St. Louis Trip, August 2008

Accomodations

We purchased rooms on Hotwire and received 2 nights at the Drury Inn (Broadway and 6th) for $54 a night. This was a bargain price for a downtown hotel that included free parking. Overall, I must give the Drury a positive rating. On a scale of 1 to 5, I would probably go with a 3.0. It was certainly above average. The perks include: free wireless internet, Microwave (which we didn't use), mini fridge, free breakfast, free snacks 5:30-7:00, and free popcorn/soda from 3-10pm. The parking was free, however our parking experience resulted in Garland adding his first significant "scratch/dent" to the Grand Caravan. In essence, our access cards were magically 'erased' twice during our 2 night stay. The first time it occurred was outside the parking garage. The garage was secured by an automatic door. The card didn't work and given the line of cars behind me and the inavailability of any Drury Personnel within 100 yards, I attempted unsuccessfully to vacate the location, but not prior to scraping the side of the van on a concrete median. In the end, we ended up "sneaking" in the garage as someone else was exiting, then had to call the front desk from outside the deck to get into the hotel, and a second time later than night, we had to call the front desk again after I had intended on returning to my car to get my wallet only to find that upon entry we were once again locked out. A couple other disappointments with the hotel was that while it was "downtown" as Hotwire reported, it was on the northern edge of the downtown area an actually was very close to some not so nice parts of town.


Sights and Sounds

We visited several key St. Louis attractions during our stay. We started at St. Louis Mills shopping mall. Julie and I used to frequent "the mills" on day trips when we lived in Jacksonville. It was an enjoyable trip, but we primarily browsed and spent very little money. I must say that it seemed like an increased number of storefronts were vacant. On Wednesday morning, we went to Forest Park. We started at St. Louis Zoo, followed by a jaunt off campus to Qdoba for lunch, and then returning in the afternoon to St. Louis Science Center and the Planetarium. I found the Planetarium to be most intriguing. Rather than sitting in chairs at other planetariums I have visited, we were offered the choice of mats to lie on. We opted for the mats, and while Apple and Julie reportedly slept through parts of the presentation, I really enjoyed the show. The only think I could have used was a small pillow.


Mixed Service

I would dare say that we certainly experienced a fair mix of highs and lows in terms of "service" from various destinations while in St. Louis. Unfortunately, bad service experiences tend to influence my opinion more than good ones. Good Service was certainly received at the Forest Park Visitor's Center, The Forest Park Zoo, and J.F. Filipinno's restaurant. On the other hand, the front desk staff at Drury were less than enthusiastic, nor were the breakfast/snack personnel. Also, rather unfriendly was the ticket taker at the Science Museum. If I could characterize the poor service is was less a service issue and more an "attitude" of "since I clearly don't want to do this job, I am going to let my crankiness or bad mood wear off on everyone. I think the ultimate in poor customer service occurred at Urban Wear in St. Louis Mills. The front desk clerk was on the phone the entire time we were in the store, including when Apple paid for her items. At one point the clerk moved the phone away from her, telling us that "I am on the phone with the manager" only to continue talking about everything under the weather 'except' work. I haven't a clue if she truly thought she was fooling us, but it was certainly a sign of the difficulties in finding decent service workers.


Chow Time!

Dining out was a high point of our trip. We ate at Filipinno's on the first evening in St. Louis, Tuesday night. We were at first reluctant to try this place, thinking this was just another high priced overrated eatery attached to the hotel. But after reading the numerous positive reviews on Yahoo we were convinced to give it a whirl. It was a great experience at a very affordable price. Given that we had been snacking earlier in the evening, Apple and Julie choose to share an entry, and we all passed on appetizers and salads. I went with the Cavetelli Con Brocolli. It was delicious. The cavatelli was served piping hot with a cream sauce with Garlic and small Broccoli spears. The broccoli was cooked right on and the cream sauce was to die for. Given that I don't normally eat "authentic mom and pop" eateries, I can compare this only to places like Olive Garden and all I can say is that if Filipinno's was in Bloomington, I would not be visiting Olive Garden - ever again.
For lunch on Wednesday we opted for Qdoba. Nothing special, but a favorite for us and certainly a relief from burgers and buffets. Supper consisted of an abbreviated second round from Filipinno's. We decided to get a carry out pizza. It was advertised in the menu as St. Louis style, and the thin crust was representative of St. Louis' style pizza, but clearly it was missing the trademark Provel Cheese. I was slightly disappointed as I love Provel, but it was still good and a cheap alternative to paying for three full meals. We supplemented the carry out pizza with the complinentary chips and soda from the Drury Inn.


Card Shark

We believe that in addition to Apple's numerous achievements while in Thailand, she must have also led a secret life as a professional card player or something. We played numerous games of rummy and Golf (a less popular but simple card game) and she whipped us nearly each and every time. This actually was one of the more enjoyable parts of our trip. After spending the day on the town, we returned each night to the Drury, took over a space in the breakfast area, and played cards for several hours. In between we watched the numerous 'hotel residents' passing through.

Around town

In preparation for our exchange student's arrival, we went around town and took some pictures of the various places that we frequent or places that Apple may frequent...such as the school.

Minier Avenue -- the main road through Minier

A&D's house

Busses at school

Dairy Barn

G&M's House

Olympia West Elementary

Minier Library

Olympia High School

Fast Stop (one of two gas stations in town)

Minier Christian Church

Na Na Thai Restaurant Review

Friday afternoon, Julie called me at work, checking on dinner plans. I had left work early to go to a retirement party for Les Miller, recently retired from DCFS. I suggested that I could bring home carry-out First Wok, a small family owned Chinese restaurant in Lincoln. Instead, she was hungry for Thai food and anxious to visit a local Thai restaurant so that we could send pictures to Apple. Apple is our soon-to-arrive exchange student from Thailand. She will be coming to live with us next August, attending school at Olympia for the 2008-2009 school year.

I believe there are now three Thai restaurants in Bloomington. Because Bloomington-Normal is home to Illinois State University, Mitsubishi Motors, and State Farm, there is a sizable Asian population in the community. The king of all Asian restaurants is surely Ming's Buffet. It is always packed and as such commands a hefty $12.00 a piece for dinner. While I love Ming's, I hate crowds. Plus, our original intent was to eat Thai. So we chose to eat at Na Na Thai. They are located in what I refer to as Kmart plaza, directly north of Eastland Mall. As a side note, I would expect Eastland Mall will become a favored attraction for Apple. While the Shoppes at College Hills is a much newer mall with a number of upscale shops, its not enclosed. Our only favored store at College Hills is Gordmans. On to the food....
We always start our meals with our favorite appetizer, Crab Rangoon. We are rather convinced in our conversations with Apple that this appetizer is not native to Thailand nor any other region. But like many other foods that are transformed in America to something greasier, higher in fat, or generally unhealthy, Crab Rangoon hits the mark. Their version is slightly different, focusing on smaller portions. As a result rather than the 4 or 5 portions that most other restaurants serve, they offer 8. Additionally, I opted for Thai Eggrolls. They didn't contain the cabbage found in most Chinese eggrolls. Instead, they contained some glass noodles, bean sprouts and minced chicken. If anything, they were simple. Both the eggrolls and Crab Rangoon were presented with sweet and sour sauce.

Since the names were literally in Thai, I chose my entree based on ingredients. I chose a dish composed of wide rice noodles, chicken, and broccoli, sauteed. Julie tells me it was called Pad See Eew.

Julie's was similar, but instead containing green onions, tomatoes, chicken, and jalapeno peppers. Both were served with a scrambled egg on top. She is not sure of the spelling but believes it was called Pad Kee Mow.

Na Na Thai is a hit for us. The service is prompt. Its rarely crowded. And the food is of decent sized portion. But instead of leaving a chinese buffet bloated from overeating, you leave Na Na Thai with a content feeling, being satisfied by a made to order dish.

Soma FM

Given that gas is now $3.50 or more per gallon, I know longer have the Sunday night blues knowing I have to go back to work the next day. Instead, its the Saturday night blues of not being able to drive to my in-laws to mushroom hunt because it will cost us $50 round trip in gas. Julie called her mom earlier today. They found 2 pounds of morels today, and her dad found 1 pound a day earlier. I expect pictures.

Right now, I am sitting here listening to soma fm. Soma is a 24 hour internet radio station. There are 8 or 10 streaming feeds. Disclaimer: this is not the kind of music commonly found on FM radio. I spend most of time listening to Space Station Soma, described on their page as "spaced out ambient and mid tempo electronica." In years past, I really enjoyed listening to Hearts of Space on Public Radio. They currently maintain a website which requires a payment to listen. Why pay for something that I can enjoy for free. And actually, tonight I have discovered a new addition to Soma's channel lineup called Boot Liquor. Again, their descriptions are much better than anything I can write: "Americana roots music with a bit of attitude. For Cowhands, Cowpokes and Cowtippers." The music is a combination of older country and folk music. Its kind of a nice break from commercialized music. The songs are simple, the lyrics are clearly understood, and the sound is pretty soft.

Sunday Musing

We went to church today. A breakfast was offered after the service, and we decided to stay a bit. The breakfast was composed of biscuits and gravy, breakfast casserole, plus various sweets and breads. The fellowship hall was quite full.

This afternoon, Jadyn and Chelsea came over as they had been wanting to use the internet. Their computer is presently not working. In fact, the CPU remains in our entryway, waiting for Tara to order the new part. Anyway, I recently connected an older Hewlett Packard CPU that my parents had given me after they purchased a new one. Apparently, they were having trouble connecting to Verizon DSL and as such, bought a newer computer anyway. I knew it was a bit older, having Windows ME on it rather than XP. I have been reading alot about Linux lately, so I decided to load Puppy Linux on it. Linux is essentially an alternate operating system to Windows with a greater emphasis on allowing the end user to modify the system to suit their needs. Anyway, much of its usefulness is beyond my abilities, but I did discover a neat little utility that discovered the drivers necessary to operate via the ethernet card. In other words, we now have a third computer that has the potential to be connected to the network.

Around 3:30pm, Terry Komnick tilled our garden. We didn't take pictures, but we are so happy that the garden is finally near planting time. In fact, we are apparently a little behind schedule for potatoes. I need to be on the road for a couple days, but my father may come over and help plan some potatoes Tuesday.

My brother is gone on a fishing trip, so we decided to cook out on the bbq grill for supper, inviting his wife Melissa and our niece Colby over. My parents also came over. Typically, whenever we cook out, we go to my parents house for supper. But I was intent on staying around the house today, so I insisted that everyone come to our house for supper. Mom cooked some baked potatoes. We grilled butterflied pork chops plus some tenderized pork chops. This was our first use of the bbq grill this year and I bought a single use charcoal bag for cooking.
The meat actually turned out really well. The secret to pork is avoid cooking it too long. Otherwise, it will dry out. Unfortunately, in an effort to promote the health advantages of this meat, pork producers generate a really lean piece of meat that dries out easily. So its essential to not allow the pork to overcook. In some cases, marinading the pork also aids in ensuring it stays moist.

Saturday April 19, 2008

We had a busy weekend. Saturday, we had planned on hitting some garage sales in Heritage Lake. The advertisement indicated that there were nearly 50 garage sales. We were unimpressed. Most sales were composed of only a couple tables with very little 'stuff'. We decided after driving around the area that we would instead take a drive. So we headed on through Mackinaw, hit Allentown road, and crossed over to Tremont and finally Pekin. We went to Menards, Big Lots, and Walmart.
Saturday night we met Tara/Brad and Tanya/Brian at Lone Star Steakhouse. It was a much better experience than Longhorn. I chose the Garlic Lover's Beef Medallions and Shrimp. Julie went with a Sirloin. The meal was enjoyable, unfortunately Tara had fallen ill so she had to leave dinner early.
After supper, we eventually made it back to Tanya and Brian's house, and played Phase 10 for a couple hours. This is a really fun card game. I think we will have to purchase it. There were only four of us playing - Austin, Tanya, myself, and Julie. Here are a few pictures I took of the girls tonight:

Seeding the yard

I arrived home tonite to find that my father and brother were working in my backyard. Dad brought over his cultivator to till up what was remaining of a dirt pile from last year's pool installation. Given that rain was in the forecast, we took this opportunity to plant some grass over the newly tilled ground. Shown here is a picture of our Crocs. Julie's are original Crocs while mine are imitations. The difference between them - $20. As you can see, Julie's Crocs demonstrate that she is a bit messier in the yard than I am.




















Below is a picture of our mighty Simplicity riding lawn mower along with attached wagon. We bought the mower last spring from a shop in Covell, IL. Paid only $600 for it. It several years old, but does have a hydrostratic transmission. The wagon has proven quite useful since its purchase from Tractor Supply Company in Pekin last fall. As you can see, our backyard opens up to a cornfield.
















While we are in close proximity to several universities, we are predominantly a rural community. We do not have skyscrapers like big cities. Instead, like most other farming communities, our largest structure in town is the 'elevator.' To avoid confusion, the term elevator normally refers to a vertical motorized shaft used to transport folks from one floor to another. However, in terms of this structure, it is called an elevator because of the action it takes to elevate local produced corn and soybeans. The round structures, both concrete and metal, are commonly referred to as bins. They are used to store either corn or soybeans. Prior to depositing, corn must be dried. After circulating in a dryer, it is elevated to the top of this structure, then deposited via conveyors or other shafts to the bins surround the elevator.

Top Chef is Tops

Here I am, sitting in front of the tube, watching one of my few favorite reality television shows - Top Chef. If you haven't watched it and enjoy cooking, this is a great show. Its rather light on character development, but very heavy on technique, creativity, and good food. What I really like is the naming conventions that they use. "I made a braised pear wedge marinated in a coriander mango salsa." Anyway, Top Chef airs Wednesday at 9pm Central on Bravo.

Road Trip

I completed a bit of a 'road trip' today. I was scheduled to be in Rock Falls for some case staffings. I had originally intended on traveling to Rock Falls last night, as it's a bit of a drive. But I decided that I wanted to sleep in my own bed, so I started early this morning. On the way up, I took I-39 up to Rt 52, about 10 miles north of Lasalle-Peru. This route shoots to the northwest through Mendota and Amboy. From there, I hit Rt 30 East and cruised in Rock Falls at 9:00am. This trip was exactly 2 1/2 hours. Actually, the trip was a bit longer than planned. The accessibility evaluation that I assumed was in the Rock Falls area was in fact 45 minutes northwest. Near as I can tell, we were about 15 minutes from Clinton, IA and about 30 minutes south of Galena. The only consolation to the trip was that it was an absolutely gorgeous drive, with hardly a cloud in the sky. And we passed through a number of quaint little towns with some gorgeous older homes.

On the return trip, I opted for an alternate route. I took Rt 40 straight south out of Rock Falls, and stayed on this road all the way to Peoria. It was about 70 miles of 2-lane driving. Luckily, I don't think I passed more than one car in the 70 miles, and I was cruising at 60mph most of the drive. About the only highlight of the return trip was a stop at the Casey's in Bradford to refill the gas tank and belly.

Morel season is nearly here!

Sunday Blues

Yesterday was a rather lackluster day. We missed church, getting home rather late on Saturday from our outing in Springfield. A few days ago, we received our 1/2 hog that we had purchased. There was plenty of ground pork so I felt compelled to make meatloaf. There are lots of meatloaf recipes out there, but my favorite by far is one that has been tested thoroughly by the folks at Cooks Illustrated. It is essentially a blend of ground pork and ground beef with a few spices, milk, egg, Worcestershire sauce, a dab of hot sauce and a dab of mustard. Add some cracker crumbs, and the loaf is nearly complete. A glaze on top consists of a combination of ketchup, brown sugar, and vinegar. Anyway, that was lunch along with a bit of macaroni and cheese.

We finally ventured out of the house late in the afternoon when we took a drive down to the Talberts in Armington. Julie stayed inside, visiting the girls while I hung around with Brad and Zack. Upon arrival, Brad was welding a deer stand. Apparently the stand had broken last year and needed a bit of maintenance. Later, we ventured down to the timber for a short "walk in the woods". Their stream was up quite a bit, as evidenced by "Reggie", their black lab mix, having to swim through the stream to fetch a stick. Zach was really wanting us to take him to Ming's for supper, offering not only to buy his own supper but ours as well. We were tired from the previous night's venture so we offered a rain check. Apparently, his baseball season begins next week with a game in Atlanta on Sunday. We suggested that, possibly, we could go to Ming's Sunday evening.

Longhorn Steakhouse

Saturday evening we met Julie's parents, Grandma, plus Jennifer, Edward, and Jake at Longhorn Steakhouse in Springfield. I can sum up the meal in one word - overrated! Our goal was first to locate a restaurant that took reservations or at least had call ahead seating. The only two that came to mind were Red Lobster and Longhorn.

It was a good thing that Julie called ahead. Even with the call ahead seating, we stood for nearly 45 minutes waiting for a table. For those who have never been to Longhorn, its easy to get confused. There are many other similarly named and themed restaurants including Lone Star Steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse, and Logan's Roadhouse. We prefer Texas Roadhouse over others both for the price and atmosphere, but alas there was not Texas Roadhouse in Springfield, the optimal halfway point for all of us.

With 8 of us in the group, the orders ranged from the Rocky Top Chicken to Top Sirloin. As for Julie and I, Julie opted for the Cheeseburger and fries, adding a salad. I have a soft spot for Prime Rib, so I went with the longhorn sized Prime rib - 10 ounces, I think. The steak came with au jus for dipping, plus a horseradish sauce. I ordered my steak medium with a baked potato, butter and sour cream, and a salad with honey mustard dressing. The salad was fine, nothing to write home about, but good none the less. The prime rib was average. It had quite a bit more fat that I would have expected. The horseradish dip was a pleasant surprise and had an eye opening flavor. My biggest disappointment of the evening was the baked potato. It was rather blah. If you're gonna be known as a steakhouse and everyone who orders steaks usually asks for a potato, you'd think the would place some emphasis on good potatoes. The potato was flavorless as was the sour cream. At least at Red Lobster they have a bit of salt crusted on the skin. I found myself continually dousing the potato with salt and pepper, giving it what flavor I could. In the end, I did clean my plate, but I doubt I'll be returning for another round at Longhorn unless someone else is paying. I've had better prime rib at St. Croix Casino in Turtle Lake or Gil's Restaurant here in Minier.