We returned to St. Louis, MO after a thoroughly celebrated first birthday party in Springfield, IL.
We met up with the gang at the Saint Louis Zoo.
Granddad took a turn carrying Ern.
Lydia had also planned me a nice little surprise birthday party of some sort. We headed to Schnucks to look for beers. I thought it would be cool to get some 40 oz beers since it was my 40th birthday party. We hit maybe 2-3 stores and it turns out that 40s aren't that prevalent, even in St. Louis beer metropolis.
Seattle has a great beer scene but seeing the plethora of macro brewery products did give me some nostalgia, I will admit.
This absolutely atrocious 42 ounce Olde English malt liquor was the closest thing I could find. It tasted like it, too, was celebrating its 40th birthday. If I was capable of planning more than 15 minutes into the future I would have made use of my Anheuser-Busch contacts to procure said gigantic brewskies.
My surprise party was awesome. They rented a party bus that drove us around to all my favorite spots. We had a really good turn out and everyone dressed up as different "Johns". John Lennon, John Stockton, etc.
Ernie John even made an appearance. It was probably a little late for him but I requested the cameo so that my friends could meet him.
This stop was my favorite brewery in town: Earthbound. They make lots of weird cool flavors. And it's not just "let's put frosted flakes in this one" kind of cool, though I think they do some weird ingredients. They also make gruit, for example, which is a type of beer made before hops was a widespread ingredient. Sadly this brewery would close later this year so that makes this visit even more special. It may be the last time I set foot here.
Lyly was Olivia Newton-John.
Lainey "John Lennon" showing Ernie her guitar.
Brandon and Natalie came down from Chicago which was very surprising as well. I did my best to drink that horrid malt liquor but warming up did not help its flavor profile one bit.
Jay was John Belushi.
Zoe was John Deere. I remember how much I used to complain to my friends about always going to the same few bars in Soulard over and over and rarely succeeding them at getting them to try anything new. Well now I rarely see those friends anymore and a stop at McGurk's was major flashback inducing. Getting old is weird.
Silver Ballroom
Emily was Jimmy John's and Cassie was Elton John. People's costumes were pretty great.
Our last stop was River City Casino. Best birthday ever.
