Girls Trip - St. Louis

I met up with JJ and Crystal in St. Louis this past weekend for a Girls Trip. We stayed in St. Charles at the Ameristar Casino. Crystal's friend comped us a great room!

On Friday, we went to Bella Vino Wine Bar for drinks and apps. Afterwards, we walked around the area through the shops and the craft fair. There was a store with all kinds of fun things... I thought these earrings were so crazy!

We headed back to the sports bar at the casino to watch some football. We also grabbed some more drinks and apps.

On Saturday, we had brunch at the hotel and then took an Uber to Augusta, MO to tour some wineries. We started off at Augusta Winery, but their outdoor beer garden wasn't opening for another 45 minutes, so we went over to the next winery, Mount Pleasant.

At Mount Pleasant, we did a wine tasting. All very good!

Then, we decided to do the chocolate port shot - port in a little chocolate cup.

I'm not sure we were all that jazzed by the port shot. I love this picture - all of our faces are like "um, that wasn't great!"

Then, we walked around the winery and got a bottle of wine to enjoy in the beer garden.

I wanted to try the wine slushy... it was surprisingly stronger than it first seemed!

After we finished up at Mount Pleasant, we went back to Augusta Winery. With a quick stop off at the Friendship Garden!

No other pictures from the Augusta Winery, but the band was great! JJ and I had a wine tasting flight. We also got some sangria which was really fresh and delicious. They had a small store where we bought some cheese, pretzels and sausage, which really hit the spot. While we were there, they did some Taylor Swift trivia and had some vendors selling random things. It was a nice afternoon!

On our way back to St. Charles, the Uber driver stopped off at this picture spot that has huge butterflies on the side of the cliff. Also, there are painted silos at the same stop.

Crystal took a pic of us taking a selfie

And here's the selfie!

Our Uber driver took our picture - he was great!

On Saturday night, we went to a cooking demonstration class at the Kitchen Conservatory. It was a Taylor Swift themed night, so they played TS songs and made foods that are favorites of hers. So, we had honey mustard salmon, coconut rice and grilled green beans. We also had a fun drink with freshly squeezed grapefruit juice.

On Sunday morning, we had breakfast at this cute little spot in St. Charles called the Bike Stop Cafe. As always, it was fun to catch up with JJ and Crystal!

Girls getaway in St. Louis

Every year, two of my high school friends (Crystal & JJ) and I get together for a girls weekend. This year's destination was St. Louis where Crystal lives. We always have a great time catching up with each other! I am so thankful to have friends like these ladies in my life!

We started off with a Sips-n-Splatters party on Friday night. We had wine and painted and chatted. I had actually never done one of these painting parties before. I was surprised by how well everyone's paintings turned out! Mine is going in the guest room. :)

On Saturday morning, we boarded the train to Hermann, MO for a day of wine tasting!

Once there, we hopped on the trolley that took us around to the different wineries. Hermann was like bachelorette party / girls trip central! And this trolley became like a party bus after all these women had a little wine in them! :) Towards late afternoon, it was basically like a rolling sing-a-long. Such fun!

Our first stop of the day was Adam Puchta Winery. No pictures from this winery, but we did pick up nice little wine sippy-cups there that came in very handy for the rest of the day.

Our second stop of the day was Stone Hill Winery. We had a really nice lunch and then sat outside listening to some live music, drinking wine. The weather was sunny and warm; we really lucked out!

Our third stop of the day was OakGlenn Winery. Beautiful views from the outside patio here. We drank some more wine and listened to the live music. We also played some Cards against Humanity!

I didn't realize until just now that this picture makes the bottle look like a smokestack. :)

Our last winery of the day was Hermannhof Winery. No pictures, but we enjoyed a bottle of wine on their back patio. We ended up grabbing dinner at a nearby brewery/pizza place before taking the train back to St. Louis.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday - drinking LOTS of wine, hanging out with great girlfriends and enjoying beautiful weather!

On Sunday, we grabbed brunch at a place in Soulard and then took some pictures with the Arch in the background before heading back to the airport. 

And let's not forget about these two little goofballs and their Daddy, who took great care of them while I was away. He sent me pictures throughout the weekend so I wouldn't miss them all too much! :)

Silly faces in the bathtub...

They got a special treat... and picked out some huge yummy cupcakes!

They played over at their cousin's house and helped celebrate Aunt Erin's 40th birthday!

Napa Girls Trip

A few weeks ago, I met up with my high school friends for our annual girls trip. This year, my friend JJ had to be in San Francisco for work and we decided to tag along and extend her trip with a visit to Napa. I had never been to either SF or Napa. It was the longest I've been away from the girls ever!

The trip was great! We spent the first night in San Francisco. We drove around the city, saw the Golden Gate Bridge, had some yummy seafood, rode on a trolley and caught up with all the craziness of each other's lives.

Then we drove out to Napa and started our weekend of wine off at In-N-Out Burger. Gotta get a good base. We drove around and stopped off at random wineries. Pretty much everywhere we went, the tastings included 1 white wine (either Chardonnay or Sav Blanc) and then 3 reds. My favorite types of wines are Sav Blanc and Cabernet, so I loved Napa!

On Saturday, we went to Heitz Wine Cellars (nice back patio area), Freemark Abbey (met the Cellar Mistress) and Castillo de Amarosa (took the tour of the whole castle). Our wine tasting at the castle was in the basement, which was pretty cool. When the tour guide said, if you are claustrophobic, you may have a problem because we are going to be in the caves for the next hour and a half... I was a little worried. I'm usually not good with caves and tight spaces. I think the wine helped, though! :)

On Sunday, we booked a tour so that no one had to be a designated driver. We stopped off at Flora Springs (super cute tour guide), Hill Wine Company (dog friendly winery), Rutherford Ranch (chocolate and wine pairings = awesome!), and St. Clair Brown ("urban" winery in the city limits of Napa).

We drank lots of wine, enjoyed the beautiful weather and relaxed = a perfect weekend!

Golden Gate Bridge

Driving down the famous curvy Lombard Street in SF

Why have I never been here before?

Wine tasting in the basement of the castle

Told Matt this was what I was bringing home

JJ and me at Flora Spings

Crystal, JJ and me at Hill Wine Company

Our tour group at Rutherford Ranch - chocolate, anyone?

Crystal, JJ and me at Flora Springs

JJ, me and Crystal at Heitz Wine Cellars

We tried the grapes - very small and seedy

At Castillo de Amorosa

Our wine tasting set up at St. Clair Brown