Chelsea Market

While my family was in town I took them for a walk on the High Line in Chelsea. We stopped down in the Chelsea Market for lunch, where there is currently a mustache exhibition as evidenced by the mustache clock.

Cold Spring Hike

June was a crazy month. From St. Louis, to having my parents (and sister) in town, to Maine, to house guests round two. But I loved every minute of it. I'll be slowing down a little bit now and sharing all I've been up to.

For Father's Day we took the Metro North train to Cold Spring, NY to hike the Hudson highlands.

Looking north towards the Catskills

In front of the Hudson and Westpoint

An old mining area

Up the hill

The competition is on!

Since the dawn of time the my family has been providing entries to the tri-county fair circuit. Lately another layer of competition has been added... each year a specific item (or two) has been chosen and everyone is required to enter in said category.

This year I was informed- Baby bibs (knowing we have a special someone on the way).

Sunday I got to work. The great thing about living in a studio, is that my one room can be converted into any type of room with the shifting of just a few accessories. In this case an iron and a sewing machine immediately transforms my room.

I might regret this later (I may be stoking the competition) but tada!

Mooo...

I hand dyed this fabric in high school (yes I kept it for 9+ years) and embroidered the boarder and sweet little cow. The basic shape came from the Martha Stewart website, but it was a pattern using biased tape, which I didn't have. Instead I did the ole sew right sides together, turn, and stitch the hole closed method.

Corona, Queens

About as soon as I moved to Queens I discovered Edible Queens Magazine and have been an avid reader ever since. The last issue had an article about the best tortillas in Queens and the most recent issue had an article about the Lemon Ice King of Corona. When I looked up the location of the lemon ice I noticed that it was very close to Tortilleria Nixtamal. So what to do next? Take the next 7 train to Corona.

When I got off the train at 111th St. I wasn't yet hungry so I headed to the Flushing Meadows Corona Park for a pre-meal walk.

The left over structures from the New York pavilion of the 1964 World's Fair

Intricate gate leading into the Queens Zoo
Rocket ships at the New York Hall of Science

After my walk around a portion of the park, I was a little bit hungry. After a look at my cell phone map I discovered I was closer to the Ice King then to actual food... I decided I would just have to eat out of order.

Salivating from across the street

Orange Vanilla goodness

This stuff was amazing, simply amazing.

After you get your Ice head straight to the neighboring park as I did. Or you'll miss the older Italian men (with cigars) playing Bocce. I stayed long after I finished my ice and they finished their first game.

They were so much fun.

The clouds started rolling in so I decided to head on.

Tortilleria Nixtamal- they had a walk up window where you could get tortillas to-go. I sat out front, but they also had a back area that was also outside.

Yummmm... I only had the guacamole as I was full on the Orange-Vanilla Ice... but I look forward to going back and trying out the rest of the menu.

Eberhard & Adolphus

Ok, so the last stop on my whirlwind St. Louis weekend was the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. I had been once before, but Beth hadn't. I'm a sucker for behind the scene tours so I was excited to go another round.

Eberhard Anheuser a German immigrant took over a Bavarian brewery and renamed it after himself in 1860. He was joined by Adolphus Busch (his son-in-law) in 1864. Budweiser was introduced 1876 as a beer that would please the palates across all regions of the US (and now the world). While many may act too cool for Budweiser, no one can deny it's global and long lived success.

The Bevo packaging plant

Inside the plant... bottles being filled with Bud Light

Look at them go!

Bevo the fox was the spokesman of the non-alcoholic cereal drink that was introduced during Prohibition

He likes chicken with his non-alcoholic cereal drink

Remember my "World's Fair" discussion? These gorgeous chandeliers in the brewery came from one of the pavilions at the World's Fair

There was a sign pointing out that this was a photo opportunity... hence my goofy smile

The world famous Clydesdales' fancy get ups

Mickey the world famous dalmatian

and finally the world famous clydesdales!

maybe this is a better angle

At the end of the tour we got two free drinks (and some pretzels), here I am enjoying a Bud Light Lime

and Beth is enjoying a Shock Top

Katie's wedding

On a beautiful but slightly humid day in St.Louis, my friend Katie was married to Jason in the historic Tower Grove Park.

For desert there were these lovely and yummy pies. Chocolate and cherry. The were bigger than they appear in this picture (think the circumference of a mug). Beth and I split the two so we got to test each flavor.

There were cute pinwheels all over the place. This one is a centerpiece.

Park benches with pretty flags.

They nailed a wooden box closed that contained love letters to each other and a bottle of wine. The box is to remain closed till needed or till the 10th anniversary.

So cute.

My fan/program

The Music Stand

Hi!

Arch you glad to see me?

I don't know about you, but I can't get enough of the Arch. It is a bit like the Empire State building in that you can see it from all over the city, but it is a surprise when you do. Also like the ESB you can take an elevator to the top; having made this trip several times before, Beth and I opted out of the trip to the top.

Ahhhhhh

Beth says Yea!

Good thing I didn't weld it, my bead doesn't look near this good

We even had a view from our hotel room!

Meet me in St. Louis

Meet me in St. Louis, Louis,

Meet me at the fair,

Don't tell me the lights are shining

any place but there;

We will dance the Hoochee Koochee,

I will be your tootsie wootsie,

If you will meet in St. Louis, Louis,

Meet me at the fair.

Now I knew some really cool things came out of the 1904 world's fair, but along with learning a few additional facts about the fair I learned that St. Louis... it has been over 100 years, you may want to have a few newer things to talk about in your tourist materials...

A few facts:

Things invented at the fair: Ice cream cones, Ice tea, hot dogs, hamburgers

Things introduced and popularized at the fair: Dr Pepper, cotton candy, fruit icicle

I spent the last weekend in St. Louis (to help celebrate my friend Katie's marriage, more to come later) and enjoyed some of the modern day attractions of St.Louis.

Me and Jack Buck calling the game

I know what you are thinking... "that's no Kauffman stadium"

View from our hotel room

Citygarden- a cool fountain and statue park in downtown

I've been on a bunny kick lately

Looking for the main star of downtown? My friend the arch is coming soon...