When we first moved, I worried a lot. Would I be able to see concerts? Would I be able to go see indie movies? The truth is, Saint Louis  is one of the coolest cities I’ve visited, and without a doubt, the best place I’ve ever lived. Indie movie theaters, we got it. Live theatre, live music, awesome museums… we got it. You can go into the city and see almost any professional sport you want to. There’s some really high quality colleges around here. Business and industry still exist in Saint Louis.

But the absolute, without a doubt, best thing we’ve done in Saint Louis is subscribe to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. About once a month, we head down to Powell Hall and see the symphony.

When I was six or seven, my class took a trip to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to see the Nutcracker. I moved out of my mother’s house at twenty-two, and I found the ticket stub from that concert in a jewelry box still. I adored the experience – the beautiful concert hall, the glowing instruments, the glorious noise.

Michael and I have been to probably 4 or 5 concerts at Powell Hall since September. We’ve sat in some fantastic seats and some less fantastic seats, but there’s no bad seat in the place. Powell Hall is gorgeous, all red and velvet and gold painted crystal chandeliers. It’s been beautifully renovated and feels simply elegant. It’s a gem.

And the orchestra is ridiculously good. They’re a full-time orchestra, this is their only job. We’ve seen them play music from Looney Tunes, with the cartoons playing behind them, we’ve seen them play a show of only Mozart, we’ve watched them accompany vocalists and tap-dancers and Ben Folds kicking a piano’s ass. There’s a variety of talent.

The second concert we went to was an all Mozart program, including some more obscure pieces. Our seats looked right out over the entire orchestra, watching the bows rise and fall together, and the waxed shine of the stringed instruments contrasting with the bright, bright brass. The warmth and the power of the sound… I have never heard music sound so perfect. You can pick out the sound of a lone triangle as easily as the sound of a lone bassoon or violin.

After the first movement, I started to cry a little, very quietly. Michael looked at me quizzically and I just took his hand. It was maybe the most profoundly beautiful thing I’ve experienced. And it can be experienced by anyone. The cheapest seats are typically around $40 bucks a pop, usually it’s a bit cheaper for the family shows. The experience is astounding for the cost.

And the cost… it supports keeping something as magnificent as a symphony around. Because once the symphony and the hall fall into disrepair, no one is going to choose to spend the money to bring them back. In my mind, I get a mind-blowing experience and help to make sure that my children and grandchildren can have that exact same experience some time in the future. The kind of experience that reminds you of the power and beauty in a world that can be kind of deadening sometimes.

If you live in Saint Louis, or are just visiting, I urge you to take the time to see the Symphony. I’ll meet you there!

While we were in the area, I insisted on going to the National Zoo and Ikea. Then I looked up a restaurant, Tortacos in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

In the interest of full disclosure, I may know someone who is involved with Tortacos. But if I ate at a friend’s place and didn’t like it, I wouldn’t post about it on my mostly-unheard-of blog. I am only posting because Michael and me (and my brother and my food-scientist sister, and her boyfriend) really liked the place.

It was clean, it was bright, the menu was simple — in a good way. The guacamole was awesome and fresh. The salsas and taco toppings were awesome and fresh. The servings were generous. I ate the al pastor and carnitas tacos and both meats were fantastic and flavorful, although I preferred the carnitas.  The tortilla chips were made fresh, in-house. Super crispy and delicious. It would be easy to eat vegetarian (or vegan).

After we ate, we grabbed an extra serving of chips and guac to take back to our hotel since we were having visitors. They went over very well. One visitor even remarked, I don’t normally like guacamole but this is really good.

New businesses usually offer a cluttered vision but that was not the case with Tortacos. The simplicity of the menu and aesthetic really showcase the thoughtfulness put into all aspects of the venture.

I wish I were home more often, so I could eat there more often and drag more people there.  Also, I’d like to try the whole menu, especially the flan. But I’m not around very often. St. Louis is an interesting city food-wise but I’ve yet to find stellar (or even adequate)Mexican food. If you live close enough to drop into Tortacos, make sure and do so, if only because I can’t.

In conclusion: food tasty; plentiful; cheap. As Homer might say, the whole experience is “groin-grabbingly transcendent.”

Update: Here’s what Tom Sietsema, Washington Post food critic had to say.

I personally think Sonic is worth it. A Sonic cheeseburger with mustard ranks pretty high on my fast food burger list.  They have awesome onion rings. Their mixed icecream drinks are amazing (coconut cream pie was my favorite!). And if you want a lower calorie drink – you can get a diet cherry limeade, which is pretty refreshing on a summer day.

Well, I’d never been to White Castle. My stoner friends all started frequenting the place after Harold and Kumar. Here in the mid-west, we have Sonic and White Castle super close by. So last night, Michael and I were looking for something to eat and we had decided on Steak ‘n’ Shake. Which, if you’ve never had it, ranks higher on the burger list than a Sonic cheeseburger for me. So I was kind of pumped about a burger from Steak ‘n’ Shake, it’d been probably a week since I had beef and I wanted some tasty beef. I pulled into their parking lot and was looking for a parking space because they were PACKED.

But Michael saw White Castle next door, and said, “we should go there since you’ve never had it.” And I agreed. Because you have to try something new when you have the opportunity.

So we each ordered the 4 burger meal, and we added cheese.  I got onion rings, Michael got fries. We sat down to eat.

Let me be clear, here: I do not dislike White Castle. I just found it incredibly boring. My first bite tasted like pot roast. Pot roast without any seasoning other than onions. I like pot roast. But I like it with spices. Marjoram, maybe? And root vegetables.

They have horseradish mustard and ketchup you can adorn the burgers with. But the burgers are overpowered quickly by those flavors.

My conclusion is this: White Castle burgers are boring and bland. There’s no bite of acidity to cut the musty, oily onion and meat. The pickle struggles valiantly in this capacity but it is not enough. There’s no crunch, the texture is all mush.

That being said, they do serve crinkle-cut fries. Which are easily my most favorite fries besides waffle fries. But the onion rings are pretty thickly breaded, nothing special.

Another thing. Here in the mid-west, McDonalds sells two cheeseburger meals. A McDonalds cheeseburger is a pretty crappy item of food, but it is pretty much a classic, and it’s very balanced. Why don’t they have this meal in the East?

P.S. I eat fast food a lot here for a few reasons: there are calorie counts, it’s cheap, and pretty much all the restaurant food I’ve had here has sucked. Except the fancy $130 meal we had for our anniversary where I ate the most magic steak I ever tasted.

I’m not trying to hate on Hair Cuttery. I’ve gotten one magnificent haircut there, but generally only trust them if I need a trim, and nothing else.

I’ve been to a few salons for cuts and styling since then. We move around a lot, so I’m always trying new people. I never found a good, reasonably priced salon in Frederick. When we moved back to Crofton, I took a shot on Hair Experience, based entirely on their well-designed website. I couldn’t recommend them enough. They’ve always managed to get me in on the day I call – whether it was for a cut and style or corrective coloring after a home-bleaching fiasco. They were extremely knowledgeable. Their salon was small which was nice – everyone was friendly. I always felt good about entrusting my hair to them, especially after they worked magic on my bright orange and brittle hair.

Men may not understand this, but most women do. Getting a haircut is nice. For me, it’s always reminiscent of being little and my girlfriends braiding my hair during reading circle at school. It always gave me happy, tingly goosebumps. My mom, my sisters, my girl cousins, my aunts – all played with my hair. It’s physical and intimate and it makes you feel good and worthy of attention.

I’ve been intending to get my haircut since we moved, since I’m on the job prowl. I’ve already gone into one interview with my hair looking a little atrocious. So I walked into Spa Winghaven yesterday. I doubted they’d have an opening for a walk-in, but if they didn’t I figured I could look somewhere else. Lucky me, someone had rescheduled a hair appointment and they could get me in.

For a salon, this place was remarkably quiet. There was some chatter between stylist and customer, but there was no television. The radio played softly. The space was very open and pretty. I waited for maybe two minutes before my stylist, Nicole, introduced herself and we talked a little about what I wanted.

I’m a horrible person to cut hair for if you want me to tell you exactly what to do. But if you like doing something crazy for someone who won’t get pissed off, that’s me. In this scenario, though, I had a few requirements: I wanted some length off, but not too much – an inch or two. I wanted some movement to my hair.  That was all. She seemed as if she understood exactly what I wanted, and so we went to the sink where she shampooed my hair. She spent several minutes doing some nice scalp massage, which I really appreciate.

She was true to her word – she didn’t cut much length off. She added a long layer and thinned out my hair at the bottom a little. We discussed how I care for my hair at home and I mentioned I was hopeless with a round brush and blow dryer. She offered me some hints for getting volume with a blow dryer without using a round brush.  When it came to styling, she paid a lot of attention to the details. I was really happy with her obvious care for my hair.

She asked how I liked it, and of course I did. She joked that I was easy to please. The cut and style ran $42.00, which is about what I paid for the same service at Hair Experience and less than what I paid for the same service at other salons in the DC area (60 dollars?).

So I should recommend Spa Winghaven, at least for hair and the atmosphere. I also have a coupon there which I neglected to bring, but I think it may be for massage and stuff, not so much for the salon section.

Anyway, like I told Michael, it’s a good haircut. But unless you have a really dramatic change, it’s hard to really be  super in love with your haircut. In any case, the stylist was very sweet and I can recommend her and Spa Winghaven, if you’re local.

Well, this weekend we planned to go into the city to experience three things, in particular:

1. The Metrolink – an above-ground light rail. This is comparable in many ways to Baltimore’s Light Rail, with the sole exception being the lack of heroin addicts who’ve had a fresh fix, passed out and drooling on seats. M tells me there’s not as much heroin in St. Louis. I don’t think there is as much heroin anywhere as there is in Baltimore – except maybe Afghanistan.
2. The Gateway Arch. We bought tickets to take the tram to the top. This experience was relatively horrifying.
3. The Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar. Because we LOVE dueling pianos. We ran into them in Oklahoma City and also in Vegas on our honeymoon.

Metrolink was surprisingly straightforward. We parked on the west side of one of the lines in long-term parking. We purchased tickets, validated said tickets and waited maybe 5 minutes for a train. Then we sat on the train for like ten minutes. I had my camera out, just because, and I got yelled at to put it away. A gaggle of girls got on after us and they were yelled at similarly and had pretty much the reaction I did. You may politely request I put my camera away. But if you’re going to be a bitch about it, I’ll pull out my cell and start taking copious pics, to thumb my nose at you. Metrolink goes faster at some points than Baltimore Light Rail, and the train cars shake. It is somewhat un-nerving.

We were interested in two stops on Metrolink. The one we thought to be nearest to our hotel was Stadium, which is right next to Busch Stadium. Busch Stadium is a pretty sweet looking stadium. The other stop converges on the new Amtrak station and is also right at the Scottrade Center where the Blues play. I was interested in this stop since in the future we will be stopping here – for train travel and also HOCKEY.

We walked a block or two or three to our hotel which was pretty sweet. Then we went to lunch (Imo’s – the prototype of St. Louis pizza, supposedly). They put provel on their salad, of course. Then we walked over to Gateway Park and the Arch.

The Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO

We were at the Arch on a Saturday at about 2 pm. We waited in line for 15 minutes to go through security – they scan all your stuff on a belt, and then scan you. They’re actually pretty fast, but when there’s a lot of people, it takes a long time. Then we stood in line to go up the tram. We were in that line for probably an hour, all told. Granted, they had some mechanical problems on the tram, which took maybe 20-30 minutes to fix. Not that I’m complaining. A safe tram is a happy tram.

Once they let you through to the small exhibit, they take your picture and try to sell it to you afterwards at the gift shop. The exhibit was interesting at times but there were several hands-on activities that weren’t working. After you spend 10-15 minutes in the exhibit, you go downstairs and line up by the tram you’ll be getting on. If you have problems walking up or down steps, you’ll want to get a lower-numbered car. We were in the last car (highest number), I was wearing heels, I’m dumb. The tram is totally handicapped unfriendly, there’s a ton of steps, often without much of a handrail. The tram car itself is a tiny pod. Your knees will rub into everyone else’s knees. Plus the car has a ceiling like that of a bug, so you have to crane forward so your head doesn’t hit the concrete.

Anyway, while you wait for the tram car, they show a video about Eero Saarinen, and the artistic design of the Arch, as well as how he chose the building materials. It’s short, it’s interesting. Then the video ends, the cars roll into place and people exit the cars. We hopped in.

Our group consisted of ourselves and three middle-aged individuals who were part of a tour group. We made polite conversation because that’s what you do in the mid-west.

The car itself rotates to keep upright. It’s not a smooth rotation. You feel it rolling back, it hits a spot and then jolts upright. At one point it basically stops rotating and moves pretty quickly. That’s when I knew I was moving up in the Arch and got a little terrified. Then it moves more slowly and starts jolting again. Then you’re at the top.

The top is a mess. The stairway is small and they have people waiting to enter the tram cars in such a way that it’s hard to make it out and you certainly can’t grab the handrail because people are leaning against it. I was pretty wobbly for a few reasons:

1. I am moderately terrified of heights. On mountains, I never seem to mind that much. But in buildings, it kills me.
2. I am also moderately claustrophobic. Crowds of people drive me a little insane. I tend to push through them as fast as possible, but I couldn’t because we were in a traffic jam – too many people at the top.
3. I was on heels. I think I was about thirty pounds lighter the last time I wore these heels. They hurt a lot more now. Don’t wear heels, ladies, unless you are very thin and very agile. Not me.

We finally made it to the top. And I thought I could breathe easy after the stairs. Not so much. There were people everywhere. Little kids climbing up to windows, people just milling about. I waited to see through a window but people were just standing there. And I realized my breathing was shallow, and I was getting lightheaded. We took the next ride down and I felt like a pansy.

The rest of the building underground isn’t interesting. If you want you can pay 20 dollars for your picture. We looked through the gift shop and the old mercantile or whatever, neither was particularly interesting. There’s a museum, too, but we took a miss on that.

We found a bar at LaClede’s landing and sat for a couple hours before we moved onto the Big Bang. The bar was weird. Usually if you’re the only people at a bar, the bartender chats with you. We sat for maybe 2 hours and the only question we got was “want another [blank].” Come on, man.  Then his friends showed up and he chatted up a storm and pretty much ignored us. I won’t list the bar because I’m not going to be a bitch. But bartenders CHAT. That’s their job, unless they’re busy, in which case they don’t have to. I’d understand if he had a lot of customers or was setting up for the night. But he was just standing there, staring.

The Big Bang was nice. We were there at like 6 so we didn’t pay a cover, we found a table that wasn’t reserved, we sat down. We had some drinks. The performers went on at maybe 6:20 or 6:30. We stayed for a couple hours, all told. It was fun, the performers were pretty comfortable switching from piano to drums. I was a little ticked they didn’t know either song we requested, especially since we served out fivers for each request, instead of the single dollars we saw going up there mostly. I never pick obscure songs, either. If you’re interested, I requested “Something” by the Beatles. Many people have argued this is one of the best songs ever written. I wouldn’t go that far, but it is certainly a well-known song. Michael requested “hip to be square,” which spent some time pretty high up on the Billboard charts. Little disappointed. In any case, get there early and drink water like me, and you’re getting free entertainment. Not bad at all.

So we left, and the rest of our night was pretty boring. We ate a late dinner at TGIFridays, the servers were very good, there were some hilarious teenagers at a table next to us. We had breakfast early at our hotel the next morning, after watching the sunrise over the Arch and the Mississippi.

I slept all afternoon when we got home. Michael bottled some beer. He says it tastes like a Newcastle Brown, so I’m looking forward to busting one open in a week or so. We’ll have to wait and see what he ends up brewing next. Possibly hard cider, possibly an English Bitter.

Oh, we stayed at The Ballpark Hilton. I can recommend them tremendously. The hotel is older but well-maintained. They’re very family friendly. It’s a couple blocks to the Metrolink and also to the Gateway Arch. On this weekend, the hotel was also a stop on shuttles headed to the Soulard Oktoberfest. Many twenty-something men would swing in and out of the shuttle with enormous beer steins in hand. Looked like fun.