Nashville, Land of Bachelorettes and Moon Pies

Lydia and I, and her sister Zoe all drove down to Nashville to visit their family for the weekend.

I think the highlight of the weekend for me was a little hike down at South Cumberland State Park. We hiked down in our swimsuits and took a little swim next to Greeter Falls waterfall. The water was freezing cold but it was well worth it. It started to rain while we were in the water, and each little water drop splashed and created a little bubble, and soon the whole little pond was full of tiny little splashes and bubbles. It was memorable.

We spent the next night popping around the honky-tonks of downtown's Broadway. We had a group game of see who can spot the most bachelorette parties. There are always a ton of them out there.

One poor band made the mistake of letting some of these screeching randoms on stage. It was not pleasant. I like the band's gas can tip jar there though. 

I was trying to do as much Tennessee-ish stuff as possible. Lydia's dad did a shot of Fireball with us which I was pretty excited about. We killed a box of Chattanooga TN's MoonPies this weekend as well. What else do you want?

Ticket Monsters

Everyone in St. Louis seems to be awash in free Cardinals tickets. They get them from work, school, friends... you can lick one and stick it to an envelope here instead of a stamp.

So when I come upon free tickets I do my best to share them with my buds, and they do the same, which translates into lots of free games. We live downtown within walking distance of Busch Stadium now which makes it even more fun and convenient.

Free Propaganda!

After Lydia got home from work I zoomed her over to the Missouri History Museum for some... history. Our friends Seago and Margaret met us there. You know what impresses girls on dates? Film studies professors giving free lectures on Nazi propaganda films, is what. Write that down.

I'll just borrow this description from the museum's website: 

Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens) is a filmed record of the 1934 Nazi Party Convention in Nuremberg. More than just a documentary, it is an exaltation of Adolf Hitler, who from the moment his plane descends from Valhalla-like clouds is visually characterized as a god on Earth. Join James Scott, professor emeritus of film studies at Saint Louis University, as he shares clips from the film and discusses its significance.

Illinois State Fair

Today my parents took us to the fair. Fun!

I hear the Texas fair has a giant cowboy that talks. I've gotta see that...

Unhealthy things were eaten.

Heads were stuck through hilarious cutouts.

We went to the dairy building.

We checked out the butter cow, bought some ice creams.. turned around and there was the Governor of the Great State of Illinois Bruce Rauner! Right?!

 Things are just so folksy and wholesome in Illinois.

St. Louis World's Fare

Today we went to this fun little festival at Forest Park called St. Louis World's Fare. We poked around the different tents and vendors but the main main draw for us was this awesome walking tour sponsored by the 1904 World's Fair Society. A member of the society walked us all over, pointing out and showing pictures of what the park looked like during the fair.

The 20 or so of us walked all the way to the Missouri History Museum and were handed off to another guide who showed us around the museum's permanent exhibit about the fair. So the current Saint Louis Art Museum building was built for the fair, but what I did not know was the reason for that. Fires were so common at the time that foreign countries would only agree to loan their artwork for display if the art building was fireproof. Fun fact complete.

World's Fairs are my favorite. Remember that time we went to Expo Milano 2015? Boom, no big deal.