4th of July weekend

Kraig and I had such a good 4th of July weekend! Our friends Justin and Teresa (from Michigan) came to visit us. They got here Friday evening. We showed them to their luxurious accomodations (an air mattress in our living room) and introduced them to Baxter.
Friday evening, we went out to eat in downtown Waterloo, IL at   . Our burgers and fries were excellent- even though they were those crinkle cut ones, that Kraig usually doesn't like.

Saturday was a fun-filled day of tourist attractions! Yay! We started off by touring the Budweiser Brewery in the morning. It was a really fun tour. We got to see the Clydesdales, where the beer is aged, where it is mixed, and where it is bottled. We learned the basic process of making beer and got to have some free samples afterwards! We also got some free Budweiser glasses... okay we weren't supposed to get those- but I do have Skronski blood in me after all, so the glasses that contained our free samples came home with us too.
The six ingredients for making beer are rice, yeast, hops, water, malt, and barley. The yeast gives the alcohol, and the hops give the beer its bitterness. If I remember correctly, the rice gives the beer its color. The brewery is really cool because it looks so old, and everything around it smells like wheat/barley. It actually smells really good.
Another interesting tidbit- during Prohibition, the Budweiser plant remained open but just made different products, such as ice cream! Also, when Prohibition ended, cases of beer were piled onto a cart pulled by the Clydesdales. The Clydesdale team took the beer all the way from St. Louis and delivered it to the White House!
We also learned that these giant containers hold 200,000 6 packs of beer, and that the beer is aged here over beechwood chips for 21 days. Budweiser is actually a pretty "green" company. Any grain that is unused when making the beer is used to feed livestock. Last year, they recycled 99% of the solid waste which they generated. Yay! I feel so much better about drinking my Bud Lite now.
Anyway, Kraig and Justin had a ton of fun during the tour- mostly because they got to drink free beer so early in the day. Both of them actually willingly posed for pictures, and Teresa said that she has never seen Justin smile so much! The tour was really fun but we missed our photo op with one of the Clydesdales. I guess I will just have to go again!
After the brewery, we headed to the St. Louis Zoo. The zoo is really great, especially since it is free! I am sure that we would have enjoyed it even more if it had not been 100 degrees that day, and if our feet did not hurt from so much walking. Some of the animal highlights included, elephants, hippos, gorillas, kangaroos, bears, seals, and penguins (of course)! The hippos were swimming, aka walking underwater, all around their exhibit- so that was pretty cool, and the penguins were great as always.

The best part of seeing the penguins was that we touched one. I know that we weren't supposed to, but they were swimming so close to us that all we had to do was reach over and pet their backs when they were swimming by. I am slightly ashamed to report that I did this, but it was still pretty cool- oh, and I blame it all on Kraig. The three of us were just minding our own business when he started it all. He touched it and then had this giant devious smile (like he knew he was doing something wrong but didn't care). I was so mad (and jealous)! For 2 minutes or so I contemplated touching one too. Once I finally did, so did Justin. He did not want to be left out. Kudos to Teresa for being the most well behaved. There were two tanks of penguins- the emperors on one side and the rockhoppers on the other. It was funny because I guess there is always one little rockhopper that somehow gets out of his tank to sneak over and stand with the emperors. He is pictured above. His story just makes him that much cuter!
After the zoo, we were starving so we headed down to the Riverfront to eat at one of the casino buffets. I was scared that the price was going to be outrageous at Lumiere Place Casino, and it was. However, they had a special deal going for buy one get one free since the Cardinals won their baseball game that day. Thank you St. Louis Cardinals!
We really enjoyed the buffet. It was nice to sit down after a long day and have what turned out to be some really good food. Kraig, Justin, and Teresa were happy because of all of the seafood, especially Kraig! Teresa had crab legs for the first time, and Justin had oysters for the first time. I think that Kraig was happy to share that "under the sea" moment with them. As for me, I stuck to my mac and cheese and prime rib, thank you very much!
Afterwards, we gambled a little and headed back to our car. We checked out the flooded Mississippi River and got to see an unexpected fireworks show too! When we tried to leave the city to go home, we found that all of the roads we wanted were blocked off, and somehow we ended up on a crazy street which ran between a railroad and the levee along the River! It was pretty messed up. I have no idea how we got there, and we all felt like it was not the best place to be at night! We did survive though and made it back to the apartment to rest up for the next day.

We had originally planned to go into St. Louis for the Fourth of July celebration on their subway system (the LightRail). I love sharing the wonders of public transit with people, and this would have been Teresa's first time on a train. However, Kraig did not exactly make it to the train station, and instead, we drove downtown.  Once we got there, we headed for the Arch. There were tons of food booth all around the Arch which made up the celebration called Fair St. Louis. It was pretty cool, and there were tons of people.
Justin and Teresa got their tickets to go up into the Arch but we had a little downtime before they could go. We walked to all of the restaurants/bars along the historic riverfront and down the cobblestone streets. We ended up eating at Morgan Street Brewery, which was great. Justin and Kraig had, you guessed it, beer samplers from the brewery. I had a few "spirits" myself. All in all, the food was pretty good, and afterwards we headed back to the Arch. While Justin and Teresa were going up in the Arch, Kraig and I found a place to sit to watch the fireworks. I ended up surviving a torrential downpour, but I still got us what I thought to be good seats. (more on this later).
Anyway, I think Justin and Teresa enjoyed going up in the Arch. Once we met back up with them, Teresa joked and said that they could see us when they looked down from the Arch. The funny part is, that when she zoomed in on some of the pictures that she took from the top, she could actually see us!

While waiting for the fireworks, I got to watch an air show, complete with a fighter jet and a lady dancing on a biplane! Teresa and I also had some corn dogs. I cannot go to a fair without getting one of those! Kraig enjoyed his giant turkey leg which made him look very "cavemanesque."My friend Heather and her boyfriend, Kevin also met up with us to watch the fireworks. I have really enjoyed getting to hang out with her so much this summer!
The fireworks were good, but they did not show up in the part of the sky that I thought they would. This meant that we had a nice tree branch partially obstructing our view and the heads of all of the thousands of people that showed up to watch them 5 minutes before they were released. Oh well, they did play patriotic music during the show, and some of the really big fireworks lit up the Arch for a brief second.
After the crowd cleared, we headed back to our car but realized that if we left then we would only be stuck in a traffic jam and probably somehow end up by the levee again. So, we decided to wait it out.  Luckily, an Elvis impersonator (or was it the real one)? was nearby to entertain us. This now makes 2 years in a row that Kraig and I got to see the fireworks at a national monument and got to see Elvis in the same day. All that I can say is try to not be jealous! Ha!
It really was a great weekend, and I loved being able to show our guests a good time in the Lou! We will miss them, but they had to hurry back to Michigan on Monday to go to work.. or was it to see their weiner dog, Scrap?