This was by far the most leisurely vacation we've taken. Wes and I always struggle a bit with vacations; I want to see & do EVERYTHING so I cram our day full of activities, and Wes, on the other hand, likes to relax and take a more laid back approach to our trip. He is also more practical when it comes to timing. (I know we can't possibly do a million activities but just stubbornly refuse to accept it 😞) We didn't make it to a couple of things I originally planned for us to do, so we had time to meander around town and I actually really enjoyed the slower pace... maybe Wes is onto something after all.
We had a late start to out of Bentonville to St. Louis (we slept in, had a late breakfast and then ended up chatting with the hotel clerk for ages) so wouldn't make it to the city until mid to late-evening. Instead of trying to rush, we spent the day at our half-way point -- Springfield, Missouri. The plan was to stop in for gas, our bathroom break and a quick snack. I also needed to get that tokidoki Unicorno figurine!! I was looking up where the Barnes & Noble is (I got my Unicorno -- the Sagittarius one♐) and there just happened to be a fabric store nearby. 😊 We went to FM Stores. It is a gigantic store with all sorts of fabric. There was a quilting cotton section (not my preference for designs, but I did enjoy all the dog prints. I got a border collie one to use for Athena's next dog bed), a tiny garment fabric section, and the rest was upholstery & utility fabric. I wanted to get some fabric for me & Andrea's matching outfits but didn't find anything that would suit both of our tastes. I was a little disappointed (mostly because it was so cheap... if there was fabric I liked, we'd be in trouble LOL) but still glad we got to go fabric shopping. We also stopped in the Battlefield mall and I got a puzzle titled "100 Pooping Pups," it is a picture of exactly that and I laughed and laughed when I saw it. Can't wait to make that to display on our wall! 😆
Dunaway Books in the South Grand district. The bookstore smelled so good, ahhh... old book scent!!
I originally planned for us to visit the Missouri Botanical Garden but it was another hot 🌞day when we arrived, so we explored the South Grand and Central West End districts instead. We still ended up walking around quite a bit outside but we got to take breaks in the stores with air conditioning. We stopped in Garden District STL (an adorable gift shop in South Grand). The owner was genuinely nice and not just trying to convince me to buy things, though I still ended up buying a lot. LOL She brings her dog, Oolong, to the store with her so that was an added perk. At first, he was a little shy but after some chin & ear scratches he became my best friend. 🐕 We stopped in Dunaway Books next and they had a shop dog, too! 😍🐶 Their dog was a friendly puppy who followed us around and then brought me a toy. We also went to Wolfgang's Pet Stop, which was the only store we visited that day without dog. Ironic. It sadly didn't have a lot of treats or toys to choose from either.
We visited the World Chess Hall of Fame. I don't play chess but Wes does. I was mostly excited to see the World's Largest Chess Piece. ♜ I wasn't sure what to expect but I at least thought I'd see some historical chess boards/pieces and portraits of champions. Nope, that is part of the permanent collection which is also reserved for private viewing. Instead there were two other temporary exhibits on display for the public.
The first floor was an entire timeline of T.S. Elliot's life as it relates to the game of chess. I haven't read much of his work (just what was assigned in high school literature and who remembers that?😅) so I knew nothing about him. Apparently, he is a famous St. Louisan and he wrote his poem, The Waste Land, as a chess metaphor mirroring what was going on in his personal life and society in general. Pretty interesting exhibit!
The silver costumes were worn by Katy Perry's dancers during her Super Bowl halftime show. Her dancers are so TINY! I thought they'd be taller and more muscular but those outfits are like a size 000.
I was much less impressed with their other exhibit. It was supposed to be a showcase of how chess features in music. It seemed like they found every picture of a musician playing chess and album cover with a chess piece on it, then printed it out and hung it on the walls. It felt lazy and uninspired, or maybe it was just because I came from the T.S. Elliot exhibit, which I thoroughly enjoyed so was underwhelmed by what I saw next. I did like the chess-inspired costume pieces though.
Our last stop while at the Central West End was the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis. I haven't been a practicing Catholic in over 20 years but I still love going into old churches. The architecture is amazing and I still get emotional looking at all the art inside. ⛪The basilica is literally made of mosaics. There were tons of them, and even a mosaic museum in the basement. We didn't visit the museum but I spent a lot of time looking at each and every piece. I really appreciate and am in awe of all the time and effort spent assembling a mosaic. We had gotten Starbucks before entering so Wes had to stand in the vestibule and hold our drinks while I spent probably way too much time inside. I told him that if this was my regular church, I would never pay attention during mass because I would be too engrossed in the art the entire time. 😂
It was neat that they had a coffee truck parked out front for those of us who didn't want overpriced Budlight.
I personally did not enjoy the concert at all. My favorite "band" was the opening act. It was a heavy metal guitarist named Jason Richardson. I assume he is a part of a band but it was only him on stage playing guitar over his band's songs. It was like karaoke but for guitar. Nevertheless, he is super talented. 🎸 He had to stop his set a few times because people were getting too rowdy in the mosh pit and I think at one point someone fell down. It's nice that artists watch out for fans nowadays... completely different from my college concert-going days.
Babymetal
Babymetal was weird. I need to preface this by saying 1. Wes loves them and said they put on an excellent show. He is the main authority on heavy metal so I trust that this was a good concert but I just didn't like it, 2. I don't know anything about J-pop or their artists' performance styles, 3. their backing musicians were absolutely amazing... I just wasn't sure about the 3 gals in the band. So it went like this... their musicians start playing their songs and then three harajuku girls pop out onto stage and start dancing. Only one sings and she has a very high pitched cartoony voice. The entire performance is put on and feels very fake; even when they wave to the audience, you can tell they were told to stand exactly on this mark and wave twice to the right and twice more to the left. Wes says that's how they're trained in "idol school" and they aren't allowed to add personality to their performance. Very strange.
Dethklok
The next band, Dethklok, was terrible. Another band I have never heard of so Wes had to give me the rundown. The lead singer developed a cartoon on Adult Swim about a fictional band named Dethklok. It did every well so he made the band into a real thing and now they put on live shows. Their entire set was songs from the cartoons with accompany snippets from the show. It all went over my head. I am a prude who doesn't get the humor on most adult cartoons (I never liked Daria or Aqua Teen Hunger Force), and am generally not a "fun" person so I am 100% the opposite of their target audience, but I think Wes does fit into their demographic and even he wasn't super into it. I think it enjoyed it but wouldn't go again (and he was there to see Babymetal; any other band would be less than). I found it to be weird, vulgar and noisy ... not loud, but NOISY.
So the concert was a huge bust for me but we had one more day of vacation and I was going to get candy!! 🍬We drove by the Uranus fudge factory on the way back from Audrey's wedding in 2021. I wanted to stop in but we missed the exit. On this trip, I made sure to add St. Robert, MO on the itinerary. Uranus is the perfect definition of a roadside attraction/tourist trap. It looks amazing from the highway but when you pull into the parking lot, it isn't as great as it initially looked. There are a couple of things to do --a sideshow museum, ice creamery, World's Largest Belt Buckle, which actually is cool-- but the highlight is the general store (where all the fudge is). It's basically a giant gift shop. We walked around and did some shopping. I got Butterfinger fudge, and it was good but not the best, and taffy. The taffy was the best part for me. They had a section of the store dedicated to all different flavors of taffy, from traditional flavors to super weird ones. I got a variety but leaned toward the more interesting flavors. It is a fun store that relied heavily on the butt & poop jokes; I got a good laugh out of it. I think Wes found it juvenile. 💩
The World's Largest Belt Buckle, recognized by Guinness World Records
I also got a pressed penny! I've never collected them but one of my pen pals does. I was on the look out for a pressed penny machine at each one of our stops. Uranus was a nice break on the drive back to Oklahoma and I ate taffy the rest of the drive home. So there's our big trip for the year! We didn't get to travel as much as we wanted this year for various reasons, but I'm glad we still got to get away for a few days. We have one more trip planned for my birthday so I'm looking forward to heading out again!
I loved Fashion Plates when I was younger and almost bought some but didn't.
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