Hello, St. Louie!

  My office worked hard to win a few St. Louis Cardinals tickets.  And win them we did!  So we packed up our bags and headed to St. Louis for the weekend.  The drive isn't too bad.  Only 5.5-6 hours, depending on your driving habits.  If we'd had more time, we would have stopped at all of the antique places along the way.  The closer we got to St. Louis, the more there seemed to be.  As it was, we only had time to stop at one place.  Naturally we chose the candy factory.  They had baskets and baskets of just about any flavor of taffy you could imagine.  I was excited about the candy corn taffy! (And initially about the red velvet taffy, but that ended up being way too sweet.) Now, I love candy corn in just about any form that it comes; original candy corn, candy corn pumpkins, candy corn m&m's, candy corn Oreos (thought they were sadly short lived,) candy corn taffy, and candy corn kisses (though those were short lived as well. They were replaced the next year by pumpkin pie kisses which were just as divine!...just not candy corn kisses though.)  I hope to try making a candy corn cheesecake this year.

We also stopped at the World's largest gift shop, which was right behind the candy factory.  I had to take a picture in the model outhouse they had.

We got to go into the bottom part of the arch, but not up to the top.  Unfortunately, if you don't get there early enough then all of the early tram rides up sell out.  A tram goes up about every 15 minutes I believe.  But we did get to enjoy wandering around the Westward Expansion Museum.  It was neat getting to see the development of civilization.

    Saturday night we ate at Schlafly's Tap Room. (Pronounced Shla-flees.)  The food was a-ma-zing!  I didn't taste a single bad thing while there.  For appetizers, we had pretzel sticks and little pieces of bread dipped in a delicious goat cheese sauce.  Both were hard  to get enough of.  With dinner, I had the best Pumpkin Ale I have ever tasted.  It smelled like pumpkin pie and had all of the hints of pumpkin, nutmeg and cinnamon all blended together for a smooth drink that embodies the tastes of Fall.  I had to buy a 6 pack to bring home because they sadly don't distribute in Oklahoma.  For dinner, I had beer steamed mussels with a cheesy sauce and bacon pieces.  They were delicious!!  There were so many of them though that I couldn't quite finish them.  Hubby had a bacon wrapped meatloaf muffin with an egg, between an English muffin.  It had the most exquisite taste.  I am going to try and recreate it at home sometime.  Like I said, none of us tasted a single thing that we didn't like.  The atmosphere was great, the service excellent.  I would definitely recommend this place to anyone that visit St. Louis.  It's at 2100 Locust St.

  We got to see the Cardinals vs the Chicago Cubs.  It was a neck and neck game.  But of course, since we were in St. Louis to see the Cards play, they won!  The company was great, the food spectacular, the experience wonderful.  It was a very good trip.  I got to spend time with my coworker and boss outside of the office setting.  It's always nice to spend time with people that you care about and a bonus that you get to work with them!   It was a very good trip and helped quench my travel fever, if only for a while.