S.L.A.B Day 2 and Day 3

I'm going to consolidate this into one post because I have a lot to catch up on here and we did a whole lot more on Day 1 than we did on Day 2 and 3 combined. I think we went crazy on the first day we were there and were in recovery mode for the rest of the weekend. On Sunday we slept in until 11:00! It was crazy. Poor Alison was still recovering from major jet lag. She flew in from a month in Australia just a few days before and her sleep schedule was all whacked out. I don't know what the rest of our excuses were.

Sunday was Father's Day so we all called our dads when we woke up and then headed over the Shannon's cousin's house for a Father's Day cookout. Shannon'a family is huge and it was really nice to get to meet so many of them. They were so welcoming and invited us right in. We felt like part of the family. I wish I had more pictures of her family but we were too busy eating, playing soccer, listening to the bonano (piano in 4 year old speak) and eating oversized portions of desert. Here's a picture of the cute house though!

After lunch we headed off the Anheuser-Busch Brewery tour. It was so cool to be in such a well known brewery. The best part was they had the Clydesdales!!!

This the inside of their barn. It was absolutely amazing!

This is Bruce!

This is the front of the barn...so pretty! The horses stay here for a while and then every week or so they are taken off to a farm about 20 minutes away to enjoy green pastures for a while. These are the same Clydesdales from the commercials. It was so awesome.

This clock tower is the 2nd most photographed thing in in St. Louis next to the arch. Talk about iconic!

I forget what these tanks are...they are the first part of the brewing process though and are freezing cold.

Trolly ride back to the two free glasses of beer. Blue was sick of pictures.

After the tour we headed back to Shannon's apartment to rest up before dinner. We went to Rosalita's which was a mexican restaurant right next to Shannon's apartment. We had margaritas and I had the best fajitas ever! It was so delicious. We went to this little hole in the wall bar to round out the night and Blue fended off male predators for us.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the weekend and the timing was perfect! Long story short, Shannon and Alison were in an iphone race to look something up and Shannon won. Picture perfect!

The next day was our last day in St. Louis and we had three more things on our list. The Zoo, Pappy's BBQ, and a Cardinals game.

The zoo was awesome. It is totally free and it's the 2nd best zoo next to San Diego. The habitats are all natural and it really wasn't too crowded. The animals were pretty active too which was a nice surprise!

This guy totally surprised us when we came around the corner. We had just seen a bear scratching his head and we thought that was good...

A little weird? Probably...

Poor lady gorilla. He boyfriend was being really bossy and she was over it.

Photo credit: Alison

National Geographic worthy

This was probably my favorite. Usually the big cats are never awake but we saw this guy swimming!

As we were walking past the Hyenas, Shannon called up Pappy's BBQ and ordered our lunch to pick up on the way home. She hadn't eaten there before but heard it was amazing...she was right. Thank goodness we called ahead. The line was wrapped out the door and into the back of the building. We were in and out of there in 10 minutes and the line had barely moved. And the BBQ was delicious! If you are ever in St. Louis I totally recommend it. Get there early though because they start serving for lunch and just serve til they run out.

That night was the Cardinals vs. Cubs game. The whole city is crazy about this team so it was fun to see a game. It was pouring rain at 5:30 and the game was scheduled to start at 6:00 so we called a cab and went to Paddy O's which is a bar right next to the stadium. We were able to stay there until about 7:00 and the game started around 8:00.

Outside the stadium after getting out of the cab:

At Paddy O's waiting for the rain to stop! Thanks for letting me borrow your jersey Shannon!

Our seats were awesome. We were in the first row on the third level right along the first base line and our seats were covered so if it did sprinkle during the game, we didn't even know it! Check out the arch in the background!

The field was really cool. They had the arch mowed into the outfield. 

And the sunset just got better and better as the sun went down. 

This weekend was so refreshing! I love all of these ladies so much and I was so glad to get to spend some quality time with them. Shannon was so great to welcome us into her home and show us around all weekend. I can't wait until next years reunion!