Some Like It Hot

Okay, so I'm not actually in St. Louis right now (nor was this picture [1] taken in STL, it was taken on Scientist's birthday in IC), I'm in Iowa City, but nevertheless when I was in STL I was extremely hot and sweaty. I believe the heat index was well over 100 yesterday in both Missouri and southern Iowa. ICK ICK ICK!

I had another really wonderful weekend with the Scientist. In fact, I was fairly amazed that things went as perfectly as they did considering it was unbearably hot and I figured we'd end up spending all day in Scientist's best friend's (best friend will here on out be referred to as Ice Cream man because he owns and runs an Ice Cream franchaise) apartment staring at each other. I should've known better than to think we'd just sit around; when I'm with Scientist we always have fun, and we always end up doing something I wouldn't have enjoyed doing on my own.

We arrived Friday night at around 9 pm at Ice Cream Man's apartment, hung out with Ice Cream Man's girlfriend, who let us in, and then, once Ice Cream Man arrived home from a baseball game he'd been at, we headed to this really cool, albeit odd, bar called Fox and Hound. It's pretty much exactly like you'd imagine it would be. It had this HUGE stuffed grizzly bear in the lobby and tacky English furniture to sit on at the bar. We sat and chatted for a good 2 hours before they kicked us out and we went back to Ice Cream Man's place and crashed.

Saturday, we braved the horrid STL weather and headed to Forest Park, which, I was informed is actually larger than Central Park in NYC. We walked around a bit, went to the Science Station and then headed to the zoo.

The St. Louis zoo totally kicked the Minneapolis zoo's ASS. It was a lot bigger than the M'aplois zoo, plus it looked a lot more well tended to than the MN zoo. I couldn't help but feel bad for the animals, though, especially the poor little kitties (can you imagine having a thick fur coat on in that heat?), who were all punked out in the shade, laying on their back looking adorable and dangerous. The last thing we saw was a big polar bear jump in his little pool and go for a swim, so I left feeling both better about the animals living through the heat and a little jealous that he got his own little pool complete with a waterfall.

Sunday, we walked around the St. Louis Botanical Gardens for a few hours. I was actually afraid I wouldn't be terribly entertained by a bunch of flowers, but again, I was really impressed. The gardens were so well taken care of, and there were plenty of places to just sit and make out, I mean, chill.

After a few hours, we decided to call it a day and made our way over to Scientist's parents' house where I met his entire family. When I say entire I mean pretty much everybody, except for a couple aunts and uncles and his grandmother. Scientist and I had brought some sweet corn from Iowa, so his family made that and we grilled hamburgers. Scientist has 4 nieces and nephews (all under the age of 8), so there was plenty of entertainment. They were all very good kids (I think his three year old niece is probably the smartest three year old I've ever met; she could add and everything!) and his family made me feel really welcomed. All of this came as a giant relief seeing as how I wasn't sure whether or not they'd like me. Thankfully, they seemed to take quite well to me and I felt totally at ease with them.

Monday we headed out to Ice Cream Man's store, indulged in some seriously rich ice cream and then headed off to Iowa. We stopped for while in Hannibal, attempted to eat something (I'm never hungry in this type of weather) and then got back in the car and drove pretty much straight through to IC.

All and all it was a pretty nice weekend. I wish we'd had more time to spend with Ice Cream Man and his girlfriend, but, well, you can't have everything. That and I wished we'd been able to bring our bikes with us so we could ride some of the Katie trail, which looked really pretty when Scientist pointed it out to me. I guess this gives us an excuse to head down there again--this time in the fall when it's not so damn hot!

[1]: Scientist hates this picture because he says it makes his cheeks look chubby. I, however, disagree. Aren't we adorable? Plus, I look pretty damn good (not to mention tan, which is highly unusual for me, even during the summer).