Boats, Beverages & the Blasted Heat!

On Monday, Jordan and I ventured to small-town MO for a wine tasting and discovered lots of other things to do as well. It reminded me a little of Deadwood...with no #10 Saloon or any gambling ;)

Church converted to winery!

Pirtle Winery is located in what used to be a church and we sampled wines such as Effervescent Blueberry Wine and some different grape blends. The Effervescent wine is bubbly, like champagne. It was good, but not good enough that we wanted to buy any. (Plus, after Jordan's last wine purchase, I think we've got enough to last us at least 2 years!)

We wandered in and out of a few little shops and antique stores, but not many were open on Mondays. We had a good time and it was nice to get out of the heat - it's stinkin' hot down here! Unlike SD, it doesn't cool off in the evenings. It stays right up there in the 90s. Ridiculous.

A happy hubby with his beer samples.
(Sorry for the window glare!)

Scotch eggs!

Weston also has a brewery (O'Malley's 1842 Irish Pub), where Jordan enjoyed a beer flight  and we shared an order of the waitress-recommended Scotch Eggs - hard-boiled eggs wrapped in ground sausage and then deep fried. I normally enjoy my hard-boiled eggs plain, but I thought I'd give these a shot - afterall, July is our "adventure" month!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that they weren't as bad as I thought they'd be (isn't everything that's deep friend always better?), even good. It was kind of like having your entire breakfast or brunch all wrapped up into one bite. There was a little dipping sauce that reminded me of Hollandaise sauce and Jordan thought it tasted like honey mustard. Either way, it was a nice complement.

The best part of Jordan's day was getting a case of O'Malley's beer for $20 (24 bottles) and visiting Weston Tobacco, a little cigar shop that rolls their own cigars. He's planning to return sometime with some other med students that enjoy cigars (because that person isn't me).

~*~

Tuesday brought us to The Steamboat Arabia in City Market (downtown KC). I'd already been to this museum a few years ago when I was in KC for a work conference, but I thought it was really cool and that Jordan would enjoy it, too. In 1856 a steamboat on its way to a port a few miles from KC hit a partial tree and sunk. In the past, going up the Missouri used to be very dangerous because the steamboatmen would cut trees off and use them as fuel - the cut trees bent with the river and became very hazardous for anyone travelling up the river. The Arabia's cargo was all lost (everyone escaped safely) and in the '80's, a group of adventure seekers dug up the Arabia and opened a museum to show what a typical steamboat's cargo was made up of.

  

 

I am under no illusions that my formatting of multiple pictures is grand. I know it needs a bit of work...but right now I'm more interested in getting things out there :) Here's a pic of us, in case you've forgotten our midwestern good looks already. Typical self-portrait style. Maybe next time we'll ask someone to take a pic of us (and maybe next time we won't be in such a dark room!).

After the museum, we checked out City Market. One word: FABULOUS. Fresh veggies for WAY cheaper than the grocery store (farmer's market style). I'll definitely be returning here. We snagged 3 avocados for $2 - the cheapest I've ever seen them in the grocery store is $1 apiece. Other things were similarly priced - 5 peaches for $2, a flat of strawberries for $4 (yes, an entire flat). And the list goes on (but I don't remember any other prices right now).

We also checked out a few shops. One was WONDERFUL. You walked in the door to have your nose assaulted with a powerful mixture of spices. And, each half-cup scoop was only $1! I'll also be returning here - I told J that I wanted to have spices in mind that I wanted and not just buy willy-nilly. Although I kind of wanted to buy willy-nilly...they looked so good and smelled amazing.

That's enough for now. I hope you're enjoying your cities as much as we're enjoying ours!