Staycation in the loop in the lou!

We started out the day by heading to the Soulard Farmers Market.  It is less than 2 miles from our house and we had NEVER been- shame on us!  It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G though and now we are hooked!  There were more stands than I could have imagined selling everything from veggies, fruit, meat, pasta, pickles, sauces, donuts, nuts, meats, cheese, plants, soaps, clothes, cologne, purses, etc.  There was live music in several places, people sipping bloody marys as they shopped or noshing on fresh donuts, every kind of people- old to babies to foriegners to vacationers, etc.

Next up we got Massages at Massage Envy.  I had a gift card to use, so was even better that it was free!  My back was so knotted and tense, so she worked a ton on that and it was super painful, but the good kind of pain.  For days afterwards it was killer sore, but I think it did help work out some of the muscles.

We then headed down to the loop which is a stretch of Delmar in University City-- it has very unique stores and is just a fun area for killing time.  People watching is interesting as there are lots of young people with interesting tattoos and piercings.  A hotel recently opened in the area called Moonrise, which is where we stayed, and it was awesome!  (And more awesome cause I had won they stay for free at a work event!)  The hotel is the perfect location, modern, clean, and great service-- free drinks at check-in even!

You can see on the view from the outside where they have a nice rootop bar/patio which we took advantage of.

The lobby had a glowing pink/purple staircase which I loved.

Here's a hodgepodge of shots from around our room and lobby:

We then headed out to check out the stores and scenery along Delmar.  Along the sidewalk they have stars of famous people from St. Louis and then a little blurb about the person.  In the past I had glanced at these stars and it seemed I didn't know most people, but this time I was shocked at how many I did know!  We actually found this very interesting and will be a fun activity to do with our kids when they are older.  Here were just some of the famous ones I knew...

We stopped in at Vintage Vinyl which was one of the stores we used to come to in high school and college to get CDs.  Before going in we were commenting that we were amazed they were still in business, however after browing their merchandise and prices I'm not surprised at all.  It seemed their prices are competing with the online market and things were very cheap!  It was fun finding the old bands I used to look for here- Stir and The Urge.

It was a little early for dinner, so we went to the hotel roof bar to get some drinks-- I had a great bloody mary (virgin, don't worry!) and we had a nice breeze so didn't get too hot.

We then headed out to dinner at Momo's- it is a Greek restaurant that has belly dancers, so we thought that could be interesting.  There was so much good sounding food on the menu, but the problem was that it was tapas style and we like such different things-- Dustin wanted lamb and meats, while I wanted the vegetables!  The food we got was okay, but think it would have been great had I ordered what I wanted.  One thing we ordered was a dip sampler platter served with pita bread.  The dip on the left was the best- roasted red peppers, feta cheese, capers, and some other seasoning.  The one in the middle was mushed potatoes with garlic and olive oil- sounded the best, but was my least fave.  And the one on the right was hummus- which was good, but not the best I've ever had.

All the time at dinner there were major storms moving into the area and warnings, so we decided to get out of there and back to the hotel.  We went back to the roof and thought we'd just sit up there, but they were forcing everyone into a crowded covered space because of the lightening.  Shortly after we arrived though they opened the entire patio and let us all sit out there cause the storms seemed to be passing over us and the lightning was far away. 

After a drink we returned to the room and decided we'd just watch a netflix movie.  The storms started are going CRAZY out there-- some of the hardest rain we have ever seen in our lives with heavy wind.  I didn't get pictures, but the next day there were trees down all up and down Delmar. 

We were very excited to have lunch at Cheese-ology, which just makes all versions of mac-n-cheese.  However we were there at 11 and they didn't open until 12 and we had to meet our realtor, so we had to go to plan b and went to Market Pub House which is where we stopped in for Dustin to have a beer yesterday.  They just had bar food, but some interesting things.  I got buffalo potato skins- yum, yum!

And then we shared mac-n-cheese topped with pulled pork, bbq, and fried onions:

And that was the end of the staycation!