You can find me in St. Louie

For Martin Luther King weekend, Wheat and I visited my good friend Hannah in St. Louis. I'd been meaning to make the trip since she moved there a few years ago, so it was long overdue. Despite my delay on the visit, Hannah didn't hesitate to flex her hostess muscles when she put us up in an enormous suite at the Crowne Plaza hotel downtown. Much to our surprise, our room was essentially an apartment with a separate living room, kitchen, bedroom, and balcony overlooking the Mississippi River. Even better, we could see the Gateway Arch from the hotel's outdoor courtyard.

The night we arrived, we headed to The Loop, a strip of bars, restaurants, boutiques, coffee shops, and more, for dinner. The annual Loop Ice Carnival happened to be going on, so we walked up and down the strip admiring ice sculptures as we waited for our table. We made a quick stop at Blueberry Hill, a popular St. Louis restaurant and music club, before heading to Salt + Smoke, a Texas-style barbecue joint, for dinner. My pulled pork sandwich and potato salad were things of absolute dreams. I'm a sucker for all things barbecue, but this was honestly some of the best I've ever had. Plus, who wouldn't love a place with a sauce called 'I Can't Even?'

The next morning, Hannah and Connor picked us up for a tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery. The free, 45-minute tour included a stop in the famous Clydesdale stables, a peek into several of the brewery's buildings, and two free drinks, which for me is code for soda. Even as a non-drinker, I'd absolutely recommend the tour to anyone who's interested in the history of the company or the brewing process.

After the tour, we made our way to Ballpark Village near Busch Stadium for lunch and the NFL playoffs. Fittingly, we decided to eat at the Budweiser Brew House because the massive screen in Fox Sports Midwest Live! was too awesome to pass up. The two-level entertainment complex houses the Fox Sports Midwest broadcast studio, a piano bar, the Cardinals Hall of Fame, a mechanical bull, several restaurants, and the perfect atmosphere to watch a game...and by perfect, I mean they replace commercial breaks with entertaining YouTube videos on the main screen. We spent a couple hours there, watching the Panthers beat the Seahawks, eating lunch, and sampling toasted raviolis (deep-fried raviolis that you dip in marinara sauce), a St. Louis staple.

Once we'd had our fill, we decided to explore the building a little more. We stumbled across an incredible mural of Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial made entirely of Rubik's cubes. Think about that: Someone positioned hundreds of Rubik's cubes to create those pictures. We also snuck up to the closed outdoor bar to check out the incredible view of the ballpark and decided that'd be a pretty dreamy place to catch a game.

The rest of the evening was filled with bowling (I refuse to disclose my scores), an Uber ride back downtown, and a nice dinner date with Wheat. Despite the subzero wind chill, we decided to walk to Bailey's Range, a hipster burger place where we split a delicious craft burger, fries, and milkshakes.

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and walked to Pi Pizzeria, the home of President Obama's favorite pizza. Seems weird since it's not Chicago deep-dish, but once it was delivered to our table, we immediately understood why it has the presidential seal of approval. Drool-worthy much?

After lunch, we knew we had to work off some calories, so we made our way to the City Museum. It's nearly impossible to describe this place to someone who hasn't been there, but it is truly one of the coolest things I've ever seen. The closest comparison I can come up with is Discovery Zone for adults. Unfortunately, due to the low temperatures, the outside areas were off-limits, but we spent hours climbing through massive tree houses, caves, and spiral staircases. We watched fish, went down incredible slides (including a 10-story spiral slide), listened to a massive pipe organ, and played like kids on a playground for the first time in years. Every twist and turn revealed something new to explore and I desperately want to go back in the warm weather to take advantage of the ball pit and other areas. The upper levels serve as a quasi-museum with random things on display, including Big Boy and other figures, the world's largest pencil, a functioning circus school, and old pinball machines. An indoor skate park with rope swings and a warped wall were teeming with kids enjoying their holiday and I shrieked as I attempted to walk on the hamster wheel. If you take one recommendation from this post, it should definitely be to check out this incredible place and architectural wonder for yourself.

Afterward, we drove to Hannah's apartment, where she gave us a quick tour of the beautiful Forest Park area and I was reminded that January probably isn't the best time to visit. As if Hannah hadn't already outdone herself, she also got us tickets to watch the Penguins play the Blues at Scottrade Center that night. So, we headed there early so I could drool over warm-ups and marvel over our awesome seats. I'm seriously spoiled. The Penguins lost, 5-2, but it was really cool to watch them play in a different arena. Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz scored the two Pittsburgh goals and I mourned over the fact that Miami alum Jeff Zatkoff started in net over Fleury. Regardless, we had an amazing time, even with the heckling from behind us.

Now I'm daydreaming about my next visit and thinking of ways to repay the favor when she comes to Indy. We don't have Obama's favorite pizza, but we do have some pretty delicious breadsticks at Kilroy's. Hopefully that will count for something.