Emily visits St Louis

Whenever Emily is around, it is a good time!  She was out in Washington State for work this past week, so on our flight back home to D.C., she decided to swing in to see us. I picked her up after work on Friday, and we stopped into Sub-Zero while we waited for Terry to get off work and drive over to the city to meet us.  We went for dinner at Mama Campisi's in The Hill.  I bought a groupon that was soon to expire so we went to try it out. It was average at best.  Not awful, but not mind-blowing like some of the other Italian restaurants in The Hill. After dinner, we stopped off at O'Connells since we always drive by it when we leave the Hill but have never been in.  It was nothing to write about.  We hung out for 15 minutes and then went home. 

We got back to the house and Emily surprised me with a birthday present; wine that she bought in Walla Walla Washington (notice the 3 people next to the house on the picture that Em drew in...ha) as well as the next book I will be reading. 

We slept in Saturday morning (YES!!!) and had a lazy start to the day.  We ran a few errands for house supplies and then went into downtown. I stopped at the Cathedral Basilica as I think it's a must-see for someone visiting. We tried going through the Budweiser Brewery Tour, but it was mobbed and there was over an hour wait for the next tour, so instead we opted to drive up to the City Museum downtown.  I am only going to post a few pictures because my next post will be about it, but this place is AMAZING.  It will be a place I want to take every person who comes to visit St Louis.  This is no ordinary museum; it's an adult playground, an artists mind exploded into action, an 11-story building of impossible things being proven possible.  

There's a ferris wheel on the 11-story rooftop....as well as a school bus that hangs off the edge and a 25 foot tall preying mantis.  

The outdoors is called Monstro-city, but it is basically a web of metal loops and wires and tubes connecting you to suspended aircrafts and dragon slides and birds nests.

 Just wait for the next post.  Visual overload......in person and in pictures.  We were there for just under 4 hours and we still didn't see 2 floors.  We headed back home for Saturday Steak Night.  Catherine and Earl came over and we had the usual laughs and fun with an added twist of political banter later into the evening. 

Scalloped Potatoes, Creamed Spinach, and a chunk of meat I ate a quarter of.  We also opened up one of our bottles of wine from our trip earlier this month.  We had a Raymond Cab Sauv and it was jammy and delicious.

Sunday, we woke up around 9:30 to go for massages.  We were both in a state of bliss through the afternoon.  Went back home, ate some leftovers, napped, and then headed off to the airport to non-supportively send her back to D.C. :-)  It was a great trip as usual.  I've definitely lucked out with such a great friend!