St. Louis
Last weekend Kimberly and I made a little road trip to visit Jenna in St. Louis. Jenna actually lives in Chaffee, a town almost two hours further from St. Louis but on our way there we stopped in the city to pick up another single sister who is living there right now. It made for a long trip but was totally worth every moment. Plus, Jenna happens to be working at the Unilever plant that makes ice cream…Klondike, Talenti, Magnum, and the like, which means we got to have a fun sampling session after the car ride.
The weekend was a great combination of relaxing and exciting. We stayed up late Friday talking and touring Jenna’s cute (and classy for a small town) apartment. Saturday I should have slept in but I woke up to do some reading for school and felt fatigued for most of the day. In the morning we went to the Trail of Tears State Park and watched a film on the Trail of Tears before heading to a lookout spot on the river. That era of American history really interests me and I think it is downplayed in schools today; Indians suffered horrible things when the white man decided this land was his.
Although it’s fall in the Midwest the weather was so warm and instead of sporting boots and scarves we were sweating in 3/4 length and short sleeves. But the trees were beautiful and I’m glad Jenna enjoys messing around with photography because we took advantage of the natural beauty offered at the state park. Kimberly and Victoria waited patiently and snapped an occasional iPhone photo.
Lying down on the road and taking pictures is fun until you forget that there are cars that drive on that road and its hilly and curvy. There was one instance that was a little close but nothing life threatening! Ha.
After soaking up the view and smell of autumn at the state park we headed to an apple butter festival. From what we had read about it online it sounded like a pretty big ordeal, and when we arrived it became very obvious that this was no small occurrence. Like Jenna said, “The whole state of Missouri must be here!” We had to park at a school and take their shuttle system to get dropped off at the festival. There was everything from knock-off name brand goods to beer by the pitcher. There was fried food, baked goods, candles, and a cute little stand with homemade creme soda.
There were also dog treats that looked like donuts and cookies we humans would eat and if I hadn’t warned Jenna that they were for dogs she may have bought one of the donuts. They were super cute!
We also got a gooey butter cake because it’s a signature dish in Missouri apparently. Kimberly and Victoria found that it was pretty rich but Jenna and I really enjoyed it. You’ve just gotta try what the locals make because they do it the best.
The festival was name after the tradition of making apple butter and they had been working on it since 3 that morning! Although we didn’t buy any we did get to sample some at one of the vendors who was selling many varieties.
We did not walk by nearly all of the booths, probably not even half. Somewhere mentioned there being a thousand vendors or something along those lines. After a little while we’d seen enough, plus some of the group wasn’t feeling very great and the festival was ending soon so we wanted to beat the rush out of there.
Once we were out of the festival we headed into Victoria’s to switch around/drop off vehicles at her apartment and then we hit a killer bbq joint in St. Louis. There was a wait for dinner so we spent some time at a bookstore. After having some of the best meat I’ve ever eaten we did a few errands and ended up at Victoria’s for the night. Even though it was late in the evening I was so tired that I had a cup of coffee before bed so I could stay up at least a little bit later. I still slept great. Oh the perks of being young!
Sunday we worshipped at the St. Louis church which was about a forty minute drive from Victoria’s. With a three car caravan we did pretty well not getting separated in traffic and we were there plenty early. It was so amazing to worship with the small congregation there and be reminded of how important it is that we gather together on Sundays to worship, even if it’s a small crowd.
After church, Jenna, Kim, and I went on a walk at a nearby trail before we headed home. It was another beautiful day and so enjoyable to chat and walk, soaking up our last hour together.
Jenna was such a great hostess and I’ll repeat what I said at the beginning: the hours on the road were worth every moment.
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