but not in any pictures
Very early Thursday morning I got back from St. Louis. I tried to sleep in some but Pumpkin got me up and eventually I got going and came into work late. I was pretty exhausted and behind so I didn’t get a post up. I probably should have posted from St. Louis because it was a really good trip but I was busy and didn’t have the camera.Speaking of the camera we got the new waterproof one last night and so far I like it. It is small and hopefully tough enough to join us on all our adventures. Our main camera was making some grinding noises from the lens and we thought the warranty was about to expire so we sent it in for service. Then realized we have a 2 year warranty on it not a 1 year.
A real quick update on my trip. Tuesday morning I got all ready and rented a car then a coworker and I drove over. We each checked into our $200 a night hotel rooms (before NPR discount) then headed to the St. Louis version of our radio station. We met with the general manager and the web manager and talked about the their station and their website and both sides learned a lot and I made some good contacts. After our meeting we were free for the day so hit up the arch, then a bar with a nice deck downtown,
then a brewpub in Lacledes Landing for some craft beer,
then the Schlafly brewery
We were starving by the time we got to the Tap Room at Schlafly and sat outside and ordered. I got a sample platter of beers and the Meatloaf Muffin Sandwich.
The best beer was probably the APA but several were really tasty. The sandwich was so good, (english muffin top, meatloaf sauce, fried egg, crispy onion strips, provolone cheese, slice of meatloaf wrapped in bacon, bottom of egg muffin, beside good fries)
I cleaned my plate, 6 sample glasses of brew and 1 big glass of water and my stomach was full. We went for a walk and checked out the city for a while. We went pretty far and felt much better afterwords. We headed back towards the hotel and did some sight seeing on the way. Once almost back to the hotel room I stopped for a few White Castle burgers just because we don’t have them in KC. They smelled amazing but were pretty gross to eat.
I entered a food coma and went to bed pretty early. In the morning I was feeling great and went for a run. It had just gotten done storming and everything was wet but I jogged a few miles and checked out the area around the hotel. Once back at the room I showered and got dressed then started studying a big pile of paperwork. Then my coworker and I headed to our all day meeting with NPR. The meeting was good and interesting and we found out a lot of useful stuff for our website and stuff. There was a major distraction for us in the middle when the tornadoes were coming to KC. We were trying to track down our wives and kids and help out our station.
The storms were headed east and once KC was ok we started to worry about St.L. They pushed through the meeting and we went back to focusing on it. Just after the meeting the tornado sirens started going off. We were at a hotel and the staff encouraged us to go to a safe area but the NPR staff was curious about seeing a tornado and so were a few of us so we went outside and looked for it. It rained a lot and hailed some and the sirens went on and off but we never saw anything too bad. Eventually we got bored of the hotel and decided to wait out the storm at Ferguson Brewery. We got some nice beers and some dinner. I ordered poorly so the food was just okay. After the brewery we hit up a bar next door because it was my coworkers birthday and he got a shot with the bartender. We also got huge waters and talked a bunch about the meeting.
Eventually we headed home to KC. We had waited out a lot of the storm but it was still raining most of the drive and a few times came down really hard and slowed us down. Once home we found Heath and Amanda staying up late watching TV and drinking wine. We talked with them for a while and recovered from the drive a bit. Then we returned the rental car and I came home and took Amanda home. Then I got ready for bed. It was after 2 before I got to sleep.
Well that was a lot longer then I anticipated.
Last night we had the last parents as teachers meeting for the summer. We met at the big play area and Pumpkin had a blast playing and we had a good time talking with the teacher about how cool she is and watching her play. After we took Amanda’s car home then went home and cooked dinner and packed up.
yeah not only unpacking from the trips we just were just on but now we are heading backpacking around the Buffalo River area tonight.
The weather should be great and I hope to document some great adventures with the new camera.