Courtney and I took a road trip to Jeff City for her 34th birthday. We started off with dinner at
Prison Brews - a microbrewery and restaurant across from the old Missouri State Penitentiary. I think this place is a little better known for its beer and its ambiance than the food (notice Courtney is sitting in a booth decorated to look like an old prison cell). The caption under the picture on the wall behind her said it was painted by a prisoner.
The penitentiary is no longer in use as a real prison, but they give "paranormal" tours during the day... creepy. Since Jeff City pretty much shuts down after 5 o'clock, almost everything was closed so we just walked around the capitol building and then went looking for a Dairy Queen for ice cream.
The next day we went down to the lake to do a little shopping at the outlet mall. We met my aunt and cousin for lunch at
Sergio's Taqueria - a really popular Mexican restaurant in Osage Beach. I wondered if the owner was a cousin of
Mia Ranchito's, because the menus were almost identical. We spent the afternoon shopping and by the time we were finished, there were a lot more shopping bags than you see here.
The next day, Courtney and I headed back home in time for the
Clayton Art Fair. We had to make a fast run through there, because Courtney and Bruce were going to the Cardinals' baseball game. The art was good, like usual, but over half the artists were displaying some type of whimsical, Alice-in-Wonderland-looking art - paintings, sculptures, shadow boxes, mixed media, etc. I think there were only 2 artists who had traditional oil paintings.
On the way out, we passed the kids corner where they'd set up several make-and-take booths for kids. Of course, the
Upcycled Robots table caught my eye.
