LiveLaughLove: St. Louis

Showing posts with label St. Louis. Show all posts

Balloon Glow and Hop in the City

>> Wednesday, September 23, 2009 – Family, Friends, St. Louis

Last weekend was jam packed with fun, family, and friends. On Friday night, we went to the Balloon Glow in Forest Park. I had never been before and it was a really cool experience. We arrived at about 7:15 and most of the balloon were up and glowing.There were so many people and beautiful balloons. We were joined by my parents and my sister and her boyfriend, Kyle.When the sun went down, the balloons really started to glow. Every few minutes, someone would blow a bullhorn and the all of the balloon would fire up and glow. The whole area would light up and you could feel the heat on your skin. It was an awesome sight!Mike loved taking pictures of the fire up close.(You can check out more pictures on Mike's blog.)
At about 8:30, we started the trek back to our car. Then, we sat. In traffic. Not even traffic. In a parking lot. For 1 hour and 30 minutes. I was NOT a fan. We did see the fireworks from the lot but we weren't too happy. Final verdict: Although I loved the balloon glow and thought it was a great experience. However, I won't be going back for a long time. It was one of those "see it once, and don't need to see it again" kind of things for me. I am sure I will bring my future kiddos there someday but obviously, that won't be anytime soon.

Saturday was the day of the Hop. We weren't able to go to this amazing event last year but we did attend in 2007 and 2006. There's not too much to say about the Hop. You get a little cup and are able to taste 40 different Schlafly beers. It all starts off just great and turns into a pretty hot mess quickly. We even ran into Jenn and Mary. Great seeing you girls! Ok...time for the pictures...Final Verdict: I will attend this event every year that I can. SO. MUCH. FUN.

I love St. Louis!

>> Monday, September 7, 2009 – St. Louis

I really love this city. After high school, so many people wanted to get away and live in big cities like New York and Chicago. I have felt perfectly content in this city and I am now finally becoming a part of all of the wonderful events around town.

For the first time this year, we participated in the Downtown Restaurant Week. It was a great way to try different restaurants in St. Louis for a reasonable price. We went to Mike Shannons this year and I would like to try something different next year.

Today, we went down to Mike's church for the annual Greekfest. It was our 3rd time going to the Fest together (we had to skip last year's because it was the weekend of our wedding). I think this will become a tradition for years to come.

This month, I am looking forward to going to my first Balloon Glow. I found these pictures online and can't wait to take some of my own in a couple of weeks. It will be a busy weekend because the next day, we will be doing our best to try all of Schlafly's 40 beers at Hop in the City. This will be our 3rd time attending this event as well and let me tell you...this is a blast! I can't wait to drink the Hard Cider. My favorite!!!

I think next weekend, we will do the 10 mile bike ride for Kirkwood's Green Tree Festival. I haven't signed up...I need to do that now.

There are so many fun things that go on in this wonderful city and I want to participate in more of them. What are your "must do" St. Louis activities or events?

I love the Zoo!

>> Tuesday, June 30, 2009 – St. Louis

I have to say, the St. Louis Zoo is so awesome! I haven't been to another city's zoo but I know that the one in St. Louis is one of the best in the country. My sister and friend, Kate, work at the zoo and my mom and I went to visit them last week. Having friends (and family) in high places is awesome. We got VIP treatment all day!

We started off by petting the stingrays at Caribbean Cove. I was a little freaked out but they really are cute! They actually like when people pet them! You put shrimp between your fingers and they come by and suck it up. It was such a cool experience...I loved it!Next, Kate came to pick us up in the golfcart so we could go see the baby tigers in Big Cat Country.I got so excited that I could zoo my little camera and get such a close picture of the "babies" (I think they are almost a year old now)...Then, we got to pass the "employee's only" chain and I got to take a picture even closer...I was so psyched that we were so close...and then the coolest thing happened. We ran into the curator of carnivores and he allowed us to go under Big Cat Country and into the place where they have the cats' cages. Check out these pictures...no zoom needed!!!

These are pictures of the mama...she was beautiful and HUGE! It was so hot and she wanted to stay in the shade.
Next, we walked inside the facility and to a tunnel where we could see the babies from the other side. So cute!!!I was kicking myself that I didn't bring our good camera. Seriously, this was the coolest experience...I was so excited! Thanks Kate and Ali for the VIP tour!

Crazy weekend (Part Two)

>> Tuesday, June 23, 2009 – Friends, St. Louis

The morning after Zoofari, we woke up to prep for Day 2 of our crazy weekend. This is our second year doing the Pub Crawl for Cancer and I really didn't think we could have had more fun. We started off at Joey B's on the Landing and "crawled" around the area for the next few hours. Here is the deal with the pub crawl. You form a team with 10-12 people (it is $400/per team to register) and you drink 4 pitchers of beer at each bar. You visit 5 bars throughout the afternoon and the bars donate the beer towards the cause. What a fun way to raise money for cancer, right? Bina was our team captain this year and she did a great job (she even bought us themed costumes)!

Here we go.....
Nice and sober at Bar 1 Dancing at Bar 3...Playing games at Bar 4...Getting crazy at Bar 5...Becoming ninjas after Bar 5...(yes, that is Mike in the middle)And then the pictures end. I am so glad that we could do our part to help cure cancer. Seriously though, this is such a fun event with thousands of participants and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Crazy weekend (Part One)

>> – Family, St. Louis

I think I am still recovering from one of the most fun weekends we have had in a while!

My sister works at the Zoo and invited us to Zoofari, which is one of the Zoo's biggest events of the year. The theme is "creative black tie" but unfortunately, we didn't get too creative! Mike was out of town all last week and he flew into St. Louis and drove straight to meet us at the Zoo.

Zoofari was amazing! There were 60 restaurants that had booths all around the paths and were sampling their best dishes. Think of a restaurant, it was there! There were also bars with every alcohol that you can imagine.
Reunited with my hubby...see the bears behind us?

The boys (Mike and Ali's boyfriend, Kyle) enjoyed some interesting things...oysters....and pulled pork (literally pulled off of the pig...uch...).

Group picture...(This is where the heat became unbearable. It was probably 8:00 and 90 degrees.)The Commodores were playing on the main stage and we were dancing the night away.And then the rain rolled in...It was awesome! So much fun just running through the rain. We were soaked!Such a blast! Thanks Ali for inviting us. Hopefully we can go to Zoofari again in the future.