Wes & Erica's vacation photo album - Carrollton, TX - December 2021

The last time we were in Dallas (probably 2018 or 2019), I discovered that there was a 99 Ranch - my favorite Asian grocery store, and Wes discovered there was a Kinokuniya - his favorite Japanese bookstore, in the city of Carrollton. They are both in a shopping center with lots of cute shops and tons of restaurants. We decided that the next time we travel to Texas, we'd spend a weekend in Carrollton to eat and shop. We were going to do this for Lunar New Year 2020 but had to postpone due to COVID. Then we were going to in August, but Zephyr got super sick the day before we were supposed to drive out. So, FINALLY, we went for my birthday. This was over a month ago but I'm just now finding time to journal. 

You can't drive by a Buc-ee's and not stop in, so the one in Denton was our first stop. We got there around lunchtime on a Saturday and it was packed. We bought snacks, souvenirs, and lunch... all the things you need to buy when visiting a Buc-ee's. LOL I got a hotdog with dill relish and some potato salad for lunch and Wes got a Lunchable-type thing with cubes of cheese, salami, grapes and almonds. We ate it all before I could take a picture. 

Our next meal was dinner. 🍣 One of Wes's friends from work suggested that we go to Blue Sushi. It is his favorite sushi place and gave Wes a stellar review. I was so pumped to try this place... and it was not as good as I had hoped for 😔 Wes said his friend probably likes this place for its vegan options. I think he likes this place because it's a hip restaurant to impress his girlfriend. LOL I'm almost certain that the patrons dine at Blue for its ambiance and not its sushi. I would compare it to Sushi Neko in OKC. The coolest part was the front room & bar that was Godzilla themed. 🐉 It had murals of scenes from the old movies. We weren't trendy enough to be seated near the front; the hostess sat us in a different dining room that wasn't themed.  

The best part of our meal was the shishito peppers we got for our appetizer. One of my rolls had cilantro in it and the other was rolled in tempura beet flakes -- the two best parts of my dinner. Wes said he liked his sushi alright but there wasn't anything special about it. I was kind of bummed after dinner, so I wanted dessert to compensate. There weren't many places that were both nearby and still open so instead of dessert, we decided on coffee. I am so glad we did because Civil Pour was so good. ☕ I got a caramel apple latte that tasted exactly like the lollipops. 

The next morning, we headed out to our Asian shopping center excursion. We had breakfast at 85℃ Bakery. We've been here before and loved it so had to go again. Dine-in wasn't available, which was actually better because we got to heat up our pastries at the hotel. They would have still tasted amazing at room temperature, but I prefer them warmed up. The potato croquette I got was SO freakin' yummy!! 😋

We spent a majority of the day wandering around the shops. It was a really good shopping day. 😁😍 I bought a ton of snacks, goodies for my pen pals, and even Wes (who never shops) bought a couple of things! Of course, we had to take a boba break so we got drinks from 7 Leaves. I got the mung bean milk tea. It was delicious, no surprise. It had bits of crushed up mung beans and reminded me of the mung bean cakes I liked when I was a kid. 

Next meal was lunch (We did do things in between meals; in case you were wondering. We went to Rainbow Vomit 🌈 and the Meadows Museum, and they will be chronicled in the next blog post.) Wes really likes Korean food but it's just so-so for me. 😕 I try to find different Korean restaurants each time we travel in hopes of finding a dish that I really like. And it worked... I found my favorite Korean dish on this trip!! We went to BCD Tofu House and all they serve is soon tofu soup. It was the absolute best Korean food I have ever eaten. Wes really liked it, too, but he didn't agree that it was the best he's had (he's had the homecooked stuff and you can't beat that).

Soon tofu is soft tofu. The soup is made with lots of different spices, ginger, onion and scallion. Chunks of tofu are added to the broth and then you get your choice of meat. I got the combination with beef, shrimp and clams. You get to pick your spice level (I'm a wimp and got 1 🌶pepper). The soup is served boiling hot in a clay pot with a side of rice, traditional Korean side dishes--one was a whole fried mackerel 😋--and a raw egg that you crack into the soup. The restaurant had televisions playing informative videos about how to cook the soup, the proper way to eat it and BCD's annual spicy soup eating competition. 

For dinner, we had Pakistani food at BBQ Tonite. 🍛 I was still pretty full from lunch so I don't think I liked the food as much as I would have if we hadn't eaten a ton just a few hours previously. We shared the beef seekh kebab and rice with lamb. Wes really liked the spice blend they used. It was a good meal albeit a bit too spicy for me. 

Our final meal was breakfast the next morning. When we were shopping at the grocery store the day before, I noticed that 99 Ranch had dim sum at their hot deli. And on their dim sum menu was congee, like the legit congee with salted pork and black preserved egg. OM-freakin'-G!!! I am the only person in my family who likes congee so it's never cooked at family dinners, and you can't find it at many restaurants around here. I was ecstatic!!! I wasn't hungry when we went shopping so I didn't get any... when we returned for breakfast the next morning, I made a beeline for the dim sum and asked for congee. The cook said it wasn't done yet and I would need to wait 5 - 10 minutes. Wes got his breakfast (a pastry and some tea) and we wandered around the store a bit, patiently awaiting. As soon as the 10 minutes had passed, I rushed back to the deli and the cook handed me a steaming hot bowl. I triumphantly brought it to our table and devoured it.  I also got some fried stuffed eggplant, which was also delicious.

We stopped in IKEA on our way home. I got a table for my serger and we got a (much needed) new dining room table. We spent three days in Carrollton and ate as much as we could. SO MUCH GOOD FOOD. Our hotel was only a block away from the Asian shopping center so we had every meal (except for sushi) there. I almost wish we had something like that in Oklahoma but then I think it would take the fun out of travelling for good authentic Asian food. And I would probably be broke from shopping --or I would just have the most awesome collection of stickers & washi tape. LOL Anyway, it was the perfect way for me to spend my birthday! 🎂

Wes & Erica's vacation photo album - St. Louis, MO - November 2021

Our last destination of the road trip was the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Since I droned on about that for a full blog post already, I'll just post about food here. 😋 Driving through the Midwest was awful; it was boring, the speed limit ranged from 50 - 70 mph and there were cops everywhere. There were some pretty parts with mountains and tress with their autumn leaves... so not ALL bad but I probably wouldn't make the drive again (I told Wes, let's fly next time, and he wholeheartedly agreed!)

Our first meal was at Imo's Pizza. They serve "St. Louis style" pizza with provel cheese and a crispy thin crust. Provel cheese is a mixture of 3 or 4 white cheeses, I don't remember which but Wes said he tasted Provolone and the Swiss cheese stood out to me. I liked the provel, but not on a pizza. It was really creamy (think Laughing Cow cheese spread) and would have tasted better on a bagel or crackers. I liked the extra thin crust. It was like pizza on a cracker or chip. I got a Cesar salad and it was literally covered in parmesan. I have never seen so much parmesan or croutons on a salad!! 

Before we went to the Gateway Arch, we had dim sum at Wonton King. OMG, this is the meal I've been needing in my life!!! 😋🍴 Wonton King served authentic Hong Kong style dim sum. It was so authentic the restaurant even smelled familiar (incense and perfume) ... it brought back memories of walking into an elderly relative's room or the herbal remedy section of an Asian grocery store. I wanted to order one of everything but we settled on a few of my favorites. The stuffed eggplant was the absolute best. 

For dinner that night, we went to Meskerem. It is an Ethiopian restaurant on South Grand. I need to live on South Grand (or at least visit again with more time)!! It was blocks and blocks of international cuisine. All sorts of Asian restaurants, Mediterranean food, pubs, comfort food, you name it, it was there. That street is my foodie dream come true. Anyway, I've never had Ethiopian food before and I liked it. I got the sampler platter & Wes got the lamb dish and we shared. My favorite dish was the carrot, potato and cabbage. I also liked the beef. Wes liked the cabbage, carrot and potato (minus the carrot) and the lamb dish. The food was served with a huge crêpe-like piece of spongy flat bread. I liked it but maybe would have preferred a different type of bread. The only other tiny thing I didn't completely like was that the food was cooked in a lot of ginger. The restaurant had Ethiopian music videos playing on the big screen tv, so that was neat, too.

Even though I was stuffed from dinner, I was determined to explore more restaurants on South Grand. We decided on dessert and went to Hot Box Cookies. Wes got the oatmeal chocolate chip and I got the monster cookie. A monster cookie is a granola cookie with whole M&Ms, chocolate chips and peanut butter. The pictures don't look too appealing but it was a good cookie. 

Our last meal in St. Louis was breakfast at 2Schae Café. The quaint café is on the bottom floor of an adorably historic apartment building. The entire part of town it was in looked like it was full of history. I got the salmon lox bagel and it was amazing. I'm glad we got good food as our last vacation meal. I couldn't imagine ending our road trip with a yucky loose meat sandwich! The half-way point between St. Louis and home is Springfield, MO and I picked out a Thai restaurant for us to stop at for lunch but neither of us were particularly hungry so we skipped. We did stop in Springfield for gas and I went to The Village Yarnery (a local yarn shop). I desperately wanted to stop in Uranus, MO for their fudge but Wes wasn't in the mood to make another stop and we were making good time on the road so we skipped that, too. The trip home was supposed to take anywhere between 8 to 9 hours but we made record time. Wes said we drove for at least 7 hours but I felt like we were only on the road for 5 or 6 (and I should be right because i was the one driving, right? 😅) So, there it is... another road trip done! We had a lovely time with lots of fun tourist attractions, a beautiful wedding and LOTS and LOTS of good food. I plan to return to St. Louis -- there is so much more for us to see, do and eat -- so I'll eventually get that fudge from Uranus! 

Wes & Erica's vacation photo album - The Gateway Arch - November 2021

The last stop on our road trip was the Gateway Arch and National Park. 🌲 I've never visited but Wes did when he was a child. He says he doesn't remember much so it was sort of like he was seeing it for the first time with me. We bought a day pass for parking downtown and thought there would be enough to do to fill a day but downtown St. Louis wasn't as touristy as I initially thought. Ok... I take that back, there were a ton of "family fun" attractions, and the Cardinals stadium was a big deal, but I don't like baseball or children. LOL 

We did walk around City Garden, which I really enjoyed. It is a large sculpture park in the middle of downtown. It was a little strange because it was all office buildings, parking garages, apartments and then .... gigantic pieces of art. The roads around it were blocked off so visitors could walk freely. There was a coffee shop that we really wanted to go to in the center of City Garden but it was temporarily closed. 😞 We strolled along the garden and saw all of the sculptures except for the 2 LED ones that weren't turned on in the daytime. My favorite was the two white rabbits (named Untitled) and Wes liked the thimble bench (don't remember what it is called).

We wandered around downtown a bit on our way to the Gateway Arch. Nothing too exciting. We wanted to eat at Carmine's Steak House last minute but we were severely underdressed and didn't have reservations. (And I'm not even sure if we were hungry. LOL Wes just said he's read good things about that restaurant and wanted to check it out). I wanted to see the Old Cathedral but there were tons of cars in the parking lot. Normally not a problem but there were also signs posted stating that the parking lot was for church goers only. Since the parking lot was full, I assumed it was time for mass and I didn't want to interrupt. So, we decided that we would come back after our tour of the arch. Turns out all of the cars were driven by sinners because I looked up mass times on the cathedral's website and mass was already celebrated at 7:30am that morning. The cathedral's website also told me that it closed early and we wouldn't be able to see if after our tour. 😔

When we were walking around the park, I chattered on about how this was the first National Park we've visited together. Wes kept giving me a weird look and I literally just now realized that we went to Carlsbad Caverns AND the Grand Canyon (albeit briefly) on our wedding road trip. 😬 Ooops... this is the third National Park we've visited together. I have the worst memory nowadays. This is why I must keep extensive journals/blogs about our vacations! 

The National Park was pretty but not the most interesting (or large). We walked along the Mississippi River--which was cool but I think driving over it on the Illinois bridge was much more breathtaking... but that could have just been the architecture of the bridge--, both the North & South lawns, and everything else that was on the map. It was all beautifully landscaped and it was a nice sunny day for walking around (but too sunny for pictures, Wes said; he's always looking for a way to get out of selfies with me!) We still had time to kill before our tour of the Gateway Arch but we had done and seen everything in the National Park, so we decided to head in early. I bought tickets for us to take a tram ride to the top of the arch on the North Tram at 3:20pm. I thought maybe they could fit us on an earlier tram if we showed up early and no one else had bought tickets. We walked to the screens showing all the rides & times and it showed that the North Tram was closed today. 😳 I asked the ticket counter about it and the guy said that they randomly close one of the trams, which is completely normal, and he'll just put us on the South Tram. Rides for the South Tram go at 3:15pm or 3:25pm and we could just pick whichever one we wanted. He must be used to panicked tourists because he was super causal about it. 

Since we were there early, we chose the 3:15pm ride. When it was our turn in line, the tour guide said there were a bunch of families ahead of us so that time slot filled up already. She would just put us on the 3:25pm one. Then she found out that the 3:25pm ride was booked with a large tour group so we got to go on our own private tram ride... at 3:20pm as originally planned. LOL It was super cool to get to go by ourselves! Our tour guide was really soft-spoken and I couldn't really hear her so I don't have any fun facts about the arch to retell. All I remember is that we sat in a capsule that uses some sort of special geometry to keep it upright as we rode up the arch, and it sways a bit. There were two tour guides at the observation deck and they were pretty shocked when only two people came out of the ride. One of them was like, well, do you have any questions? We said that we just wanted to look at the view and he seemed relieved that he could take a break from repeating his presentation for the one millionth time that day.

The view was amazing. And it was great that we could walk around and take our time without other tourists around. We could see what seemed like all of St. Louis. The Mississippi River on the other side wasn't as spectacular but still pretty. I sort of feel like we wasted a day aimlessly meandering around downtown and the National Park but the arch was definitely worth the trip.