gateway to the west

monday morning colb and i drove the 4 hours to st. louis before any human should be awake so he could do one installation for the company, and then we'd get the rest of the day to play. we got tickets to the cardinals game and were stoked to try some st. louis pizza. the job that was supposed to take about an hour ended up taking about triple that much...but no worries, I had fun sitting in the car waiting :)

when he was finally finished we were both staaarving, but had to find the hotel first. his job was in a suburb, so it took us a while to get there. then it was another 30ish minutes to drive to the pizza place i had found online and was apparently pretty awesome. you know that feeling when you're so hungry that you're past the point of being hungry? yeah. we were definitely there. but oh my goodness. was the pizza worth it. the one i got was honestly one the best pizzas i've ever tasted. garlic olive oil sauce with fresh mozzarella and artichoke hearts. colby said it tasted like glorified cheesy bread. i can't really argue with that, but it was heavenly. he got pepperoni and applewood smoked bacon, which was also delish.

also, this place gave us a jar of sea salt shavings to put on the pizza i guess? never heard of it, but no one enjoys her salt like this girl. and yes. we ate every bit of that.

next up was a stop at the supposedly pretty famous ted drewes frozen custard. obviously we had to try it after i saw it on man vs. food.

 cookie dough for both of us please. what else?

the verdict? it definitely wasn't the best i've had, but still great and worth trying. the big problem we had is that the cookie dough wasn't in big chunks like it usually is at other places and there were way too many chocolate chips getting in the way. those are just a road block for me. #firstworldproblems

last stop: downtown for the cardinals vs. padres game! busch stadium is an awesome stadium! it's literally right downtown, so the backdrop is amazing. it's also pretty new, but the red bricks they built it with make it look older and almost antique. i approve.

it was a great game despite our nosebleed seats! (they were only 3 dollars though! score.) the cards had a nice come-from-behind victory thanks to a nice home run. those are always good.

 and what would a trip to st. louis be without a picture by the arch? we didn't have time to get any closer than this, but we're planning on going back in august and will hopefully get closer, and maybe even ride to the top! woo!

the next morning we were up bright and early to get to the temple there before heading home. it's obviously beautiful, and basically everyone there told us they're happy to see some younger people. a lady in her 50's said to us that she's usually the youngest person there! happy to help. there was no one outside to take our picture except for the grounds workers..and i didn't feel comfortable enough to pull them away from their job to take our picture. so this is the best we got.

  yeah...i'm a nerd pants.

                                      
                                      

we though we were going home after this, but turns out he had to go back to that job and fix a few more things. which also took forever. we got back to good ol' kansas eventually, and had a great time on our little trip! 

st. louis: we'll be seeing you again soon.

best in the midwest

the title of this blog is not only a reference to the wizard of oz...but it actually applies to us first-time mid-westerners. both of us will always call utah our home, and it's basically where our entire lives have been lived. and there are things we will miss this summer. in n out. nielsens frozen custard (I could literally live off of that stuff. it's probably my favorite food). cafe rio/costa vida. mountains. dryness (i actually kinda like the humidity, but colby is not a fan). and of course our families.

but what would you do if I told you we found a place dare I say BETTER than in n out AND has frozen custard?!? Please contain your excitement for me.....

meet freddy's. apparently they started in wichita and grew all over kansas and various other places. none in utah yet, but colby said if we end up in utah it has to be st. george because there is currently a freddy's under construction in our favorite southern utah hotspot.

I know food pictures are boring-tastic and next time i'll try harder to get human beings in the pictures.

they even have fry sauce. 

colby went to ask if they had any spread-type sauce we could dip the fries in...he didn't even see the fry sauce dispenser right in front of him! who would expect that anywhere non-utah? the burgers are delish (in n outs buns are better, but there basically the same otherwise), the fries are ahhhhmazing (big advantage freddy's) and the cookie dough concrete reminded me of what heaven must be like. seriously, what is it about that stuff? oh and they have diet dr. pepper. hooray!

the workers were extremely nice and even gave us an extra custard cone for free because they made too many. score! we'll definitely became regulars at this place and will miss it when we don't live right down the street anymore. 

also, we know we're in the bbq capital of the world and will definitely take advantage! i've watched the man vs. food kansas city episode and have taken detailed notes. stay tuned...