Before heading to breakfast in the morning, we wanted to shower. It was a walk-in style, so half it had a frosty glass wall, and the other half had a curtain to cover the opening where you step in over a 1-2 inch lip. Patrick had already gotten in while I stood at the sink putting in my contacts, when all of a sudden, I hear a shriek. After quickly turning around, I see him pressed up against the glass in a really tight corner. Turns out, the shower spits out SCALDING water every few minutes. The fancy shower head can't be turned, so we were forced to jump out of the water and hug the walls multiple times to avoid burned skin. To top matters, the drain didn't work well so water overflowed all over the bathroom floor, consuming all our towels. We left a note for the cleaning staff, and told a clerk at the front desk, but neither flaw was fixed the next morning....
At least we found the humor in it, so we headed to breakfast still in a good mood and with voucher in hand. It got each of us an orange juice, coffee, water, bagel & cream cheese, and yogurt. Several times throughout the meal, Patrick expressed that his bagel was really tough. I figured he was just being picky since mine was fine, and finally said, "Let me taste it," to prove to him it was fine. I couldn't get my teeth through it- granted it left a nice mold of my jaw on the bread. Luckily we got it exchanged w/o issue.
Since it was a rainy day, we went to the City Museum, which was actually more like a giant playground. It was void of many exhibits, but had a huge area devoted to tunnels, bridges, stairs, and a slide that spanned about 6 stories, all made primarily of recycled materials.
We had to get down on hands, knees, butts, and bellies to get through a lot of areas!
Patrick emerging from a tunnel opening surrounded by gloves that added some resistance.
Within the museum there was also an aquarium where we pet stingrays, sharks, a horseshoe crab, a macaw and a parrot, rabbits, turtles, and could crawl in glass tubes that went through some of the tanks. We saw a couple other interesting things too:
Got to this lizard's cage just in time for a rat feeding! Sorry to those of you who are grossed out, but when you forget about the morbidity, it's kind of cool!
A two-headed snake! I believe we also saw a two-headed turtle in another cage.
I stopped to help this guy lift a stone, but it was a bit heavy for us. I eventually gave up and went to explore some more with Patrick. A circus school that teaches everyday-average-Joes how to perform, gives their students practice performing on the weekends in a small arena housed in the museum, so we had a free show! It certainly wasn't Cirque du Soleil caliber, but it was interesting to watch normal looking people display hand-balancing, flexibility and juggling beyond normal skill.
Afterward, we entered a photo booth to get a film strip- I was really excited about it because we had never done that before and I thought it would be a neat souvenir! However, as soon as we were out, a lady and her 4 invasive kids got in our space. They said they'd wait to use the booth until our pictures spit out, but after about 20 seconds they crammed past us and got in anyway. (Rolling my eyes.) That kinda took some of the fun out of it.
It didn't help that we were really hungry again. So we left the museum in search of food. We had planned on dressing up and going to a fancy restaurant on the top of a hotel with a rotating roof offering a 360-degree view of the city- totally stoked about it. But, unfortunately it was the ONLY day of the week it was closed, which majorly bummed me out since I had really looked forward to that. We walked around downtown for a while until we found a pub-style sports bar/grill, but we couldn't see any open seats. After spending a couple minutes looking lost, we stopped a waitress and asked her if there were any open seats. She said she didn't know and walked away. After walking to the other end of the place only to stand (no open seats), finding menus for ourselves, and getting ignored by the service some more, we left that place in a rather aggravated state-of-mind.
Since a lot of places were closed, we ended up going to Schlafly again (but a smaller, second location) for a decent dinner and to fill a growler for our friends Pat & Jackie. The museum tired us out, so we went to the hotel to recuperate for a few hours, then went out for a late-night dessert at Bailey's Chocolate Bar. The atmosphere would have been romantic with its dimmed lights, and roses and candles at each table, except the place was about 95% empty, our waiter wasn't overly friendly or engaging, and the food was drastically overpriced. But, we did have probably the best cup of coffee we can ever remember, and that goes a long way. Patrick's apple dumpling with vanilla ice cream, and my flourless brownie (not sure how that's made- but the idea intrigued and delighted me) with coffee ice cream tasted pretty good too- but like I said about the price, the bill/tip was bordering $40 for just coffee & dessert!
Sorry for being so long- I'm always long-winded, but I have additional excuses this time. 1) I'm being pretty detailed to document the honeymoon for myself, and 2) my dad is printing these blog entries to send to my sister at BASIC training (she really looks forward to mail, so I want to keep her updated and entertained). In any case, I hope you were entertained too :), and maybe you can start to see why the honeymoon was a mix of fun & frustration. Segment 3 to follow soon....
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!
