then reluctantly decided we had to allocate our funds into the upcoming wedding efforts. So there we were, plopped in our living room meticulously chugging away at wedding business. It was such a kind gesture that they thought of us, and even extended the other two tickets to the new couple that had attended church on Sunday with us [Meagan & Rob]. We figured we would ask them [no harm there!] and see if they'd be obliged.
the greers | the dills
Long story short, they jumped on the opportunity, and, after dropping Sydni off for some play time with Miss Anita, the four of us rendezvoused at the MetroLink station at SIUE and rode our way in to the stadium, tickets in hand. Alex was kind enough to offer us four of his free passes for the ride home, so we were blessed with an amazing evening of baseball in *perfect* weather, friends, fellowship, and easy transportation, all for just about $5/each. Not a bad deal.
Many, many thank you's to our pastor, his wife, and our church! We had a terrific time!!
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.
