"It's Going to Be A Scorcher at the Gym Today"

"Gym? We're not going to the gym today Keith, we're going to the zoo!" Funny quotes like the one above and many others ("Pire Tressure" ~Keith, "They didn't have any elevator ethic."~Kevin) were said throughout the trip.  There were so many funny things that we had to start writing them down!

If yesterday was the day of beer, then today is the day of food!

We began our delicious day at the St. Louis Bread Co.

                

Everything about the St. Louis Bread Co. was exactly like Panera Bread.

We all wondered why it wasn't called Panera here in St. Louis so I decided to Google it.

(Gotta love Google!) It says:

The Panera Bread® legacy began in 1981 as Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. Founded by Louis Kane and Ron Shaich, the company prospered along the east coast of the United States and internationally throughout the 1980s and 1990s and became the dominant operator within the bakery-cafe category.

In 1993, Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. purchased Saint Louis Bread Company®, a chain of 20 bakery-cafes located in the St. Louis area.

The company then managed a comprehensive re-staging of Saint Louis Bread Co. Between 1993 and 1997 average unit volumes increased by 75%. Ultimately the concept's name was changed to Panera Bread.

After a yummy Cinnamon Crunch bagel, we headed to the zoo!

I did not know this before our trip, but the St. Louis Zoo (and many other attractions as well)

are free of charge!

 

 

Ever since seeing the baby Giraffe at the Cincinnati Zoo, I have had a giraffe addiction!

(Can you tell by our blog layout?!)

Savannah and I were so excited to get a picture with the giraffe!

He wouldn't hold still for our picture, though, 

so we literally stalked the giraffe until we got a perfect shot!

 

After a HOT day at the zoo, it was time to cool down with some

 Ted Drewes' Frozen Custard.

Before we left for St. Louis, a co-worker of Keith's recommended that we stop here for some "Concretes." (Think blizzard at Dairy Queen)

As you can see, the Concretes did not disappoint!

 

 

As if the concretes weren't enough, we drove just about a mile down the rode to 

Gooey Louie's Butter Cakes.

These butter cakes were voted #1 St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake.

 

When we walked in, the store was almost all out of cakes!  Apparently U2 had heard of this amazing creation in St. Louis and almost bought out the entire store! Luckily there were a few of the original Ooey Gooey cakes left. Perfect!

Since we were so full from our excellent frozen custard delights at Ted Drewes',

we did not have room in our stomachs to eat this delectable dessert.

We took it to go and decided we would eat it after dinner.

You would think the last thing we would want to do after eating all of this food is get into bathing suits right? Well, it was so hot we could not pass up a swim at our rooftop pool!

After the pool, we cleaned up and headed out on the town.

Destination: Dinner!

The city was packed tonight, and after a few "It will be an hour wait"

we settled on 12th street Diner.

It was quite an experience here!

There was beer on the menu!!!

The boys were so excited, until they ordered and the waiter said, 

"Huh? We don't sell beer here."

Why was it on the menu?

Anywhoooo, after all was said and done, the food was very tasty!

 

After dinner, we could not wait to get back to our Ooey Gooey cake!

It was Savannah's first time trying a Butter Cake...

 

What did she think?

She liked it!!

Next, the boys....

 

Thumbs up all around! It was a fabulous cake, but I still think my mother-in-law,

Lisa Messer, has an Ooey Gooey Butter cake that can top this St. Louis version!

For our last night, we had to end the trip the way it began, out on our hotel patio!

The first one to sleep tonight was.....

Savannah! 

Man, this girl can sleep anywhere!

Congrats to Kev and I for holding out and not being the first person to go to sleep any of the nights!

Beer Me!

Bellies full and a little thirsty, this awesome foursome headed to our most anticipated event: 

Beer School at the Anheuser Busch Brewery! 

As we waited for class to begin, we explored the main floor of the building.

That's where I found this delicious drink:

The drink on the left is called Dragon Fruit Peach.  

Luckily I bought one while I was there because I haven't been able to find it since!

After perusing the main floor, it was time for class to begin!

The classroom was set up for about 40 people, but we ended up being the only ones in the class!

While in class, we tasted hops and malted barley, and sampled 4 beers.

Since no one else was in the class, when it was over, 

we were able to drink all of the beers that we sampled that day.

We quickly became friends with our teacher, Scott!

(I think we were his favorite students! ;)   )

After Beer School, we toured the brewery. 

I was excited to hear that our first stop was at the Clydesdales' stalls.

Inside the barn

Our next stop on the tour is what I like to call the "Cold" room!

Technically, it's called the aging facility.

All of the workers were friendly and knowledgeable.

As you can see, they are talented too!

Our tour guide was a college gymnast.

There used to be a school on the Anheuser Busch Brewery site.  

However, they stopped using this building as a school because 

administrators felt it was inappropriate for students to be playing at recess on a brewery site!

One last picture before leaving. We didn't want to go!

Later on that evening, we had dinner outside of this historical sports bar.

We definitely saw some interesting characters pass us by!

The quote at the bottom of the menu is funny! 

After dinner we went on a little pub crawl!

Here are Keith and I at Big Daddy's!

Savannah and Kevin at Big Daddy's

After our pub crawl, we walked past the arch back to our hotel.

Now, you may be wondering? 

Who fell asleep first tonight?

Any guesses?

Well....

Surprisingly tonight it was Keith--

and he fell asleep in Kevin and Savannah's bed!haha

We started taking bets on who it would be the next night--

Kevin or me?

Meet Me In St. Louis, Day 2 Part 1

Even though our stay in St. Louis was not very long, we took advantage of every second!  

So much so, that I had to break day 2 into two parts!

Our first item on the agenda was heading to the Gateway Arch. 

It was such a beautiful day to take a walk through the park that was home to the Arch. 

 

(Notice the one base of the Arch behind the boys...the Arch was massive!)

This picture of Keith and I under the arch is one of my favorite pictures from the trip! 

Thanks to Savannah for her great photography skills!

Inside the Arch, we climbed into a small elevator car that would take us to the top.  

Suck it in everyone--it's a tight squeeze in there!

I have to say, even though we were cramped, it was better than walking the 1076 stairs to the top like visitors had to do in the past before the elevator was installed!

After a quick 4 minute ride, we were at the top!

You can see the old courthouse in this picture....

...and Busch Stadium in this picture! 

 Notice something in the middle of the baseball field?

That's U2 setting up for their concert on Sunday!

This is a picture of our hotel with the rooftop pool.

Say cheese Keithers!

After about an hour at the Arch, our tummies were rumbling.

Nothing like Friday's on a Friday, right?!

Good thing we had a big lunch because  

 our next activity of the day called for a full stomach.... :)

(Stay tuned....)

Meet Me In St. Louis, Day 1

Earlier in the year, Keith and I were so excited to start planning our next tropical vacation. We knew immediately the place we wanted to go--Antigua!! The thoughts of another Sandals resort with warm weather, all you can eat and drink, and the sounds of the ocean quickly filled our brains.  All of these ideas quickly went out the window, though, when we decided in May to put an offer on our first house.  We decided that Antigua would have to wait and a few weekend trips would be our best route.  


Around the same time that the thoughts of Antigua were fleeting out the window, our very dear friends, Kevin and Savannah Richardson, invited us on a fun road trip to St. Louis, Missouri for a long weekend trip.  So the weekend of July 14-17th we packed our bags and headed out West!


Our first stop was at the Richardson's home in Mt. Washington, Kentucky.  Here is Keith, Tif, and Savannah about to hop into the Soul.  Weeeeeeeeeee!

Our next stop was to pick up Kevin from work.  He quickly hopped in the car and we were on our way!

Along our journey we were starting to get a little hungry.  We all decided that Subway sounded delicious and couldn't wait to choose our favorite Subway sandwich.  Unfortunately when we pulled up, this is what we saw.

Apparently the Subway had some fire damage so needless to say, we would not be eating dinner here.

The next closest stop--Dairy Queen!   

I would have much rather had ice cream for dinner (yum!) but chose the "Trukey" sandwich instead. ;)

After our delicious meals, we were back in the Soul and ready to roll! St. Louis or Bust!

When we arrived at the Crowne Plaza St. Louis, we immediately checked out the view from our room.  Not too shabby, eh?

The "Gateway to the West" right outside of our window! Beautiful!

We decided to explore the hotel and headed to the rooftop pool.  Check out the view!

Of course we had to pose for some pics! 

Keith & Tif

Kev & Savannah 

Grand Little & Grand Big 

Our last stop for the evening was the hotel bar & patio.  Here we enjoyed a delicious one of these:

I had to take a picture of the anchor! +)

The first one to sleep that night was Savannah.  Who will it be tomorrow night?