It's been ages since I've been back to Missouri, so I decided to go on a Halloween adventure. The Denver airport is probably one of the worst-managed airports I've ever been in, but they do know how to decorate for Halloween. Unfortunately, I think this "employee" was the most helpful on my entire flight.
My first stop was St Louis, and of course, a trip to Ted Drewes with some of my Nerinx teacher friends. There were several seasonal Halloween flavors on the menu, but I stuck with my favorite Cardinal Sin. It's a good thing I don't live closer to Ted Drewes or I'd be over there testing out every item on the menu. I love going to this south city neighborhood, because they always decorate so elaborately for Halloween. We spent almost an hour driving up and down streets looking at all the decorations (huge skeletons and inflatables seemed to be very popular this year).
No visit would be complete without dinner at Mi Ranchito. You would think that with such a large Hispanic population in Denver, I'd be able to find a good Mexican restaurant, but so far nothing beats Mi Ranchito. It's a little hard to distinguish what I ordered, but this is sort of a nacho plate with Mexican taquitos and tamales buried underneath chips and guacamole. It was delicious.
We went up to the rooftop bar above the Moonrise Hotel, a restored '60's building. I used to go past this hotel all the time when I was walking home from the Metrolink station. I've always been curious about this place, because you can see a giant rotating moon from the sidewalk below.
The view was spectacular from the roof. You could see all the lights along the loop as well as the Central West End skyline. If it hadn't been foggy, we might have been able to see the Arch. I think the next time I go to St Louis, I may look into getting a room here.
The next morning I took Amtrak to Washington, Missouri. I used to go here all the time to sketch, walk along the river, or ride my bike along the Katy Trail. There were a ton of people out boating and eating in sidewalk cafes. I forgot how warm that Missouri humidity can make you feel.
That afternoon I got back on Amtrak and headed to Kansas City. I was supposed to spend the weekend going to the Halloween parade with Melissa and family, but the temperature plummeted... I mean it literally dropped 50 degrees. So instead we all played Uno and ate Janet's chili for dinner. I never won a game (these kids are too smart), but it was fun to play something besides solitaire for a change.
On Sunday I watched the Chiefs game with Janet and Teresa. The poor Chiefs lost 9-24 against the Denver Broncos. There is all kinds of hype in Kansas City about one of the Chief's players, #87 Travis Kelce, dating Taylor Swift, and the observation that Kelce plays better when Taylor attends one of his games. Taylor didn't go to Denver, so many people are blaming her for the Chiefs' loss. Truthfully, I don't think Taylor had anything to do with it, since Patrick Mahone had the flu and Denver got 8 inches of snow (you don't see the snow on the field, because they vacuumed it off before the game, but it was piled up in our front yard when I got home on Monday). Still it would have been fun to see Taylor in the stands.
