This post covers our second month at our house in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Week 1
The February adventures started with our semi regular Thursday night trip to Prestyn’s Wine Bar.
Once again, we all played the trivia game. This time Scott came in first, I was second, and Cindy was third.
On Friday, we had lunch at Le Peeps. Not only is the food pretty good, I love their sense of humor. They put “Le” in front of everything, like Le Breakfast, Le Lunch, and Le Senior Menu (which I qualify to order off of but refuse to). This is a must stop if in the St. Joseph area. There is a Le Link at the end of this Le Post.
After our Le Meal, we did some grocery shopping. I found these items at the regular grocery store. Le Gross.
On Saturday, we ran a few more errands and drove by the Beattie Mansion, an alleged haunted house you can spend the night in. Since you cannot go in without an appointment, and we did not have one, we had to take some pictures from the outside. And from their website, it says, “There is working plumbing, a refrigerator and a microwave on site. There is plenty of room for your own mattresses, cots or sleeping bags.” Sounds pretty rustic for an indoors stay. And the outside looked a bit rough as well. If you are so inclined, there is a link at the end of this post. As for us, we are a hard pass on this experience.
On Sunday, we drove down to the Kansas City area and visited the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and to have lunch at the museum’s Cafe Sebastienne. There were a few art pieces on the outside of the museum.
I’m sure you noticed something different in the last photo of Cindy and I. If you guessed that Cindy had her eyes open in a selfie, that would be correct, but not the answer I was looking for. I grew tired of my bright white goatee and decided to shave it off. We will see how long it remains gone. Now back to the museum tour already in progress.
Our tour started with lunch in the Cafe Sebastienne. The food was good, but not unique enough for pictures. However, the café art was worth snapping some shots.
Before lunch, we received our “Scavenger Hunt” sheet containing four highlights of four paintings in the museum. Right after lunch, we were off to find the pictures and enjoy the art.
We found number four in the first room we viewed.
The first room we visited had all art that was very much textile art. You wanted to touch each piece, but should not. This picture looked like a painted city scene, but was actually made from old computer circuit boards.
This piece was a bunch of soap dishes containing either soap or a rock.
I really liked this next piece. I didn’t understand it, but found it interesting.
As we were exiting the room, a man touched the display and the door slammed shut concealing the egg. A docent immediately came in and chastised him while she fixed the art. It appeared undamaged. I’m glad he touched it and not me. Just outside the textile room was a Chihuly sculpture.
The next room was a travelling exhibit of Denzil Forrester art that had just opened. He had a unique style and number two of the Scavenger Hunt was in his display.
Here is a 3D piece of art.
And we finally found number three in the Scavenger Hunt.
We never found picture number one, even though the museum was not that big. On the way out we asked the gift shop employee about picture one. She said she had not found that one either. We either missed it in the cafe or it was no longer there. This museum is well worth the visit. There is a link at the end of this post.
On Wednesday night, we had the Culvers over for wine tasting, charcuterie, and cheese. Check out how we used Cousin Mike’s Montana cutting board. Obviously, it started out with a lot more on it.
Week 2
Overnight Wednesday into Thursday, our weather report said there was a 30% chance of frozen mix. This meant we could wake up to some ice and snow. Time would tell. Here is what we woke up to.
That’s right, we had 2-3 inches of snow. Who knew? I spent the morning shoveling our snow and the front walkways of several of our neighbors.
On Thursday night, we went wine tasting with the Culvers at Room 108, the club above Felix Street Gourmet. The Culvers are members of Room 108. That is how we were able to go to this specific wine tasting. The wines were from the Pisoni Vineyards from Monterey California, and a representative from the winery was there to talk about the wines. The region is known for their Pinot Noir wines and we tasted 4 Pinots. In my humble opinion, the wines were all very good, just a little overpriced for what they were. We still had a really good time. Here are Cindy and Heather.
There is a link to Felix Street Gourmet at the end of this post.
On Sunday, we went to the Culver’s house for a Super Bowl party. And for a chili cook off. The chili cook off came about because Scott and I had signed up for a fund raiser chili cook off that will take place in March, so the next blog post. We both make very different types of chili and in order to try and be competitive at the event, we each made our respective chilis and let the party attendees decide which one we should make. I was feeling pretty good about the contest as I have won several chili cook off awards and have always been competitive. My chili uses ground beef, stew meat, some onions and bell peppers, and my secret chili spice mix. Usually, I make it really hot and spicy, but toned this batch way down. No offense to my good friend, but he makes his chili with corn….and……….beans. Those are two ingredients any chili purist will always turn their respective nose up to. One of the first tasters approached our chilis and commented on there being corn in one of the chilis. She called her husband over and he noticed the beans. Neither sounded excited, so I figured this was in the bag. Then they both commented how they love corn and beans in their chili. This made me feel like Scooby Doo. “Rut row!” Then I saw two other people smother their chili with ketchup. The harsh reality that this was not going to be the type of chili tasting that I was accustomed to was sinking in. By the end of the evening, Scott’ chili had a resounding win. Each rater had to rate our chili on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the best score. Scott’s chili scored an average score of 4.9, while mine had an average score of 3.1. Here is a picture of me after adding up the scores.
Stay tuned next month to see how we do in the main event.
Week 3
On Friday, we drove to Independence, a city just over an hour south of us, with the Culvers. There, we visited Gates BBQ. Gates is famous for its BBQ and its BBQ sauce that is available at most grocery stores across the country. Cindy and I split a combo plate with ham, ribs, beef and fries. The BBQ was excellent, the people were friendly, and we will definitely return. We highly recommend checking out one of their locations. There is a link to the Independence location at the end of this post.
On Saturday, we went with the Culvers on a tour of a downtown Bed and Breakfast in a historic mansion named the Shakespeare Chateau Inn and Gardens. The Chateau was built in 1885 is one of several mansions in the National Register Historic District known locally as “Millionaires’ Row.”
The Shakespeare Chateau still boasts 47 original artisan-crafted stained-glass masterpieces. Here are a few.
One of the rooms had Zuber wallpaper in it. Zuber wallpaper is a really expensive handmade wallpaper that usually depicts a continuous scene, with no duplications. The one small room would cost $70,000 to have it wallpapered today.
There were two hand carved dragons at the base of the stairs.
Here are a few more pictures from our tour.
Of course, there is a link at the end of this post.
On Sunday, we had brunch at Prestyn’s with Heather. Scott wasn’t there because he was coaching a basketball game. The food was pretty good. We will definitely return for brunch again. After lunch, we met with our friend Machelle, who was going to make us some graphics and stickers for the chili booth. After talking with Machelle, Scott showed up just in time for all of us to leave.
On Monday morning, I drove 4 1/2 hours to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and met Dan B. for a quick golf outing. We both arrived in time for lunch, then headed off to Lafortune Park Golf Course where we golfed 18 holes on their par 3 golf course.
The course was in average shape, but the staff was very nice and we will return. There is a link at the end of this post. That night, we spent the night at the Postoak Lodge. It is an interesting place. There are several buildings where there is a shared living area surrounded by four bedrooms. It reminded me of a college dorm. Here was our place for the night.
Our stay was a unique experience, but I would stay there again. It was interesting and there is a link at the end of this post. The next day, we golfed at the Canyons at Blackjack Ridge in Sand Springs. This was a really tough course with a lot of hills and interesting holes. On one hole, you hit off of a cliff to the green below. We will definitely golf here again. There is a link at the end of this post.
After a great day of golf, Dan and I headed back to our respective states.
Week 4
On Friday, Cindy and I drove to Nancy and Denby Culver’s house (Scott’s parents) and joined them for lunch. We ate at a restaurant named The Summit Grill. We enjoyed our meal and really enjoyed the company. Even though the food was pretty good, it was not quite link worthy.
On Saturday, we went to Weston and had lunch at the Avalon Cafe with the Culvers. The sidewalk in front of the cafe was frozen and Scott slipped. Luckily, he was not hurt. The rest of us walked in the street to avoid the ice. The food was outstanding and there is a link at the end of this post.
Afterward, we did a whiskey tour at Holladay Distillery. This was an amazingly interesting tour that we highly recommend. The story starts in 1804 when the Lewis and Clark Expedition stopped on the property and found a limestone spring, that is still there today.
It was pretty cool to stand there and realize Lewis and Clark had stood there as well. Anyway, in 1856, Ben and David Holladay turned the then meat-packing house into a bourbon distillery. Why there you ask? Because all great bourbons are made from limestone springs. Here are some pictures of the springs.
Here is the Bonded Ancient Cave, the oldest building on the site. It was built in 1856.
Here are barrels going into the actual distillery and the distillery itself.
This is one of three rick houses on the property, and the largest. Rick houses are where whiskey is stored while it ages.
And here are a few pictures of the property.
This is a must see when in the northwestern part of Missouri. There is a link at the end of this post.
After we returned home, Garrett texted us from California to show us our pool fence had been knocked down from some very strong winds there. And since he was on his way to work, he could not deal with it.
We called my mom, and brother Wade, who came over and flipped the fence over so it would not damage our pool equipment.
Now we have a project as soon as we get home in April. And a huge debt of gratitude to mom and Wade!!
On Sunday evening, we went to the Culver’s house for dinner and crafts, courtesy of Heather’s mom, Pat. Pat had sent Heather some Christmas crafts and a Dominos gift card with the caveat we all do the activity together, so we did. Scott, Heather, Lauren, and Cindy painted a block that said, “Let It Snow.” I painted a round canvas with a skating leopard and the same term. Here is the start.
The projects under way.
Almost done.
And some finished projects.
On Tuesday, Scott, Bobby, and I hit the Copperhill Golf course for a quick nine holes.
I hit a shot into some soft soil and it almost disappeared.
During the round, Scott had two pars, Bobby had 1 and I had a big goose egg. That being said, I still won the round by 4 strokes.
And so ends another exciting month in St. Joseph. The next entry will cover the month of March, our last month in St. Joseph before returning to Santa Clarita.
LINKS
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art