St. Louis, now where was I?

I left off at the Anheuser Busch brewery. It was about 2 miles from our hotel and Rich wanted to walk back through the Soullard neighborhood since it looked interesting. Well, we did. The houses were cute. They were brick with different trims that were colorful and added character to the buildings. It reminded me of both Annapolis, MD and some of the area between Old City and the Italian Market in Philly. Of course, if this place had been on the east coast, the buildings would've been smaller and smushed closer together. We still saw a couple of people out and about. We did walk past Fat Toney's BBQ which looked like dinner since both Rich and Beeeej had wanted BBQ at some point. So, we kept walking past the restaurant and the very deserted farmer's market. We walked over the interestate that runs into downtown and by the river. Even though it was rush hour, there was no traffic. Back to the hotel and I am absolutely freezing. I didn't pack well for the weather. I also didn't think my blood was circulating. We cabbed it back to Fat Toney's to meet up with Beeeej for dinner which was really quite good. Then wandered back towards Union Station to see if there was anything going on there. The answer was no. We found a sports bar near by and the guys got some wings and some beer. I had my soda and the grease was starting to get to me. I was also getting really restless and wanted to go dancing so eventually, Beeeej wandered home and Rich, Josh, and I wandered down to Laclede's Landing, my last hope for people. Wandering down the street, we were pointed to a bar that had dancing and $10 to drink until closing at 3am. That sounded good to me since I had wanted to do both of those things and the guys were game. Adam was also trying to get us down to the landing and when we got there, I let him know where we were. He was all set to go until he found out that the INCH staff party was being held where we were and there are a few people there who hate him. So he refused to come over. But a little bit of convincing got him over. While sitting on the main floor, Rich was dancing with some woman who was getting married in 6 days. We also witnessed a bar brawl between some BU fans and some BC fans. Eventually, we all wandered downstairs to the dance area. That also put more floors between Adam and the INCH guys. And I dragged those guys down to the dance floor. None of them dance but they were humoring the drunk girl for the evening. There was also one of those novelty poles and soon after we got down there, they were having a pole dancing contest. The first girl got up and she was okay. Nothing fancy. The second girl got up there and did a little more. The third one got up there and she must have done it before. She wasn't wearing much and was flashing the crowd and was very comfortable on the pole. Josh also thought that she was a he, until she flashed and showed everyone her parts. There was a fourth girl who was not a professional. At some point, I realized that while everyone was staring at the girls, I could take advantage of all of this and go to the bar for another drink. Soon, after, I dragged the guys up one floor, taking pity on their misery on the dance floor. I didn't feel too bad since they did get to see half naked girls dance suggestively, as in a strip club. We eventually left to get some food and they dragged me back to the room where I stuck my head under the shower to wash some of the smoke out of my hair and fell asleep.

Saturday

Final started at 6pm. What was up with that? Sure it's 7pm EST but I didn't remember the final having started that early in previous years. I dragged myself out of bed at 1pm. Rich had gotten up to go to the open skate, and Josh had gotten up so he could take care of some business and wander around. These next couple of hours were probably the only ones that we did not spend in each others' presence. I got myself up, showered and dressed. Then I wandered to the Starbucks in the hotel lobby, and with my knitting, walked up to Union Station. I got there around when open skate was ending (3pm) so I was able to meet up with Rich to scout out dinner. My only request for dinner was that we eat something not too greasy. The dangerous/bad thing about these weekends for me is the combination of the type of food being consumed and the alcohol and the lack of sleep. Saturday, I wanted healthy. My body was rejecting greasy foods. We made a reservation at an Italian restaurant and he wandered off while I wandered back into Union Station (a mall), and stopped to knit some of Charloote's Web and watch all the hockey people go by, as well as enjoying a new found sense of peace.

Dinner was tasty. We sampled a St. Louis dish of toasted raviolis as an appetizer. That was really good. Also had some stuff calamari, also quite tasty. I had some seafood linguine. the meal took while so the anthems had played already by the time we got there. We did make it in time for the puck drop so that was good. Everyone thought BC was going to win. They scored first and kept it up. I got a bit sleepy at the start of the third. But then MSU scored halfway through the 3rd and we had a game. I was hoping for OT but it wasn't necessary since MSU scored with less than a minute left of the game! Holy crap! The entire arena, minus the BC fans, went NUTS! I gotta tell you that I missed the empty net goal with 1.2 seconds left of the game. I thought the horn was the game horn, and apparently, so did the MSU players.
Post game, the season's over. Beeeej wandered back to his hotel. Josh went off with some people he knew to make his rounds. Rich and I went back to the hotel to drop off our stuff. We decided to go back to the landing area to another place called The Big Bang. Adam was there the night before, before he met up with us and was telling us about it. This was when Josh remembered that it was where he got really trashed the last time he was in St. Louis. But before heading down there, Rich and I wandered down to a bar by the stadium. He wanted to see if this girl he met Wed night was there. Surprise, surpise! Saturday night at 10pm, the place was closed. Did I not tell you this place was weird? So we hop back onto the metro and wander to the big bang to see what the fuss was about. The place was packed and the show was amazing. There were 4 or 5 guys who took turns at the two pianos, and periodcally the drums and bass. They took requests all night, had people up on the stage for birthdays. It was the most amazing show and I was in awe of the talent. We watched dueling requests from North Dakota fans and Minnesota fans. They managed to get them to play "In heaven there is no beer" which apparently there are many verses of, but we really only know the first one. I learned this in Columbus 2 years ago, along with the fact that the Minnesota people will also drag you up and dancing while singing this. Eventually, some of the Maine fans got into it and in the end Cornell was dragged in. I was the sober one tonight since my stomach felt like this painful empty hole so I spent the last night with stinky smokey hair curled up on the bed hoping sleeping will allow me to not feel the pain in my hungry hungry stomach.

Sunday

Rich had an early morning flight so he was the first to leave. Josh had a noon flight but it was pushed back til 2 so we left the hotel together. My flight left at 3. We ended up waiting for the metro for 40 minutes. We checked in and got some food. Josh's flight was now delayed til 3 so we were leaving at the same time. We parted ways at that point cuz we were in different terminals and I just wanted to find some water to keep the dehydration headaches away and remain curled up by the gate until I could get on the plane. I had an otherwise uneventful flight back where I slept and knitted some more.


And now I'm home, and settling into the college hockey off season. At least we have the Stanley Cup playoffs...which I don't really get excited for until it's the final series, at which point, I may schedule my life around the games. Yes, I am a crazy hockey nut. And yes I still owe you people pictures.