a spank-tastic day

I'm not sure I would really consider this a "St. Louis Day", but we did make a trip out to another FREE thing to do: Grant's Farm. OK, not exactly free, since it costs $11 to park, and there is really not a whole lot to do since there are limited numbers of animals and we didn't really care about seeing the show, but still something to do in St. Louis... and of course, an excuse for us to go to a new-to-us frozen custard stand.

The two pro's about Grant's Farm: feeding the ridiculously cute goats (who are a little too greedy at times -- especially the bigger ones), and FREE beer! AB-InBev products again (and not nearly the variety we had at the brewery), but still, 2 free, decent-sized samples. Plus, it was nice just to relax, drink beer, and people watch. A nice, stress-free HOT summer afternoon.

Not too far down the road is a frozen custard stand the Hubs has been wanting to try for awhile: Spanky's Frozen Custard. He did his student teaching right down the road (geez, almost 10 years ago) and figured Grant's Farm would be a good excuse to check it out.

Another tiny little stand, with hand-written menus. Classic. Again, it took us awhile to search the menu for what we wanted. It didn't help that the specialty concretes/sundaes didn't have descriptions with them. We ended up asking the nice worker about a few, including the California Crunch (vanilla custard + chocolate chips + granola + coconut + pecans). My mouth seriously fell to the floor when he said granola. Yes, granola is another slight obsession I have. (I may or may not have been known to eat a whole Costco-sized bag in one sitting...) Of course, with the word "granola", I absolutely HAD to get this one, except without the pecans (I'm not so big on nuts in ice cream -- nut butter is a different story). Matt decided to get another German Chocolate sundae -- we think that this one, instead of caramel + hot fudge, had some sort of chocolate-marshmallow sauce that was extremely delicious.

Although the custard was not nearly as creamy as Andy's or Silky's, probably due to the fact that it is another soft serve machine (like Mr. Wizard's) and also serves frozen yogurt, the concrete itself was fabulous! Of course, I might be a bit biased since it did have granola in it, but I think there might be a chance we would return if we are out that way again. Another Grant's Farm trip perhaps?!

The Hubs and I had a voucher for free Cardinals tickets to use up this month, so instead of just attending the ball game, we decided to make it a full day of things to do in St. Louis. We decided to call this "The St. Louis Trifecta". (OK, so we did 4 things, but 3 main ones.)

First on our Tour de St. Louis was a stop at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in downtown St. Louis. Surprisingly, neither of us had ever been on the brewery tour. We had talked about going for a long time, and this was the perfect day to do it. Or so we thought. Figuring it was a brewery tour, we thought we would be inside the entire tour. As we walked up to the door, we noticed the sign reading "outside walking tour". Of course, as soon as our tour was supposed to begin, the heavens opened loose in true St. Louis summer severe storm fashion, delaying our tour about 30 minutes. However, once we got started on the tour, we didn't have a drop of rain the rest of the day! The tour was pretty cool. We got to see the AB Clydesdales and Dalmatian, the brewing factory, and learned a lot about brewing and AB history. After the tour, we got to sample some AB beers. And these weren't just little beer samples you get after a 5K run... no, these were BIG samples. Each person (over 21 of course) was allowed 2 samples and unlimited pretzel twists. Mmm... beer and pretzels. My grandpa would've loved this (miss you)! I sampled a Bud Light Lime and a Michelob Ultra Dragonfruit Peach. OK, so I am by no means a beer drinker. Give me the choice between wine and beer and I will choose wine EVERY time. But, the Ultra was pretty darn good. Great on a hot summer day. The Hubs decided on a Stella Armois and the new Beach Bum Blonde Ale. I think he enjoyed his, but he secretly liked my Ultra better. After we filled up on beer and pretzels, we headed just across the street for more pretzels! This time of the soft variety. We picked up our Gus's pretzels, and headed across town for the next stop to chow down. TED DREWES!

Ted Drewes' is a landmark in St. Louis. In fact, it happens to be located on historic Route 66. As far as I know, this was the first frozen custard stand in the St. Louis area, opening originally in 1931 and then opening the now historic location in 1941. In all honestly, I really have been to Ted Drewes' but a handful of times, so it is always a treat to go. This makes the menu a whole new experience compared to going to Fritz's (where I know the menu like that back of my hand). After a few minutes of studying, I decided on the All Shook Up in concrete form. This involved vanilla custard mixed with bananas and Reese's peanut butter cups. OK, so it sounds weird, but if you have read my Fritz's post, you will understand that banana and PB is my favorite combination! And I must say, as Ted himself would say, "It really is good guys... and gals!" The combo totally worked for me. And in true concrete form, they turned my dessert upside down before handing it to me through the window, showing me just how thick and mixed it is. The Hubs decided on the Terramizzou. No, not Tiramisou... we're from Missouri... it's pronounced Terramizzou (Go Tigers!) so it obviously should be spelled that way! He chose to get his in sundae form and it involved vanilla custard (unlike Fritz's, this is their only custard flavor) with pistachios and hot fudge. No, that is not caramel in the pic... it is hot fudge. And he claims was also delicious! If you are in St. Louis visiting, you MUST go to Ted Drewes'. It is a classic and a favorite of any St. Louisan, no matter what part of town they live in or where they went to high school.

Last stop, Cardinals game! So, our seats were all the way at the top, but we got to the stadium early enough to watch the Mariners' batting practice. It is on the Hubs bucket list to catch a foul ball or homerun, even if it is during batting practice and handed to him by a player. Of course, this didn't happen today, but we got to "meet" one of the Mariners' bullpen coaches, who had quite the resume after we looked him up when we got home. The game was great! Pujols hit a homerun and the Cards won! And it didn't rain until we were in the car on the way home! It was a fabulous day!