Pictures from Our Dinner at Salt + Smoke
Posted on July 11, 2022 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
We had such a great experience on our last visit to Salt + Smoke that we decided to go back. Unbeknownst to us, there are multiple Salt + Smoke locations in St. Louis. Anyway, we ended up at a different one and it wasn’t as good as the first one that we tried the year before.
The food was decent but not as good as I remembered. The popovers, which I loved on that first visit, were just okay. Probably because these weren’t as fresh. We were the only table in the entire restaurant for a long time but service was slow and not as friendly as it was at the other place. Despite being the only ones there, the server hardly checked on us or refilled our drinks.
The menu items and the sauces were the same but, even though it was the same food, the experience really wasn’t as good. Bottom line? Not all Salt + Smokes are created equal and, if you find one that you like, you’ll probably have better luck if you go to that same one rather than going to the “closest” one as we had done.
Here are some pictures of our food from this visit.
Until next time, GNG.
Comment on This
Life-Changing Cheddar Grits
Posted on July 8, 2022 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
I’ve never really liked grits but, after our last trip to St. Louis, I realized the reason I don’t like grits is because I’ve never really had good grits before. Chris Wilson, Brian, and I had breakfast at this place called Songbird. It was there that I tasted the best grits I’d ever had.
It doesn’t look like much but these grits tasted amazing. They were so good, the three of us almost went back there again the next day, except I had to play early in the morning and the restaurant wouldn’t have been open in time.
Here are pictures of the rest of our food. Brian had a basic breakfast sandwich (above). I had the farm toast with shaved ham and a fried egg.
Chris had a muffin breakfast sandwich.
Besides the very photogenic food, the restaurant itself was quite photogenic also with its brightly painted interior.
Here’s us, waiting for our food with eager anticipation.
Chris and Brian enjoyed some coffee while we waited.
Brian, my little coffee connoisseur, said their coffee was pretty good.
Here’s a pic of Chris’ cappuccino.
The three of us agreed this restaurant was one of the highlights of our trip. It was a real gem and one heck of a find!
It was truly a farm to table experience. They grew their own herbs out back and, I’m guessing that the “locally-sourced honey” on the menu came from this beehive.
I’m so glad that we came across this place while looking for breakfast options that day. I highly recommend checking out Songbird out if you’re ever in the St. Louis area. I plan to return one day, when we go back to claim the bottle of wine we won from our AirBnB host. LOL. Until next time, GNG.
Comment on This
Our First AirBnB Experience
Posted on July 7, 2022 by Ching under Travel.
I’d been trying to convince Brian to use an AirBnB for years. Being a very paranoid person, he was always hesitant. He preferred to stay in hotels. Always. For our most recent trip to St. Louis, we didn’t have a choice. Hotels were crazy expensive around the time of our trip due to some very popular baseball games. The same hotel that we stayed at last year that we paid about $120 per night for cost twice that amount. That’s how I finally managed to convince Brian to try an AirBnB.
Brian pored over several options with me one night and we decided on a two bedroom and one bath carriage house within walking distance from the tournament venue. We shared the rental with our friend Chris Wilson who took one of the bedrooms. Brian and I took the other. It worked out great.
The place was nice enough but the location was absolutely perfect. I thought the giraffe in our closet was strange so I took a pic with it, but it was actually part of a game that our hosts had cooked up. You had to correctly guess the number of giraffes in the apartment. It kept us entertained one day when we were stuck inside due to rain. We went room to room and looked in every nook and cranny, counting all the giraffes. We got it right and won a bottle of wine, which we couldn’t claim because we were leaving the next morning. I guess we will just have to claim it on our next trip back — except the Middle States Diamond Regional pickleball tournament is moving to Springfield next year so it won’t be in St. Louis. I’m sure we will come up with another reason to visit.
Our first AirBnB experience was a huge success overall. I finally convinced Brian that AirBnBs are the way to go if we want to save money on future trips. Besides, it’s easier to find an AirBnB that is pet friendly so we could even bring Saki with us rather than boarding her, which I always feel really bad about. Anyway, that’s all for now. Until next time, GNG.
1 Comment
El Burro Loco
Posted on July 6, 2022 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Whenever we travel with our pickleball pals — particularly Donnie and Tiffany Lesperance — we always end up eating tons of Mexican food. That’s all Donnie and Tiffany ever want to eat. Our recent trip to St. Louis was no exception.
There are five dishes pictured because Chris Wilson was also with us. Chris split our AirBnB with us on this trip. More on that next post! Until then, GNG.
1 Comment
Middle States Diamond Regional
Posted on July 6, 2022 by Ching under Pickleball, Travel.
Every time I try to get caught up, I fall further and further behind on the blog. There’s just so much stuff going on and, when I had planned to compete in one tournament per month at the beginning of the year, I completely underestimated how many tournaments there truly are — if I count the local ones. It’s been more like a tournament every week. And, even then, I have to really pick and choose because there are often multiple tournaments going on in the same weekend.
Despite not having the best results, I really enjoyed participating in the Middle States Regional pickleball tournament last year so Brian and I traveled to St. Louis again this year. The tournament was held at the same location, Dwight Davis Tennis Center, but the difference is, instead of being a “golden ticket” event for Nationals, the regional tournaments are now qualifiers for the Diamond Amateur Championships. Click here for an explanation of how you qualify for Nationals. It’s not as straight forward as it used to be, unless you play in one of the National Championship Series tournaments, which are the new “golden ticket” tournaments rather than regionals.
This tournament is most memorable to me because it was my first ever triple crown. It’s the best results I’ve ever gotten in any tournament that I’ve participated in so far (thanks to my awesome partners Kendra Wicks and Ramon Lozano)…
- 3.0 19+, 35+ women’s singles – GOLD
- 3.0 19+ women’s doubles – GOLD
- 3.5 35+ mixed doubles – GOLD
Here are some podium pics:
Play was canceled on the first day due to rain so I ended up playing both women’s doubles and women’s singles on the same day. Thankfully, due to multiple tournaments happening on the same weekend, the field was a lot smaller this year (about 200 players less than last year) so I didn’t have to play that many games. Women’s doubles and singles were both round robin formats rather than a regular double elimination bracket. Since my rating is still pretty low, I got to play 3.0 which was pretty manageable for me. The biggest challenge I had was getting combined with 19+ age group for singles. I was literally the oldest person in our division! But I pulled through and won gold.
Ramon and I had a pretty smooth run in mixed doubles. We played in the exact same division we played in last year (with different partners). I think we had an easier time for a couple of reasons: (a) there were fewer teams playing this year, and (b) we’d both improved a lot since last year. I guess it’s also worth mentioning that we make a pretty good team. Ramon is easily one of my most favorite mixed doubles partners. He is always so encouraging and patient.
Here are a few more pics from the tournament…
I think the weather this year was better than last year but not by much. LOL. It was a fun, productive trip overall and I was super happy with my results because it qualified me to compete in the Diamond Amateur Championships at Pictona in Holly Hill, Florida in December.
Until next time, GNG.
3 Comments
