Modern Stone-Age Family

I always say that the closest you can get to the fun of doing something for the first time is to do something with someone and it's their first time. So I was excited to take Julie and Renaud out on a Halloween bar crawl in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood for their first Halloweeny experience.

Checking in was a mess with a lot of lines, so we didn't stay long. Our French friends were surprised at how revealing some of the costumes were.

I don't think Julie ever drinks and Renaud is a baker and had to go to bed pretty early, so we were trying to think of something to amuse them in the area and why the heck not mini golf at Flatstick Pub? The fact that we've already paid for lifetime passes had nothing to do with our decision, I can assure you.

Flintstones fit check. A lot of people gave me "yabba dabbas" on the street which I appreciated. One rando even told me how Fred was his role model because he always stopped working when the bird whistle blew at the quarry. I hadn't considered that he was such a working class hero.

I had the honor of spray painting Lydia's hair orange back at the house.

Wilmaaaaa!

We let our friends borrow some of our costumes from past years.

I beat Lydia's little butt.

Yabba dabba, yabba dabba dabba do now.

Onesie Bar Crawl

It was time for the annual Onesie Bar Crawl. This year we continued our tradition of just showing up at the bars wearing our onesies and not actually paying to participate. Sorry for party rocking.

Got some crooning done at Carson's, as is traditional.

Sometimes when you mess with the lion you get the claws.

Big Daddy's had inexplicably tiny beer pong happening outside in the tent.

Beer nerd trivia: Big Daddy's was once the headquarters for the Koch and Feldkamp Brewery, which didn't survive prohibition. Louis Koch's great-great-grandson Jim Koch (founder of Sam Adams' Boston Beer Company) found the recipe for his beer that was brewed in St. Louis, and the rest is history. You're welcome, Boston.

12 Bars of Charity

12 Bars of Charity is a bar crawl around Downtown and Soulard and the proceeds go to numerous good causes. It's cool because you can pick your favorite from a long list of charitable causes and then you get a sweatshirt whose color corresponds to your charity. It sort of like a friendly gang war. I'd always wondered what this particular bar crawl was like because I'd often seen participants walking around in their sweatshirts. Well the wonder was now over.

I don't even recall which charity I picked but I can assure you with humility that all other charities are inferior.

We started off at McGurk's, as many a misadventure does.

There were a couple people out today and they were both thirsty.

Emily was out there crushing it.

Somehow we ended up at Ballpark Village. I don't know.

There were buses running that were supposed to ferry you between the different bars on the crawl. Well I don't think they really prepared for the amount of humanity that turned up for this. The amount of piles of people running to catch buses was reminiscent of a disaster movie. "Don't leave me behind!"

"I'll never forget you!"

I want to say that Blake and I got separated from everyone else and then... ended up at Start Bar?

Sitki likes to wear the same clothes as me. I think he may be trying to steal my identity. If he starts shaving his head I'm going into hiding. It's like Pepsi out there stunting but RC Cola is always lurking in the shadows waiting for an opportunity.

It was tough to get onto a bus but once you were on you changed classes immediately. "Driver, do not stop for this trash." If memory serves, my tip to the driver included one of the comically large beers I bought at a gas station.

When all else fails... go back to McGurk's. Many a misadventure start at McGurk's.

We had a little pizza at Joanie's. We all realized that Emily has a... dependency on garlic knots. Intervention!

I ate a pizza and then rested my eyes for 1 minute and my hater paparazzi comes out the woodwork. Sad stuff. I found that hat on the floor. 

Halloween: Tower Grove Style

This year for Halloween we mixed it up a bit and did a Halloween bar crawl in Tower Grove.

We wore the best costumes at Target that not very much money could buy: hotdog and praying mantis.

I did come correct with the hotdog jokes though.

What did the Buddhist say to the hotdog vendor?

Make me one with everything.

Joel wore his Nebraskan tuxedo. I'm not convinced he even knew this was a costume party.

Steph and Neil had a pretty great Macho Man and Slim Jim costume that won a prize. Fittingly the prize was in the form of a pro wrestler looking belt.

Found some kindred spirits.

We met up with Viry and Lolo and Le French at some point. They were multiple drinks ahead of us.

They were dressed up like Batman villains.  Here some of them are sleeping on a pool table, as is the custom in France. I think one of them knocked over one of those free standing heater towers. Good times.

"If someone asks if you are a god, you say, 'yes!'"

We ended on a high note: delicious bar food at Stella Blues. I distinctly remember Le French knocking over someone's drink and getting yelled at here.