St. Louis – Ryan Coultas

July 7, 2013

Borg Trash – Photo 52 Project [Week 27]

Hollywood Casino, near St. Louis, sent me free room nights so I made it into a half birthday celebration for Mari Ann. I am not a high roller but I think since they are remodeling, they are giving out rooms until it is all complete. The next day we headed out into St. Louis. We ate at Pappy’s Smokehouse, went to the Galleria, got a drink at the Silver Ballroom, and ate dinner at Hwy 61.

Afterward, we decided to head home around 6:30pm. Before we got out of the city I remembered that I wanted to take Mari Ann to the Big Bang Bar. They are a dueling piano bar and put on a great show. I decided to put in directions on my phone to the landing but I didn’t remember the name of the bar just then. I figured if we put in the Drunken Fish, at least that would get us to the landing. On the way, Mari Ann saw this really cool painted dumpster. I pulled a quick U-Turn and got out to snap some pictures. The sun was starting to go down and it looked great.

Apparently, either there are two drunken fish restaurants, or Apple just wanted to screw with us. Now we pull into a church parking lot and look up the name of the bar and put it in manually. We were off again and realize we are heading way out of St. Louis. We pull into a gas station and I look at the overview. It was taking us to the wrong place again. Now, I enter Big Bang Bar into Google maps and confirm that indeed we are on our way to the landing. With our route confirmed, surely nothing could possibly go wrong.

As we see the lights of the city once again coming into focus, some fireworks start going off over the river. Having the top down made this a really great experience. We are nearly at the landing only to see that it was closed down due to the fireworks display. We ended up on the MLK bridge toward Illinois. With the fireworks still going on, people are just stopping on the bridge taking up a lane of staffing. I stop at well but not wanting the unfortunate caboose; I get in the left lane and start again on my way. Then, I see a gap in the cars and say what the hell and pull to a stop again. Mari Ann and I watched the fireworks literally right above the river. As the not too distant shells burst against the buildings, and the water, we have the best seats in the world. It was as loud as a war zone and the finally was spectacular.

January 27, 2013January 27, 2013

Arch – Photo 52 Project [Week 4]

I’ve seen the St. Louis Gateway Arch countless times over the years but only been close to it a few times. During a trip to St. Louis this weekend I decided to photograph it. Most of the time I was using a wide angle lens and a Cokin polarizer on a mount. Unfortunately, the mount sits just a little bit away from the lens and is enough to cause vignetting. While I think this shot would have been better with a polarizer because of all of the reflections, I needed to go full wide on this shot and could not afford to lose the corners.

While my brother Jesse and I were out, there was a little bit of an altercation going on with a guy and what appeared to be Arch security. This guy was ejected from the visitors center for an incident involving a knife and him grabbing it back from someone. He was acting like a general asshole about the whole thing, ranting about how he had FBI government clearance and the authorities were blowing this whole thing out of proportion. After things continued to escalate, he refused to take the ticket saying, “I’m not gonna take the ticket. Take be to jail! You are not going to give me a ticket. You’re gonna have to take me to jail!” So, the police arrived and promptly took the man to jail and away from his ashamed wife and surely soon to be delinquent children. That along was worth the trip.

October 1, 2012

Pappy’s Smokehouse

So I took my brother to St. Louis for birthday celebrations and amoung the stops was Pappy’s Smokehouse. We arrived around 12:30pm and the line was out the door. This was expected since our friend, Brandon, let us know this place was always packed. After a well worth it half an hour we were ready to order.

I got the half slab of ribs combo with pulled pork, deep fried corn, and baked beans. They have a huge smoker outside where they slow cook all of the meat. It is attached to a trailer and I assume they take it to BBQ festivals and the like. Their website says they use apple and cherry wood to smoke their meat and the end result is fantastic.

Pappy’s uses a dry rub and I greatly prefer it to a sauce although they do have great sauces at the table. These ribs were hands down the best I have ever had. The wait before you get into the restaurant just makes it even better. The smell of smoky goodness seeps into the hallway outside. Once we were in the restaurant, a waitress happened to walk by with a fresh pile of ribs and the sight was mouthwateringly magical.

Once you order, the food is ready after a couple minutes. Everything was as good as it looked. This place lives up to the hype and I would go back in a heartbeat.