Something that has been on my St. Louis wish list for years has been a ride on one of the paddle boats docked on the Mississippi near the Arch. I used to very much enjoy free movies in the Before Times and I have a secret network of sources that I use to gain access to sneak previews all over town. One of the promotion companies that runs those also hosts the occasional little event in support of a movie release. This time was a river cruise advertising Disney's Jungle Cruise starring Dwayne Johnson. I even somehow conned Seago into coming with. When you're leaving possibly never to return people actually want to hang out with you. It's kind of like a crappy little shop makes so much money on their going out of business sale that they decide to stay open type of thing. This particular shop is definitely still closing but the uptick in business is appreciated.
I don't remember this clipboard dude's name but I've seen him working at so many free movies that it's kind of embarrassing.
One is called the Tom Sawyer but today we were riding on its sister ship the Becky Thatcher. You don't get more Missourah than that.
They has little drawings and contests and things where you could win tickets and prizes. I won nothing.
The boat had a cash bar though where everyone was a winner.
We cruised past the Anheuser-Busch brewery. I drank a lot of beer there too while I was employed there but it was all free. So free.
Seago and I then headed to what I think we both agree is the best brewery in town: Perennial. The name of this place always makes me laugh a little bit because there's also a local non-profit named Perennial that teaches people to like... craft things out of recycled materials... Anyway a friend of a friend works at the boring one, and more than once they've told me they work at "Perennial", I get all excited, they explain they mean the lame one, and then I must with my face make it clear that I am very disappointed in them. I see this person so seldomly that I've done this to them more than once because I forgot about the previous conversation. Anyway, you know a supreme court justice summed up what happened next better than I could:
"I drank beer with my friends. Almost everyone did. Sometimes I had too many beers. Sometimes others did. I liked beer. I still like beer, but I did not drink beer to the point of blacking out and I never sexually assaulted anyone."
I did however assault this hominy lager. "Hominy" is also just a very fun word to say. "Hominy".
They had some fancy bottles of aged expensive stuff that normally you have to win a lottery or wait in a long line to obtain, but I think covid might've messed up the supply lines or something. We walked out with some easily procured treasures as a result.
We were in an Uber and were headed to some restaurant. I chatted up the driver who happened to be I want to say Kurdish Iraqi, and asked him if there was Kurdish food in town. He said all the cool kids eat at Sultan Mediterranean Restaurant in the Grove so we changed course and headed there.
The Sultan Pilau was fun to eat. They described it as "basmati rice with lamb shank meat, almonds, pistachio, raisins, walnuts, and carrots served inside a filo dough pocket served with salad" but I would call it a softball full of deliciousness.
