I no longer have anything holding me back from leaving Missouri... the bound copies of my thesis were returned to me last week! Check it out:
5.20.2010
5.18.2010
Celebrations
Here's a quick report on how we've celebrated some of holidays and special occasions from the last month!
I bought an egg decorating kit last year that Patrick and I were too lazy to use, so we just saved it for this year! Easter crept up on us since we had been busy with wedding/honeymoon stuff, so we found ourselves scrambling the-day-of to make some plans. Our friends were already busy, so we threw together a last minute meal on our own, which ended up being rather perfect. The fridge had the makings for Shepherd's Pie (how appropriate on a day we honor our Shepherd!), which we served with a delicious red wine & elegant wine glasses from the wedding (credit goes to Mike Kujawa!). It was a lovely first Easter dinner together as a married couple!
Our friend Ben was out of town for his early-April birthday, at a conference in Washington D.C., so we hosted an honorary dinner a week later, with Pat & Jackie in attendance too. We had this beverage display waiting for him to see when he walked in the door, dined on our favorite fondue recipe, played a fun board game called Locale (compliments of Patrick's sister, Jackie), and Ben blew out a birthday candle served with strawberry shortcake.
Our friends were in class on Cinco de Mayo, so Patrick and I celebrated on our own this day too. But, we really enjoyed ourselves and the delightful dinner of loaded vegetarian tacos & margaritas we made! I tried to be festive at work with a bright pink & ruffled skirt too (thanks, Sally!). :)Over the last week & a half, we've been regular social butterflies, with 2 department parties, 2 birthday party dinners, and a graduation lunch & dinner! But we don't have pictures from most of them, so you're out of luck. :) Hope you enjoyed these few in the meantime!
5.03.2010
Honeymoon- Day 4
Fortunately, Holiday Inn Express provides free breakfast! After a pretty tasty plate of biscuits & gravy, sausage, cinnamon rolls, and bagels, we headed to historical downtown St. Charles for some exploring and shopping along the main street.
A park lies along a river behind the main street. It covers a route traveled by Lewis, Clark, and Sacajawea! It was a lovely day for a stroll, and an old (currently unused) train station provided a nice backdrop for a picture.
Farther along our walk in the park, we stumbled across this sculpture of Lewis & Clark. I thought the bird perched on the hat was rather humorous and cute! (zoom in)
The park was part of a rather long route for biking/hiking (the Katy Trail), so we traversed a block back to the main street and ended up at Trailhead Brewery, a small microbrewery/restaurant. We ordered a couple pints to share, from the taps pictured above.
We spotted an open door to the brewing area, so after finishing our drinks, we took a look. The head brewer, Jennifer, invited us to walk past her grain barrels to get a closer perspective. We felt a little odd going down the stairs to an employees-only section unchaperoned, but she quickly caught up with us and gave us an insider's insight! What was particularly interesting was she said she applied for a job with a brewery in Michigan and had an interview the following week. And, Founders was one of her favorite micro-brews, so we had a bit to talk about when we found that out too!
Following the brewery, we visited a spice shop at the recommendation of Jennifer (the brewer), where we bought some sea salt for a new grinder we received from our wedding, and bought an eclair and chocolates from a nearly-next-door bakery. We also bought some treats for Barley (Pat & Jackie's black lab) at a homemade dog treat store (before we visited the brewery), browsed a store with Life is Good merchandise (cool stuff, but too overpriced to buy anything), had an outdoor lunch at the same bistro/cafe we bought dessert from the night before, and as you can see above, stopped at an ice cream parlor for dessert!
Mid-afternoon we stopped back in St. Louis on our way home to pick up Patrick's credit card, and thought about the irony of Courtney arriving only a couple hours later to the airport, on her way to Fort Leonard Wood. We texted a few encouraging messages to her during our drive back, as she sat waiting for connecting flights.
So, it wasn't a fairytale honeymoon, but we were happy for the time away together, and had some good times. Besides, if we're lucky, the not-to-distant future might hold a trip to London for us. But, we'll see.....
A park lies along a river behind the main street. It covers a route traveled by Lewis, Clark, and Sacajawea! It was a lovely day for a stroll, and an old (currently unused) train station provided a nice backdrop for a picture.
Farther along our walk in the park, we stumbled across this sculpture of Lewis & Clark. I thought the bird perched on the hat was rather humorous and cute! (zoom in)
The park was part of a rather long route for biking/hiking (the Katy Trail), so we traversed a block back to the main street and ended up at Trailhead Brewery, a small microbrewery/restaurant. We ordered a couple pints to share, from the taps pictured above.
We spotted an open door to the brewing area, so after finishing our drinks, we took a look. The head brewer, Jennifer, invited us to walk past her grain barrels to get a closer perspective. We felt a little odd going down the stairs to an employees-only section unchaperoned, but she quickly caught up with us and gave us an insider's insight! What was particularly interesting was she said she applied for a job with a brewery in Michigan and had an interview the following week. And, Founders was one of her favorite micro-brews, so we had a bit to talk about when we found that out too!
Following the brewery, we visited a spice shop at the recommendation of Jennifer (the brewer), where we bought some sea salt for a new grinder we received from our wedding, and bought an eclair and chocolates from a nearly-next-door bakery. We also bought some treats for Barley (Pat & Jackie's black lab) at a homemade dog treat store (before we visited the brewery), browsed a store with Life is Good merchandise (cool stuff, but too overpriced to buy anything), had an outdoor lunch at the same bistro/cafe we bought dessert from the night before, and as you can see above, stopped at an ice cream parlor for dessert!Mid-afternoon we stopped back in St. Louis on our way home to pick up Patrick's credit card, and thought about the irony of Courtney arriving only a couple hours later to the airport, on her way to Fort Leonard Wood. We texted a few encouraging messages to her during our drive back, as she sat waiting for connecting flights.
So, it wasn't a fairytale honeymoon, but we were happy for the time away together, and had some good times. Besides, if we're lucky, the not-to-distant future might hold a trip to London for us. But, we'll see.....
5.02.2010
Honeymoon- Day 3
After another round with the defective shower, and a breakfast of homemade lemon-blueberry muffins we packed, Patrick & I headed to the St. Louis Zoo. Parking was expensive so we walked after parking along a street about a .5-1 mile stroll away. We left our water bottle in the car since we were worried about it being confiscated at the gate, but apparently there is no gate, admission- nothing. (We left our water bottle in the car at the City Museum too, to find that there was no inspection. Granted if we had brought it, Murphy's Law says the story would be different.) The day was lovely and around 70 degrees, so Murphy's Law also suggests it is unsurprising that I had very dark blue jeans on, a gray cardigan, a black shirt, and no sunblock (yup- I got burned) since most of our honeymoon was projected to be cold, wet weather and that was all I had packed. Kind of kept the day from being comfortable and my attitude from being as upbeat, but we still enjoyed seeing the animals. A few are pictured below!
This snake cage was in a corner, so Patrick took a picture on one side of the glass of me looking through the other side.
Both the male and female lion are behind us, if you look more closely.
The brochure we got said what times certain animals got feedings, so we could watch if we wanted. We arrived not long before the sea lion feeding, which was really awesome. We asked the worker afterward if this particular sea lion always liked to sit here for her feedings (I think her name was something like Zeek). He said they promote organization/order, so she always sits on this rock. (The others were sort of treading water in their own places throughout the pool.) I think all of them were around 15 years old. If you click on this photo, you'll notice the fish in mid-air above Zeek's mouth. After picking up the fish, she liked to toss it in the air and catch it!
We needed a snack, so we stopped at a Ben & Jerry's ice cream treat stand for a bite to eat!
This penguin pen just had a waist-high wall separating us. They were sooooo close, I could have pet the thing were I a little taller and less obedient!
There was a momma & baby giraffe (one came to visit the sidelines here) and an ostrich in this cage.)
The hippo swam by the wall of glass- got the picture just in time, and luckily none of the million kids crowding me got their heads in the way of this shot!
Momma & baby elephant (its butt!) in the background!
Before leaving, we got a picture together in front of a cute fountain. That would have been awesome if it was a real elephant, but alas, no.
This snake cage was in a corner, so Patrick took a picture on one side of the glass of me looking through the other side.
Both the male and female lion are behind us, if you look more closely.
The brochure we got said what times certain animals got feedings, so we could watch if we wanted. We arrived not long before the sea lion feeding, which was really awesome. We asked the worker afterward if this particular sea lion always liked to sit here for her feedings (I think her name was something like Zeek). He said they promote organization/order, so she always sits on this rock. (The others were sort of treading water in their own places throughout the pool.) I think all of them were around 15 years old. If you click on this photo, you'll notice the fish in mid-air above Zeek's mouth. After picking up the fish, she liked to toss it in the air and catch it!
We needed a snack, so we stopped at a Ben & Jerry's ice cream treat stand for a bite to eat!
This penguin pen just had a waist-high wall separating us. They were sooooo close, I could have pet the thing were I a little taller and less obedient!
There was a momma & baby giraffe (one came to visit the sidelines here) and an ostrich in this cage.)
The hippo swam by the wall of glass- got the picture just in time, and luckily none of the million kids crowding me got their heads in the way of this shot!
Momma & baby elephant (its butt!) in the background!
Before leaving, we got a picture together in front of a cute fountain. That would have been awesome if it was a real elephant, but alas, no.Not long after we arrived at the zoo, we got lunch in a cafeteria on the grounds. When we went to pay for the food, we realized Patrick's credit card was unaccounted for. We suspected it may have been left at Schlafly's the night before when he paid for dinner. However, when Patrick called the restaurant to check, he was told he'd have to wait 'til the evening to find out, since the manager wouldn't be in until then. That's pretty stressful, but since that seemed the only logical explanation, we tried to stay calm the rest of the day.
After the zoo, we traveled to St. Charles (about a 30 minute drive NE of St. Louis) and checked in to a brand new Holiday Inn in an industrial district. The grounds weren't impressive (non-landscaped land/ unfinished parking lot), but the hotel was really clean/nice. We picked a random restaurant on the main street of the historical downtown area to eat dinner, where I ordered a drink that tasted really, really strange, and had to ask for something else as a replacement. But luckily the food was quite delicious, and the weather was still mild enough to walk to a little cafe/bistro to get cheesecake-to-go for dessert. We almost stopped for a ghost tour by the historical society, but decided to just go back to the hotel since we didn't have coats and could tell it would get chilly (plus we'd probably be a little scared). :) But we watched Monsters vs. Aliens and Skyped with my family in the hotel before my sister Courtney left for BASIC training the next day, so it was a fairly relaxing night. Oh- and Patrick was able to call again about his credit card, and found out it was indeed there, thank goodness!
After the zoo, we traveled to St. Charles (about a 30 minute drive NE of St. Louis) and checked in to a brand new Holiday Inn in an industrial district. The grounds weren't impressive (non-landscaped land/ unfinished parking lot), but the hotel was really clean/nice. We picked a random restaurant on the main street of the historical downtown area to eat dinner, where I ordered a drink that tasted really, really strange, and had to ask for something else as a replacement. But luckily the food was quite delicious, and the weather was still mild enough to walk to a little cafe/bistro to get cheesecake-to-go for dessert. We almost stopped for a ghost tour by the historical society, but decided to just go back to the hotel since we didn't have coats and could tell it would get chilly (plus we'd probably be a little scared). :) But we watched Monsters vs. Aliens and Skyped with my family in the hotel before my sister Courtney left for BASIC training the next day, so it was a fairly relaxing night. Oh- and Patrick was able to call again about his credit card, and found out it was indeed there, thank goodness!
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