Wes and Erica's vacation photo album // St. Louis, MO // September 2023

The reason we went to St. Louis in the first place - to see Babymetal in concert

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. 

So glad we stopped in this little gift shop! (Garden District STL)

The World's Largest Chess Piece, recognized by Guinness World Records, and another large (and maybe more impressive) piece in the gift shop made from tons of regular sized pieces.

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.

The wings on the Angel of Harmony statue have wind chimes! I wish it was a breezier day so we could hear them.

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. 😂

And finally the reason for our trip to St. Louis. Wes heard that Babymetal would be on tour this summer so I looked up dates to see if they'd be coming near Oklahoma. I don't listen to metal and have never even heard of the band, Babymetal, but am always a willing participant to any concert. 🎤The concert was at the St. Louis Music Park. The venue is an outdoor ice skating rink but if you tell anyone that you're going to see a concert at the ice skating rink, they'll look at you crazy. This happened several times on our trip.😂 Anyway, the Music Park is great!! They had the cleanest bathrooms I have ever been in. (Not just clean for an outdoor venue, but clean in general) The seating chart was good and we had a very nice view of the stage. My only complaint is that the chairs didn't fold up so it was difficult to move when someone needed to get in/out of the aisle. Oh, that and the food was bad - my nachos were super stale. 

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.

Wes and Erica's vacation photo album // St. Louis, MO (food) // September 2023

 

Proof that we did more than just eat on this trip. LOL

Its been a good long while since we took a vacation. We drove to St. Louis, MO (with stops in Bentonville, Springfield, and Tulsa) for a concert in late September. 🚗We did plenty of fun sightseeing, but first ... food. 😋 Sadly, we didn't get to eat at as many restaurants as I had originally planned. I didn't do proper Google research; one of the restaurants I wanted to try closed early (Nathaniel Reid Bakery) and another one was closed the day we were in town (Basil India). Despite that, we still got to try lots of new delicious foods.

Andrea told me about the Crystal Bridges Art Museum in Bentonville, AR and when I mapped it, it ended up being a really good half-way point. We stopped in on our first day and had lunch at the museum's restaurant, Eleven. The fries were soooo salty but in a good way (Wes said they were too salty but I thought they were perfect!) 🍟He got a smash burger and I got the "Bentonville" hot chicken sandwich, their take on Nashville hot chicken. It wasn't very spicy but still spicy. The two extremely nice & friendly employees behind the counter compared it to the spiciness level of Taco Bell's hot sauce. I tried a trendy new shrub soda, and it was not for me -- too earthy/healthy tasting. I got the pineapple shrub and it tasted mostly of shrub (vinegar & ginger) and barely of pineapple. 

We went to Tavola Trottoria for dinner. It was one of the highest ranked restaurants in town but I think their 4.8 stars were for atmosphere and decor rather than the food. The food wasn't bad but I don't think I would go again. I got the eggplant & goat cheese lasagna and Wes got a chicken dish -- don't remember what exactly. The best thing we got was our appetizer. We got bruschetta layered with brie and a pesto fig compote spread. Our waiter was super nice & attentive, and the restaurant was very fancy so I guess it was worth the trip.

The next morning, we went to Crepes Paulette for breakfast. There was construction on the surrounding streets so we parked somewhat close and walked. I thought it would be okay to walk a few blocks on a September morning... nope. It was almost 90℉ by 11am. 😫 The restaurant was right next to a coffee place so I politely asked the owner if we could get coffee from next door and bring it in to have with our breakfast. (Wes gets so embarrassed when I ask questions but the owner, Paulette I'm guessing, was super chill about it.) My crepes are ranked a close second for best meal I had on this trip. I got a pumpkin pie crepe, which was good, but my second crepe was AMAZING. It was their Elvis crepe, which had bacon & bananas, slathered with peanut butter and covered in maple syrup. 😋 Wes got a strawberries & crème fresh one.

I wanted a Lumberjack latte (white chocolate and maple spice) but they were out of one of the syrups - I can't remember which one, so I told the barista to just sub it with whatever she thought would taste most comparable. She did a good job but I don't think I liked it as much as I would have liked it with what it was supposed to be made with. Wes got his usual cold brew with oat milk.

We had lunch on the road (I had a bag of taco pizza flavored chips from Casey's gas station) and made it to St. Louis for dinner. We went to The Vine Café. My dinner was my favorite meal of the entire trip. This was the first time I ever tried Lebanese food. And now I want to eat it a million times more! LOL I wanted the cilantro chicken but they were out (we got there around 8pm so it wasn't too late but a lot of places close early in St. Louis), so I got a Mediterranean kafta instead. It was like a mix of Indian and Mediterranean food, not spicy like Indian but a similar blend of spices. Wes got the lamb kebob. Our dinners came with soup and the soup of the day was lentil curry. It was the best lentil soup ever! The portions were gigantic; we had enough for dinner the next night. 

We went to MoKaBe's Coffee House for breakfast the next morning. Another place with cute vibes but not so great food. 😕 (and also less cute than Tavola)  I thought we were both ready to order so I went up to the counter, turns out Wes hadn't fully looked at the menu and had no idea what he wanted. He hastily ordered a breakfast burrito and said it was bad. His chief complaint being that the salsa and guacamole in the burrito tasted store-bought. I got a ham breakfast sandwich on an everything bagel. It was okay but my bagel was not "everything." It probably had a light sprinkle of seasoning at best, more like an itty bitty dash of it. I must have been underwhelmed with my coffee because I'm looking over pictures and I cannot even remember what I had.

We walked around the Central West End district all day and I stopped in Clementine's Naughty or Nice ice cream parlor for a snack (Wes got a cold brew from Starbucks instead). 🍦I should have taken more pictures because this was the most adorable little place. I wanted a sticker but they only had iron-on patches of the design I liked. There was lots of other merch, too, but I didn't get any. They had "naughty" booze infused flavors and "nice" vegan choices. I stuck with regular ol' non-alcoholic dairy ice cream. There were TONS flavors I would have liked to try, and I'm sure they offer samples, but the girl behind the counter seemed very unhappy to be at work and I didn't want to further ruin her day by asking her to actually do her job. So I just ordered a flavor I knew I would like. I got the "Blue moon", which was a blue raspberry lemonade ice cream in a lavender cone. It was very very good.  

The next morning we had our last meal in St. Louis at the Courtesy Diner. If you imagine an old timey 24-hour diner from any movie or pop culture reference, this place resembles it to a tee. I got the "hangover" and Wes got the standard 2 eggs with choice of meat breakfast meal. I never thought to put sausage gravy over a chicken fried steak but it works! Both of our meals were delicious. And very filling, which was perfect because we didn't stop for lunch on the drive to Tulsa.

We had dinner at Kirin in Tulsa. We were dressed in very casual "I'm going to sit in a car all day wearing this comfy outfit" clothes and this place is meant for patrons who dressed a bit nicer. 😬 Nevertheless, we were seated and our waitress didn't mind. Wes got Singapore noodles and I got sushi. 🍣 This was the first time I've seen colorful roe. I'm sure each color tasted different but I was mostly impressed by how pretty it was. 😅 I don't remember what was in my colorful sushi, but the other roll I ordered was the classic spicy tuna. I liked both my rolls and enjoyed how much pickled ginger came on my plate. 

Wes likes stopping for coffee on road trips and I like stopping at boba cafés. I knew we'd be driving through Tulsa so I looked up boba places and found Bo's Boba. It doesn't sound as funny now as I type it but I had a whale of a laugh when I said it out loud for the first time. Oh, the hilarious alliteration!! 😂 Wes got a fruit tea and I got a raspberry milk tea with crystal boba. The milk tea was genuinely very good, but raspberry was not the correct flavor to add into it. I thought it would taste like strawberry milk... instead it tasted weird and tart. 

And thus concludes another foodie adventure. Next up is pictures from all the touristy sightseeing we did!

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.