Saint Louis Things: Brewery Tour

Date: October 17, 2016

Author: astottler

Hi friends! I’m coming at you with a weekend recap a little bit late, but here we are! Last weekend was lots of fun. My parents came to Saint Louis to visit, so I had a blast showing them around and hitting all the must-dos.

Friday evening we had plans to go to dinner at the sister restaurant to my spin studio, but unfortunately their flight was delayed 4 hours and they got in pretty late. Instead, we ended up doing dessert and or drinks. We went to Strange Donuts, which I’ve been meaning to try. It turns out they only have GF in the morning, but my parents got some delicious donuts! We ended up heading across the street (in Maplewood) for a drink. My dad and I both got the Schlafly Pumpkin Ale, and it was probably my favorite pumpkin ale. (Schlafly is the big local Saint Louis brewery.)

We ended up also ordering some guacamole.

Saturday morning, I had to teach my spin class. This worked out well because my parents were on a different time zone, so they could sleep in a little! Afterwards, we met up to go to the zoo.

^I feel like this is a good picture of Yoyo.

I took them to all the animals I observe, and gave them the grand tour!

We also stopped for Dole Whips, which were quite necessary as lunchtime was rapidly approaching. I also rode the train that goes around the zoo for the first time!

Finally, around 2:30, we headed to lunch. In the continuing trend for the weekend, we struck out on lunch. I wanted to go to a GF cafe downtown, but it had gone out of business literally 5 days earlier. We instead headed across the street to a Mediterranean place, where I went with salad and a side of hummus.

Then, we explored downtown a little bit. We drove by the Arch, and stopped by Busch stadium and Ballpark Village.

Then, we went on a brewery tour. This is my birthday present to my dad. I signed us up for a tour that stopped at 4 different local craft breweries: Heavy Riff, Urban Chestnut, Alpha, and 4 Hands. It was a fun atmosphere, and we got to know the people on our bus a little. While some of the breweries gave us free samples, I liked how almost all offered sample sizes you could buy of any of their beers. My parents and I shared the samples, so we got to try quite a few different things.

Heavy Riff:

Highlight: Nine Tonight (Belgium style). They are also famous for their vanilla coffee, which I tried and thought was good.

Urban Chestnut:

Highlight: they gave us samples while talking about the history, the brewing, and details on the beers we were tasting.

Their most famous is the Zwickel. I actually had this at the concert I went to.

My parents and I also shared some kind of Oktoberfest beer.

Alpha:

Highlight: Belgian Blonde. Also—I loved that you could get a flight with whatever you wanted. They specialized in sour beers, which my parents wanted to try. I’ve tried one before and knew it wasn’t my thing, but I confirmed that. Other highlight: they had a popup BBQ and towards the end of our time there, they started passing out free BBQ popcorn. Delicious.

4 Hands:

Highlight: Chocolate Milk Stout. Enough said. I like darker beers with deep flavors, and this wasn’t quite as deep as my favorites but still amazing. Again, chocolate milk stout? Speaks for itself. We also got some BBQ nachos here to tide us over for a later dinner.

Overall, my experience with Brewery Tours of St. Louis was fantastic. We got to try a ton of different craft beers. We spent about 30-45 minutes at each place, and the tour lasted a little over 3 hours. The bus driver was excellent as well.

Finally, it was dinner time! We went to Pi Pizza because I know they have GF crust.

We started with fire roasted veggies.

For our main meal, my mom and I split half BBQ chicken and half cheese+veggie.

After a long day, it was bedtime!

Because this post got crazy long, Part 2 is coming at you tomorrow!

Day in the Life: Fall 2016

Date: October 13, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

It’s that time again! Day in the life!

5:45am: FREAKING YOYO. We were both feeling sad the night before (post-baseball blues. As heartbreaking as it was, I honestly think the Cubs were the better team and deserved to win, that’s just not how you want to go down…) so I let him sleep with me. Around 5:45 he got sweet and especially restless and wouldn’t stop walking across my face and chest.

6:15: Alarm goes off.

6:45: Leave for 3 mile run. It’s dark in the mornings! Also chilly! Upper 40s.

The run actually felt better than expected! I basically always do the same 3 mile route. I live in a good neighborhood but there isn’t a ton of space to go in different directions. I also am pretty much limited to 3 miles right now. I spent so much time on my feet and walking at work that my stress fracture spot sometimes gets a little sore if I pass 3. And I’m ok with that for now. Decent speed though! Good negative splits—I’ll take it!

7:20ish: Make and eat breakfast. I’m in the mood for a flapjacked muffin, so I eat a S’mores one with mango.

The key to these is to slightly undercook them so they stay gooey and don’t get tough!

7:45: Pack lunch for the day.

7:50am: Shower and get ready; pack up my bag.

8:25: Run out the door and drive to work.

8:45: Arrive at the zoo!

I was at a colder part of the zoo this morning, and was determined not to be cold. I packed layers on layers. Fleece lined long sleeves, sweatshirt, fleece north face, gloves.

9:00: My day officially begins! I walk to my first observation, and see one of the cheetahs! They weren’t out much earlier this fall so it still feels like a treat to see them!

Then it’s time for my first observation.

Somali Wild Asses.

10:30: Our next observation is cancelled due to construction so we head back by way of the warm bird house.

And then it’s back to the lab to work.

12:00: Lunchtime! I haven’t managed to fully warm up so I’m grateful for my soup! I made it Tuesday night, another wing it recipe, but the same as before.

Chicken, ginger, garlic, mushrooms, soy sauce, asparagus. Essentially. I added a little coriander too for some warmth, because why not?

I also had a few sweet potato tortilla chips and some Vans Say Cheese GF crackers.

1:00: Lunch is over, back to work!

2:00: Next observation starts.

3:00

4:00: Snack!

5:00: Off for the day! After some debating, I decided to go to Crossfit. Like I said before, I’ve been suffering a little bit with post-baseball blues and wanted something fun to do after work. I ripped my finger doing toes to bar and snatches the previous day. (I also hit 110# for 1 RM thrusters…I was happy with that!)

This is the time of year when I start to look like a weather confused CA girl. Shorts. 2 jackets. It’s cool.

5:15: Arrive at Crossfit, and sit in my car for a few minutes before heading in.

5:30-6:30: Crossfit!

For strength, we did 1 rep max weighted ring dips. Which for me was find the lightest band, because ring dips are not my strong point.

Anytime I see pull ups in a WOD, I try to make it. It’s one of my newer skills, so I have fun with them! This workout was 50 pull ups, 75 push jerks, and 100 front squats. You work every other minute and rest every other minute. I was a little worried about my torn finger, but as I learned in the middle of my workout the previous day, I found the best possible place to tear a finger. I made it through! I used 55#.

6:45: Make dinner! You know I have to snack while I cook.

7:00: Dinner on the table. Nothing crazy here. Avocado toast, scrambled eggs (1 whole+1 white+milk) with Irish cheddar, and spinach with nutritional yeast, coriander, and garlic.

I ate while watching Netflix. I’m watching the United States of Tara, which is about a woman with DID. The way the show is done reminds me a little bit of OITNB.

Dessert: a few GF cookies. These new ginger cookies from Trader Joe’s +WOW chocolate chip.

7:30: Start to watch the Dodger-Nationals game. I stream it while cleaning up my room a little bit. It’s SO good to watch baseball again, and while I do care about the outcome of this game, it’s not the same type of crazy stress as with the Giants. (My superstitions were getting a little ridiculous for our games. Knock on wood by knocking on my head, then Yoyo’s head, then hand on Yoyo for the pitch. #noshame)

8:00: Start this post while watching the game+snacktime.

I have some of these+snap pea crisps+pumpkin spiced pumpkin seeds.

9:30: Start Saturday’s spin class while watching baseball, and continue this post.

Somewhere 10-11: Bedtime!

Chicago: #dontstopbeliEVEN

Date: October 9, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Wow guys, what a trip. I’m so, so glad I was able to make it happen, even though the games didn’t turn out like I might have hoped.

I headed out first thing Friday morning after a quick run. While leaving, I felt like this was a journey I was destined to take!

Also note that if you don’t follow baseball, this whole post may seem crazy. I dropped everything and drove 5 hours to a strange city by myself for a couple of games?

Yes. Yes I did.

I don’t know if you guys have seen How I Met Your Mother. I recently rewatched the series. (It’s interesting now that I feel like I’m more in that stage of my life…) Anyways, there’s an episode where Ted and Marshall drive to Chicago for pizza and the only song they can listen to is that “I would walk 500 miles” song on repeat, because the tape is stuck. I thought I would try that. I made a road trip playlist, and loaded the front of the playlist with 30 minutes straight of that song on repeat (8x). I thought I would see how long I lasted. I am happy to report I made it all 30 minutes. And yes, it did get better over time. In the middle there, I got a little bored with it, but by the end I came back around. It was a little jarring when a different song came on my playlist though!

I stopped for lunch about halfway, apparently in a town called Normal, IL. I found a Panera, and had the Fuji apple chicken salad.

The drive was fine until I got to Chicago. I spent about an hour less than a mile from my hotel, sitting in traffic. The Chicago Marathon was this weekend, so that just made things worse. I have never been so happy to hand my keys to a valet.

I wanted some downtime before the game so I relaxed in my room and had a flapjacked smores muffin in the room for dinner.

…which I came to regret later because I was STARVING at the game and couldn’t find anything I could eat, until I found a salad and it was the most exciting thing ever. But we’ll get to that. Let’s do some pictures.

The train was PACKED!

First view of Wrigley:

This is Wrigleyville. There are places (bars) that have stadium seats on the roof where you can watch the game without a ticket!

And the inside. I was at the top of the centerfield bleachers, right below the old scoreboard.

I was surrounded my plenty of nice Cubs fans, who grew rowdier as the beer flowed. I definitely got messed with a little bit, but it was all in good fun. Anytime anyone found out I had come by myself, they said “you’re brave.” It was a good game, but a frustrating ending. That being said, I also now really understand how much home field advantage matters. The momentum is everything.

Saturday morning I went for a run along Lake Michigan. To be perfectly honest, the lake made me strangely claustrophobic. It’s so strange to be to have something that looks like an ocean, but to know there’s land on the other side. I felt very landlocked. California problems, I suppose. It was a beautiful morning for an exploratory run though!

On my run, I actually had an extremely awkward encounter with one of the Giants’ broadcasters. I said hi…and she looked confused and then I realized I didn’t actually have anything to say…awkward all around. Oh well.

Next on the agenda was brunch! I went to Wheat’s End, a totally gluten free cafe and bakery. There was a bit of a wait, so I put my name on the list and walked around a little bit.

I started with a decaf cappuccino, and then got a side salad and popover with honey butter.

I also got a pumpkin cinnamon roll for later but had half of it then because it was warm! Yum!

Next stop?

The bean!

Obligatory bean photos:

I hung out at the bean for a little while. It was an interesting place to sit back and watch the city.

The other “must do” thing for Chicago was a visit to the Field Museum. It was about 2 miles away, so I meandered my way over, stopping to finish my cinnamon roll along the way.

Look what I found! Lots of streets were blocked off for the marathon.

I really enjoyed looking at the animal exhibits, especially now that I work at a zoo. It was interesting to read about and compare the animals to what we have at the Saint Louis Zoo.

Look—Somali Wild Asses! I watch these guys 🙂

Terra Cotta soldiers.

Next on the agenda was a super quick coffee date with a Stanford friend who just moved to Chicago. It took me FOREVER to get there thanks to traffic, and unfortunately we didn’t have a ton of time together, but it was great to catch up!

I headed to the hotel to get ready. I felt so puffy every night: long sleeves+sweatshirt+giants shirt+fleece. I was cold in the bleachers thanks to wind, but my seats the next night were much more covered (and better!)

To be honest, I wasn’t feeling too great most of the day, and the soup place right by the train stop was a godsend. Exactly what I needed. It was called Soupbox, and I got carrot ginger bisque which was fantastic on a chilly day!

(It came with a free topping, so I went with artichoke hearts.)

My seats for Saturday’s game were awesome. I was on the first base side in the lower level. It was also a lot less rowdy. A lot of older couples with season tickets. I apparently got the woman next to me’s son’s ticket!

See that old scoreboard? I was right under that the previous night. Near the second to left column at the top.

Sadly, we lost again. It was rough. To be honest, it was really hard being a Giants fan in a different city. It was sort of demoralizing/soul crushing. I’m so glad I had the awesome experience of going to Wrigley to see a playoff game, but I left feeling sort of emotionally crushed. I think my boys need to go home to the home crowd. We still have a chance, and we need to get it done!

Luckily, I had a blueberry muffin from the cafe early to ease my pain.

The next morning, I walked around a little and stopped at Starbucks for some herbal tea and a banana, which I paired with a Luna for breakfast.

I loved walking around the chilly city in the morning. I really liked Chicago. It reminded me a lot of San Francisco, and it makes me want to take more advantage of SF when I get home.

Then, it was time to make the trek back. It was actually not bad at all, although I was expecting it to be rough. I blasted some music (my Knoxville playlist) and enjoyed the open country. I’m at the point in my life where there is just SO much to think about. Driving through the midwest countryside is also super easy, compared to driving through CA (like from SF to LA).

I stopped halfway through for lunch+gas. I didn’t leave with a full tank because there wasn’t much in Chicago, so I got pretty nervous when it was time to get gas and I was in the middle of NOWHERE. Seeing gas+Subway was beautiful.

I got a chopped salad with carved turkey (WAY more delicious than the normal turkey breast—it’s thicker cut), provolone, olives, tomatoes, oil and vinegar, and salt and pepper. I think Subway is the most underrated “healthy fast food.” There are a lot of great options, and you can literally find one anywhere, which is great if you’re in the middle of nowhere or in an unknown place.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, but it was nice to see the arch as I drove in. St. Louis is much more familiar! Also, coming home to cats? The best.

It’s honestly so great to be at a point in my life where I can just drive to a new city alone, and have a great weekend. It also gives me more confidence that no matter where I end up, I’ll be just find. I think the people you’re with are ultimately more important to the place, and it’s so exciting to go to different parts of the country, even driving through farmland.

It was quite the trip. I’m glad the drive went well, because I have an even longer solo drive coming up soon!

In summary: Chicago is a fantastic city, I had a great time, and GO GIANTS! Don’t stop beliEVEN!

A Whirlwind: I’m Going to Chicago!

Date: October 6, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Wow guys. Life is crazy right now, but I wanted to give you an update on what I’m up to!

One thing you probably know about me: I’m crazy into baseball. I’m a diehard Giants fan. A couple of weeks ago when I realized there was a possibility of the Giants playing in Chicago, I decided that if we made it that far I would go. I also realized with the timing of the wildcard game, I’d have less than 2 days notice. I didn’t mention anything on the blog because I’m also really superstitious. I was not willing to jinx that. I bought a hat today to wear; I wasn’t willing to get it before Wednesday because I didn’t want to jinx anything!

The game was really stressful. Apparently the luckiest position was curled up in the fetal position, with my hand on Yoyo. Oh, the things we do for baseball.

^Yoyo during the game. Exactly NOT how I was feeling. So many nerves.

And then we won! OMG. I immediately went online to try to buy tickets, and they were selling out while I bought them! I feel like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Giants in the playoffs. Tickets in SF are crazy expensive! Plus, this is my year without crazy commitments. I can drop everything for a few days and drive to Chicago.

I put some measures in place to make this possible before Wednesday (got work off Friday, got a spin sub) but it’s still quite the whirlwind.

I’m figuring out what to do, what to eat, what to wear.

On top of that, I found out I’m going to need to take another trip out of town in a few weeks. Again, WHIRLWIND.

The next few weeks will be crazy, but hopefully totally worth it.

What should I do/see/eat in Chicago?

WIAW—Guinea Pigging it Up?

Date: October 4, 2016

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hi friends! Welcome to another WIAW.

Before we get into my full day of eating, I wanted to show you guys what I did with my Soulard Farmer’s Market haul. I sautéed the zucchinis in garlic and nutritional yeast, and served them with fresh mozzarella and some of my mini heirloom tomatoes. Cookies were an appetizer because I stopped at Target after spin to pick them up, and it was late, and I was about to eat my arm, and if you thought I’d make it the mile home without breaking into them….

Ok, time for WIAW!

WIAWbutton

For some reason, I’ve gotten in the habit of having a flapjacked muffin on my days off. We’ll go with it. This is only my second time having the apple cinnamon, but it’s good! For some reason it’s hard to find. The other day, I was wondering if, since I hadn’t known this flavor existed, there were other flavors I was missing out on?

The answer is yes. There’s a S’mores flavor! I ordered a 4 pack online to try, so I’m excited for that! Plus packages are awesome. But food packages? Amazing.

I also had a few snap pea crisps (I often randomly have a few of these at meals) and half of a mediocre peach. Target has has awesome nectarines, but I didn’t see any when I went so I got these. They’re fine. Not amazing. The season is ending, I suppose!

Before getting ready for the day, I did half of a Blogilates ab video. I’ve neglected these. They’ve gotten so much harder haha. Sidenote: I got a yoga mat to do at home ab workouts and hopefully some yoga classes. I didn’t realize until rolling it out in class for the first time that it has a rocket ship on it. It’s pretty cool! But I think it might be meant for small children…it’s also sort of short, but good enough for me!

My coffeeshop of the week was The Mud House in Cherokee. This is my second to last one on the list!

As per usual, I got a decaf cappuccino.

I liked this a lot! It had that bitter/rich high quality coffee flavor. A little darker than some, which I would say is not quite as much my preference. I would say this falls about at the same level as Rise, but I might rank it a hair above because they had food!

They had amazing sounding grits, and an amazing sounding goat cheese sandwich (and they had GF bread), but after much deliberation, I went with the soup of the day, which was vegetarian split pea.

It was definitely a good call. I swear, my entire diet could consist of soup, salad, and sandwiches, and I’d be a happy girl.

I actually had a pretty productive day, school wise. I was dragging a bit in the morning, but with my low caffeine tolerance, the decaf was enough to make me WIRED. Not bad wired, but wired to the point of happiness and productiveness. (Note: I’m very certain I didn’t accidentally get full caf because that actually would kill me.)

I did a little bit of coffeeshop hopping today. Actually, I planned my entire day around visiting the other coffeeshop. Why? It’s trial day.

I haven’t had gluten in over a year. Not exactly at least. I accidentally had a tiny bit twice (that I know of): Thanksgiving (eating the top off of cheesecake and getting some of the crust) and a mislabeled turkey meatball. Both caused flares, but not terrible ones. (Thanksgiving wasn’t great partly because the excess of other things that make me flare.) The last time I intentionally ate gluten was a few crackers the night before my endoscopy. I spent most of the night lying on the floor, super nauseous, feeling like death.

But it’s been a long time. My gastroparesis is so much better. I don’t have to take stomach meds daily in order to function anymore. The fear of a flare is not constantly on my mind. Part of this is managing what and how I eat, but I honestly think my stomach has healed a lot, even since the spring. I’m not going to take over this WIAW with talk about all that, expect another post soon, but the sum of it all is that it was time.

I couldn’t think of anything that I wanted enough to test for a long time. But I don’t envision myself having to be meticulous about gluten long term; it’s a pain, and I hate the social situations I find myself in (I know it really isn’t a big deal to have to avoid a food, but for some reason I’m really self conscious about this.) But then I discovered a true St. Louis staple, and I could not find anywhere that had it gluten free: Gooey Butter Cake. After much research, I learned that Park Avenue Coffee had some of the best gooey butter cake, so this afternoon I stopped by to pick up some of the original (they have tons of other flavors too).

I decided to plop down there for an hour or so with my textbook, so I got some peppermint tea (#nomorecaffeine).

For a snack pre-workout, I had a Luna bar and the rest of my peach from earlier.

Around this time, I started feeling off. (I should note I started this post earlier in the day.) I was feeling pretty wired earlier in the afternoon, and I thought I was just really sensitive to even decaf, but then I started to feel a little like death. I think my cappuccino must have accidentally been full caf. To preface, I’m super sensitive to caffeine. It runs in my family, but when I developed my stomach illness my caffeine tolerance dropped to zero and it makes me really sick now. I started to feel really sick and shaky. It felt exactly like one of my flare ups. I hoped that Crossfit would make me feel better. I walked up and almost turned right around because I felt so rough. Luckily, copious amounts of stomach meds and some movement helped me feel a little better.

The workout started with an EMOM for 10 minutes of 3 burpees+1 deadlift+hang power clean+jerk. I stuck with 85# because I was still really shaky and didn’t want anything too heavy overhead.

The WOD was 2 8 minute AMRAPS of 200m run, 10 russian kb swings, 10 overhead lunges at 55#. Lunges are still a little hard for me with my foot. I can’t get my knee to the ground on one side without over stretching it.

After my workout, I did feel better but still rough. I decided that there was no way I could do my cake trial. I decided to take it as a sign from the universe that maybe I’m not ready, and not as healthy as I thought. Plus, when I got back to my car, I heard a commercial about all kinds of GF products, which I’ve never heard anything like before. Another sign. I don’t normally believe in non-baseball superstitions, but come on.

On the plus side, from an academic perspective, it’s very interesting to better realize that too much caffeine feels the same as a flare up, and my flare ups probably involved over activation of the central nervous system. Huh.

After my workout, I knew I needed to get some food in. This WIAW sure didn’t go as planned, but that’s life.

I knew I was low in calories for the day (I don’t think I got nearly enough food in after cycling last night) and needed to make sure I got something in without making myself feel worse. I had some GF crackers and a plain piece of GF bread while I started making soup.

What made the biggest difference in how I felt was making some hot ginger honey water. Discovering how much ginger helps has been life changing.

It’s funny, the soup I was making I used to consider my “magic soup” back when I was really sick this past winter. It cured several flare ups. I was actually planning on making it before I even had wanted to do a trial, so I guess it worked out! I did it the lazy way though. The recipe for sweet potato, pear, and leek soup is here. I cheated.

I wanted to use sweet potato soup, but couldn’t find any. the butternut squash worked out perfectly though! I took the boxed soup and added the pear (I cooked it then blended it in to a little of the soup before stirring everything together—it’s a small blender), and then adding all the flavorings. I halved all the spices because I was making a smaller volume (except ginger because #magic). And then made the croutons.

I swear I felt better with each bite.

Finally, a little bit later, I had a Luna bar because I needed more gentle food.

As for the gooey butter cake? It did not go to waste. My intern buddy came over to take care of it and watch baseball with me 🙂

So was I a guinea pig today? Not in the way I was expecting. But seriously, what are the odds the one day in the year I got caffeine was the one I had planned on trying gluten for the first time in a year? Unless the act of buying gluten caused me to flare? haha. Honestly I felt like I was doing something illicit, buying the cake.

So I guess my trial is on the shelf for now….

I apologize for the depressing health-related turn this post took—it was definitely unexpected!