St. Louis - Part II

I returned from camping and Scott returned from Philly on Saturday, May 30, and after we ate dinner we went to Ted Drew's Frozen Custard for desert.  It is a St. Louis institution and I have been told a must do.  It was definitely tasty.  I got a caramel and chocolate chip cookie dough concrete.  I love caramel.

On Sunday, we took Scott's '69 Mustang convertible out the a winery in Hermann, MO.  It was a really nice drive, although we did make a wrong turn at one point adn end up back in St. Louis.  We made about and hour loop before we got that corrected and were finally on our way.  we went to the Stone Hill Winery and tasted a few wines.  It was definitely a different experience than in CA.  First off, it was free, which was nice.   Also, instead of having the wines ordered in the order they should be tasted, they were ordered from driest to sweetest.  All the whites, roses, and reds were mixed in together.  They had two pages of wines to choose from, but most of them were on the sweeter side.  I'm more of a fan of dry wines, so that narrowed down the tasting list pretty rapidly.  I ended up buying a couple of bottles to take to Austin with me as a thank you gift to Kristi and her family for letting me stay with them.  After our tasting we sat outside and had some cheese and other snacks before heading back to St. Louis.

Scott's car

Stone Hill Winery

Part of the vineyard

It was a bit weird because the winery was in a sub-division

They had a few more acres up on the hill, but most of them were in another nearby town

That evening, we ate dinner at the Schafly Brewery in downtown St. Louis.  They make good beer and it is a really nice local option compared to the Annheiser Busch products.  after dinner we headed over to a bar called The Dubliner to meet up with Leilah and Brett for a drink.  It is Guiness' 250th anniversary and they apparently made a limited number of kegs of their original recipe and sent them out to Irish Pubs around the world.  The Dubliner happened to be one of them (and they were on their last keg of it), so we all got a Guiness 250.  It was really good, but definitely different than what we are used to.  It is a little lighter in color and flavor.  I had a great time hanging our with Leilah and Brett and hope to see them the next time I visit St. Louis.

I really enjoyed my time in St. Louis.  It was great to meet Scott's friends and just hang out and relax.  Thanks so much Scott for letting me crash at your place for so long!