Wedding Weekend: Part 2

Unfortunately, I did not get a single picture of the bride and groom at the second “wedding” this weekend. This is the best shot I could find of Evan and the groom, our good friend, Kevin.

The second "wedding" last Saturday was actually a reception only party for our friends in Richmond who tied the knot in a private ceremony this summer. They invited friends and family to celebrate with them at a restaurant/bar, the Bank, in downtown Richmond. We drove right from the Charlottesville wedding to our hotel, dropped off our bags, I changed my shoes and we headed to the Bank (which was fortunately only two blocks away because I was wearing runway shoes). It was really nice to see all of our Richmond friends. We have kept in touch with a few of them, but hadn’t seen most of them in three years. It was nice to see who had moved and who was still in their post-college apartments, who had changed jobs and who were back in school. We fell right in to where we had left off and partied like we were in our early twenties. :) After the celebration, we headed to our hotel room and ordered Dominos, since we missed the food at both celebrations. Evan was asleep before the pizza came, but I chowed down and he had a nice pre-breakfast for his hung over self the next morning.

We dragged ourselves out of bed on Sunday both with big headaches, but we dusted ourselves off to meet more friends for brunch. When I first met Evan, he lived in a split Richmond house, one apartment on top and one below. The apartment above was Evan and his roommate Shawn and the apartment below was Fletch. Fletch is absolutely a character and those three boys had some bachelor times, most of which are unmentionable. I was so glad we were able to catch up with him and his girlfriend, Carter. We are all a little more grown up now, but I’m pretty sure we all showed up to brunch with hangovers. Richmond is just that kind of city.

Weekend Visit

This past Saturday, we went to see the Baltimore Orioles play the Detroit Tigers with some friends that were visiting from Richmond. It was a beautiful afternoon, so we went to dinner at Tir Na Nog overlooking the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Dinner wasn’t great (as Irish Food isn’t always too impressive), but the restaurant had Hoegaarden on tap and a great view of the Harbor. It was nice to spend time catching up after years of being away.

The game started at 7:35pm and we arrived just a little late. Our seats were great for $27. We were down on the first level not far behind third base. Right as we were sitting down, a kid a few seats over caught a foul ball. I don’t have very good reflexes, especially after a few beers, so I was afraid of getting hit by a ball for the rest of the game. That didn’t stop me from having a great time. The game was entertaining, the Tigers won and I ate tons of peanuts. All in all, it was a great night.

It was really strange to realize that we haven’t lived in Richmond for 2 ½ years. I know it is cliché, but time sure has flown by. It was nice to reconnect and get the gossip of what is going on with the group we used to hang with in Virginia. Two couples are getting married this summer and people have bought houses, a few have gone back to school for a Masters and people’s lives are moving in to the next stage of life. Next thing you know we’ll be getting Christmas cards with baby pictures on them.

St. Louis Trip Part 1

I apologize for the delayed post. It has been crazy getting back on schedule after a three day weekend. It didn’t help that Evan and I both have sore throats and stacks of work to get through by this weekend on top of getting our place ready for guests and Evan’s last minute trip back to Michigan. It is safe to say that we are a bit scattered this week. It is all worth it, because we had a wonderful trip to St. Louis last weekend. I posted our shots on Flickr if you are interested in pictures of my friends (not a whole lot of scenery shots).

Vin de Set
We had a delicious dinner on Friday night at a rooftop French restaurant called, Vin de Set. We got a bottle of Garnacha (red wine from Spain) and a delicious cheese platter. I can’t resist a gourmet cheese selection at a restaurant because I’m still learning about cheese and this is the best way to sample different types. Unfortunately, none of the cheeses impressed me enough to remember what types we had. Evan ordered a pasta dish and I had the steak special that was prepared in what tasted like a blue cheese on top of golden potatoes. I would definitely recommend this restaurant if you are looking for fine dining in a more casual atmosphere in St. Louis.

Schlafly Bottleworks
Day 2 in St. Louis we went to lunch at Schlafly Bottleworks, the largest locally owned brewery in St. Louis that just happened to be walking distance from our friends’ house. The Brewery was hosting a BBQ Pork Steak competition in the parking lot with live music, but we opted to eat inside because it was pretty hot on the pavement in the blazing sun. The brews were really good. I had their Hefeweizen. Evan and I both ordered the pulled pork sandwich, but I traded up my side for their Smoked Gouda Gratin, thinly sliced layered potatoes baked with a Gouda cream sauce. Heaven.

Anheuser Busch Brewery
We went from one brewery to the next so that we could tour the huge Anheuser Busch Brewery (not locally owned anymore, therefore the largest foreign owned brewery in St. Louis). I was hoping that this tour would be a little more “history of Budweiser and other Anheuser Brands” and less “this is why you should drink Budweiser”. I’m not a huge fan of Bud, but I am a fan of learning about brewing. It didn’t help that there was a group of 3 people who were clearly already drunk before the tour began that were talking through most of the lecture and being pretty annoying to everyone else on the tour. At the end of the tour, you get 2 free beers, so I guess that draws a drunk crowd. We only had time for one sample because we had to be at the Arch. I had a Shock Top, which tasted like a wheat beer, but I really don’t know anything else about it because it was never mentioned on the tour.

(I had to do this in two parts because I couldn't get it to format.)

St. Louis Trip Part 2

The Arch
I was totally fascinated by the Arch from the moment we landed in St. Louis. I was amazed that you can see it from almost anywhere in the city. St. Louis is a big city, but you could see it from the airport, from our friends’ house, from the rooftop restaurant and from downtown. It is really larger than life and I can’t think of any other monument that dominates a city like the Arch does. I was really excited to go up in it, and I’m glad that I did, but I would never do it again. If you’ve never been, it is truly an experience. The first thing that turned me off was that we had buy tickets for the 6:50pm lift off time, but ended up not getting up in the arch until well after 7:30. When it was finally our turn to go up, we lined up and watched a 3 minute video with bad sound quality that explained very little about the designer of the “Gateway to the West”. Maybe my attention span for the historical significance is much longer than the average visitor, but I was really hoping to learn something about the Arch during our visit. Finally, the little doors open to the “elevators” that take you up. It was more like sitting in a rattling washing machine that lifted sideways and abruptly adjusted up the inside of the Arch. If you are claustrophobic or afraid of heights, this tour is not for you, but at no time did they every mention that. I am neither of these two things and I was really uncomfortable. Once we got to the top, it was too much for me to handle. I looked out the window a couple of times, but felt really nervous because there were a million loud people and kids running wild in this small overlook area that literally looks straight down. I caught the next spin cycle down and ended up sitting with two older couples from South Dakota. It was an odd experience that I don’t need to repeat.

The Cardinals Game
Day 3 we had breakfast at our friends’ house and then headed to the Cardinals Game. It was a pretty hot day. Overcast, which I think helped, but we were all feeling pretty sticky. We had good seats, so we could see all the action. I had some peanuts and a soft pretzel. Evan bought an $8 beer and immediately spilled the whole thing, so had to get another one. I would guess we spent about $60 on food and drink at the game if not more. The game was against the Royals and unfortunately the Cardinals lost. The last inning was pretty exciting. We thought we might make a comeback and win, but alas they walked the best hitter. I’m not much of a baseball fan, but it was still a nice time.

Our Friends!!
The highlight of the trip was definitely spending time with our friends. Aaron and Leah, our hosts, shared their beautiful house with the three other couples plus one baby. Their place is beautiful. The paint and décor really made the place look great and feel homey. The space was perfect for hosting guests with lots of living space and nice large bedrooms. My friend Cheri surprised all of us who hadn’t seen her recently. She lost 62 pounds and looked absolutely fantastic! Her and her husband Justin got married in October, so we hadn’t seen them since their wedding. It was really great to get to spend time with baby Austin and of course his parents Nicole and Tommy. We had a lot of fun with them and were very impressed at their mommy-and-daddyness. Austin is 9 months old and unfortunately we have missed most of his little life, but we have also missed his parents becoming parents. We remember them as Nicole who never turns a happy hour invite and Tommy who was always up for a shot of tequila. Now they are diaper duty, baby bag, bottle toting parents of a baby. He is absolutely precious and a very easy to be around baby. No crying, just cute smiles and naps.

We had a great time just hanging out at the house, drinking beer, grilling outside and playing a few killer rounds of catch phrase. We always play boys against girls. The girls team is called the B**ches and the boys team is called the Dudes. For most of the games, I was the score keeper, aka Head B**ch. It was a lot of fun and of course the girls dominated. On our last night we went to dinner a local Italian Restaurant and had the waiter take a group photo. We plan to have more reunions and take a group photo each time. I’m sure more kids will get added to the group and it will be really fun to look back and laugh at our outfits and our hairstyles in a few years. Evan and I hope to host the next one on the east coast. Hopefully sooner than later.