Pin It And Do It Update

Yeah, well, this is definitely going as expected. I really thought that even eight pins would be easy for me this month but so far I have not made one single recipe or done one single craft. Luckily, I still have a week left and I have knocked a few things off thanks to my book and Missouri boards.

1. Read Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon. I loved the other two books I read by Chabon so I pinned this one as soon as I learned about it. It certainly had its good points but not the originality I was expecting.

2. Our first stop on our long anniversary weekend was the former river town of Weston, Missouri. How can a town be a former river town, you ask? This is what happens when the river changes course - not always of its own free will. The downtown is lovely - full of old houses and shops. I think the economy has had an impact (there were a number of empty buildings) but we still found plenty to enjoy. McCalley's was one of the places I had pinned to visit, a small house set up on the hill with every room filled with gift items at very reasonable prices. Shockingly, I walked out empty handed, even though all of the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas items were half price. Oh, and Weston is where the drinking our way across Missouri began - we visited the McCormick's Distillery store and sampled vodka...before lunch!

3. The next stop on our trip was the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City - specifically we went to see the Picasso exhibit they had. I'm not a big fan of modern art but the photos in the exhibit were interesting and the original building of the museum itself is worth seeing.

4. After the museum we headed down to the Power and Light District for cocktails at The Dubliner followed by dinner and cocktails at Gorden Biersch Brewery Restaurant. Oh. My. God. The food there was soooo good! If I lived in K.C. (and especially if I were 25 years younger), I'd be heading to the Power and Light District on a regular basis. Turns out our hotel was only about a five minute drive from the district, which is a good thing after all of those cocktails. Don't tell anyone, but we knocked off half a bottle of champagne when we got back to our hotel which we polished off in mimosas for breakfast. I swear, we don't normally drink like this!

5. Our next stop was Columbia, Missouri where we tried a new place for lunch, Mugs Up. Another couple of weeks and this one would have been closed for the winter as there is no indoor seating. We went with my brother and his wife and we had a round of root beer floats and chili dogs (well, except for my brother who was surprised to find that his bar-b-que sandwich was basically a sloppy joe). Tasty and inexpensive.

6. Every trip to Columbia includes a trip out to Rocheport and Les Bourgeois Vineyards. I can really only count this as a pin because we tried a new-to-us wine while sitting out on the terraces on the bluff overlooking the Missouri, LaBelle/Vignole. I think they are working to rename this one, thus the double name. It's a nice light white wine for a beautiful afternoon outdoors.

7. Because we hadn't already had enough to drink (yeah, right), we capped off the night by swinging by Tropical Liquors, another place we have been to previously, although never to this location and we actually tried new drinks. Honest to god, they give you your blended drinks in a plain white styrofoam cup, to-go in essence although open alcohol in the car is not legal in Columbia. Clearly this is not a problem for Trops because the original location is right across the street from the police station. But we had to take ours to-go because we had nephews to visit. Where we stayed until we were good to drive...honest, Mom.

Not pinned because we've done this many times and didn't try something new but I still wanted to share with you in case you're ever in Columbia, was Shakespeare's Pizza. The original location is right next to the University of Missouri campus so if you go on the weekend, go early and be prepared to wait. There are other locations which is just dandy if you're a townie but we visitors love the original location.

Now, strictly speaking, I have done seven pins. But I feel I cheated a little bit on two of them since they were placed I've been before. So my goal is still to complete three more pins in the next week. Food will definitely be involved!