Fall

I love Fall.  It was the one season I did not get to experience when I lived in Texas.  The leave rarely changed colors down there.  All of a sudden they went from green to brown and on the ground.  Or they never turned green because of the summer heat.  But being back in the Midwest I've been able to really appreciate the Fall foliage.  Just driving down the highway I love seeing the trees going from green, to red, orange, and yellow.  I am amazed that I forgot about that while I was away.  So far here is the only pictures I have...





More will come as the weather keeps changing, gotta love crazy St. Louis weather.  One day it's cold and the next it's back in the high 70s!

Taste of St. Louis

I love going to Taste of St. Louis.  It is so overwhelming to see all the food and restaurants there but then again it is amazing to be able to pick and choose a little of everything.  I made it down to the Taste on Sunday afternoon after the Rams game (a win, the second in a row!) and the Cardinals game (a win and the last of the season).  But amazingly the streets aren't crazy packed like last year. We are able to walk up and down and see all the food booths before deciding what we are going to eat.  After we get to the end of the long row of booths I am starving, the smells of all the great food is overwhelming.  There are really too many options.

I settled with some calamari from Savoy for an appetizer and really I would have gone back there for more of their food options!  Then we went to Mama Campisi's and tried their chicken spedini and it was really lacking flavor.  The sauce was bland but it looked great, guess that's why looks can be deceiving.  My dad's spedini is so much better.    And then lastly I had a pulled pork slider from Edmonds 15 and it was ok.  Kristin did have some great fish tacos from a Mexican place in Old Webster Groves that I would like to try.

After filling up we checked out the art scene on the other side of Soldier's Memorial Park.  They had a lot of local artists, a few new ones that I hadn't seen before and a few that I've seen at other events.  Also, there was a lot of live music this year.  It seemed that every corner had someone performing.  We managed to catch Nikko Smith's act.  I can see why he didn't win American Idol but I was hoping to see Ozzie in the crowd somewhere...



I now can't wait to check it out next year!

Fall Ball

It's official, the Cardinals are eliminated from the going to the post season.  This season started off with so much promise.  The reigning National League Central Champs came in a distant second place to the Reds...The Reds?  They haven't been in the playoffs in 15 years!  Since August the Cardinals have rarely shown up for the what should be "easy" games against horrible teams and they should have given the Reds a run for their money in September.  Instead the Cardinals will be going quietly into their winter break with a lot of annoyed fans.

This past season I did get to see 2 grand slams, one by Brad Penny ( his last game played in 2010), the other by Filipe Lopez, and only saw 2 losses, one to the Reds and one to the dreaded cubs.  A major highlight of the season was the Cards win on my birthday.  The game was started with a brawl with Yadi and Brandon Phillips (Reds) and was escalated when the pitcher, Johnny Cueto started kicking with his spikes on causing career ending injuries to Jason La Rue and bruises to Carpenter.  The Cards won that series but after that they never showed as much passion to win as they did in early August.

I just hope 2011 turns out better that 2010 did...at least we aren't the hapless cubs fans and we know there truly is a chance to win a World Series next year.

Blues City Deli

How awesome is St. Louis...I mean really?  This weekend fall kinda kicked in and the temps started to drop a bit.  There are all 3 sports going on right now...Cardinals are finishing out their, what was promising season, Blues Hockey has started, well pre-season finally started and lastly there is football.

Friday night we wanted some Pizza and we had to make a tough decision where do we go?  Do we drive down to Tower Grove and go to Blackthorn Pub & Pizza (by far one of the best), my cousin's Rizzo's Pizza Station (probably closed) Pi (which location, Delmar, of course) or try Dewey's.  We tried to go to Pi but the line was just too long.  There was a concert at the Pageant across the street and the place was packed!  So we headed back up Delmar to Dewey's.  We didn't have to wait since we sat at the bar and it was so good!



Saturday we went to Blues City Deli's Street Fest.  We got there a little later than I had hoped and the place was packed.  The line for sandwiches was down the side of the building.  We took our time figuring out what to order...we had time to wait.  I finally went outside my comfort zone and ordered an Italian Beef sandwich that did not disappoint.  We grabbed out food and sat on the curb and listened to live Blues.  It was a mini Muddy Blues and it was great people watching.





Afterwards we headed down to Soulard to get some fruit, veggies and meat.  We have now added meat to our weekly purchases from Soulard.  They are just so much cheaper than the grocery store and it's just so much more fun going down there to shop than going to Schnucks.  Saturday night we had Mexican dinner at Scott's parents house followed by from Ted Drews that we brought.

On Sunday Scott and his mom ran in the Roc Star 5k/1 Mile run walk in Forest Park.  Scott's Dad and I went along for support.  And by support, we hung out until the race started and then hung out in the car and kept warm while they ran.  We did head down to the finish line to greet them.  They, of course, had already crossed the line and were cooling down by the time we got there but we made it.  Both runners ran faster than they had thought!  After the race we headed over to Chris's Pancake house for some awesome breakfast.  Then it was the laziest Sunday in a long time.  Full of football and naps!

The biggest amazement of the weekend was what was done on the football field.  The St. Louis Rams, behind Sam Bradford, won a game.  Not only did they win, they beat a team that they shouldn't have.  They beat Donovan McNabb and the Washington Redskins!  Stephen Jackson went out in the 3rd quarter with a groin injury are Darby came in to replace him and he really stepped it up!  Who knows what will happen now.

On the college front, the Huskers also won!  They are 4-0!  Now they have a week off and then it's on to conference play.  They are still ranked #6 in the AP Poll!

Great Balloon Race

I finally made it back to the Great Balloon Race in Forest Park this year.  It had been a few years since I last went, I think I was in grade school the last time I went with my parents.  We first decided that we needed a hearty breakfast at Chris's Pancake House, which is always a good meal and a wait anytime after 10.  We decided against our original plan of parking at the Highlander and walking to the Central field since my friend Brooke was already there and got great parking in the MUNY parking lot.  So we parked in the MUNY parking lot and had an easy walk over to the field where all the balloons were going to be set up.  It was great for the beginning of the day, not so great for leaving.





We got to the park around 11:30 and walked around for a while, checking out the booths and met up with Brooke and Chris.  We then walked around some more and found a nice place in the shade to hang out for a while.  While waiting for the balloons to get ready we walked around and Austin was able to get a tour of a fire engine and on our way back to the blanket and shade area.

Then around 2 the balloons started to blow up for the picture contest.  We were able to get a front row seat to watch a balloon get ready.





Finally we were able to walk around and get up close with the balloons, by far the coolest part.





[caption id="attachment_685" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Troubles with the popcorn"][/caption]

The there was more waiting around until race time.  Of course that was ok, we had to find more shade.  It was in the 90s for mid-September and they were running out of water.  We ended up moving our blanket 3 times as the sun kept moving.  It didn't seem to phase Austin or Cooper but I was dying of the heat.  Finally, close to 5 we finally saw the pink Energizer Bunny balloon and that would be the lead balloon.



The race was second away from starting we headed closer to the start of the race.  Once we got there it seemed like there were balloons taking off every few seconds.  There were almost 70 balloons that raced and I'm still not sure where they landed but it was a fun day.  Next year we are not parking at the MUNY, we will walk to avoid the 30 minute wait to get out of the parking lot.

Here are the pictures of the balloons taking off:

Cards/Cubs

I was very excited all baseball season knowing I was going to able to go to a Cards/Cubs rivalry game and have awesome seats and not have to pay for them...A perk of my boyfriend's job.  So last night I went to the last Cardinals/Cubs series of the season last night...and the Cardinals really look like they have given up all hope of even attempting to fight for a Wild Card spot.  The last game we went to was back in August against the Phillies and it was fun, they came from behind to win the game with a few homeruns.  Tonight, even with Pujols out with elbows soreness the team didn't try to dive for balls hit up the middle infield or down the third base side. I had pretty good seats to see these easy plays....

[caption id="attachment_671" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Pitching pow wow in the 8th"][/caption]

What's worse, they were losing 5-1 and LaRussa kept Wainwright in through the 8th inning!  Did he not have any faith in the bullpen?  Were they completely exhausted from the night before's loss to the Cubs?  It's the Cubs!  We should be doing everything we can to win these games!

[caption id="attachment_669" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Yadi!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_670" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Holliday made it to 3rd"][/caption]

Needless to say, after a lack luster performance the Cards lost the second in a row to the Cubs, 7-2.  Colby did hit a solo homerun in the bottom of the 9th.  We actually left the game in the middle of the top of the 9th, first time this year we left before the end of a game...it was just pitiful.   At least football has started.  Go Big Red!

Shaw's Garden

On Sunday the weather was just too nice to stay inside and watch football all day long.  So we decided to check out the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  The last visit was back in March...

And it was a little chilly and most of the plants still hadn't bloomed just yet.  But in March we were dying to do anything outside, kinda like this past Sunday.  We drove down and walked around almost the entire park.  I thought it would be a little more crowded than it actually was but there was still a good crowd.  We were on an off weekend there, the previous weekend was the big Japanese Festival.  Instead we were able to walk around without running into lots of people.





I think the fish were the only ones who were really suffering, but I don't think these fish really suffer all that much.





It was nice to get out and walk around.  It is definitely a place that I could go back to over and over and still not see everything or keep remembering everything from when Andrew and I used to go there over summer vacations.



After MOBot we headed over to Bar Louie in CWE to catch some of the Rams game and grab some food.  However, they only had the Rams game on the smaller TV.  It made no sense to us so we ate and headed home to watch the game in comfort and let Reily out to enjoy day as well.



The Rams did lose but they looked a lot better than last year and it was a close game.  As a hopeful fan...there is promise....