Last Day in St. Louis! Day 4

Day 4- Museum Day!

My last day in St. Louis :( was bittersweet since I definitely enjoyed exploring everything the city had to offer, but I'm also excited to go home and reunite with my family. I slept pretty late AGAIN today (I guess traveling takes a toll on my body lol) so the first thing we did after leaving the house was to eat lunch. Lunch was classic Southern food, such as fried chicken, cornbread, mac and cheese, and mashed potatoes at Sweetie Pie's. Sweetie Pie's is so famous for its food that it has its own TV show on Oprah's channel, OWN. The food is served cafeteria style, meaning that you go down a serving line and choose what you want. The restaurant's waiters are all extremely helpful and work hard to serve you even though you don't actually tip them. Additionally, there are pictures of Sweetie Pie's owner, Miss Robbie, all over the walls.

Eating our delicious fried chicken and pork steak!

The cast of Welcome to Sweetie Pie's

My friend and I were stuffed after eating all that fried chicken so we headed to the St. Louis Art Museum afterwards to walk off all our calories. The art museum, like the zoo, is located inside Forest Park and has free admission (yay for saving money). While its not Metropolitan Museum, SLAM still holds its own in the art world by showing paintings by famous artists such as Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, El Greco, and Georgia O'Keefe. The majority of the museum is filled with European and American art as the galleries on Asian art and African art are sadly lacking.

One of Monet's famous Water Lilies paintings

The second museum we visited of the day was the Missouri History Museum. After we entered the museum we realized that St. Louis was celebrating 250 years of history this year. This explained why we kept seeing the decorative birthday cakes all over the city. This history museum is literally over flowing with information about St. Louis and Missouri. Every inch of the walls and the building is covered with little facts and photos telling the history of the state. As a result, my friend and I were a little overwhelmed when walking through the museum. However, we did learn a lot about Missouri that we had no idea about before! Did you know that the first Olympics to be held in the U.S was located in St. Louis?

Happy 250 years!

After spending 4 days in this amazing city, I feel like I have explored every major sight and gotten a good picture of what St. Louis is like. For all of yall who plan on visiting St. Louis, I really suggest a 4 day itinerary as anything longer might lead to boredom and anything shorter will lead to a lack of understanding of the city. I really enjoyed my short vacation here and now its back home to to Texas!

Goodbye St. Louis!
- Kathleen

St. Louis Vacay Day 2!

Day 2- So many free things!!

Who doesn't want to start out their day with free beer? Today my friend and I began our morning by touring the Anheuser Busch brewery, which makes the famous Budweiser beer. We got to sample the different types of beer they had, see how they manufacture beer, and even take pictures with the Clydesdale horses from their commercials!

     

It's a Clydesdale horse from the Budweiser commercials!

Inside the Anheuser Busch brewery- They really like the color red...

After all the walking we did during the beer tour, my friend and I were starving so we headed to a well- known local barbecue place called Pappy's Smokehouse. I'm from Texas so I was skeptical when they said Pappy's was famous for its goold ole' bbq. However, after waiting in line for about 15 minutes and tasting my beef brisket sandwich I was definitely proved wrong. Pappy's is amazing and I would recommend anyone to try it out- Jimmy Kimmel was even here!

Beef brisket sandwich with sweet potato fries and applesauce- yummy!

The #1 first world problem with eating lots of yummy food is that afterwards you start to feel overweight and pudgy, so my friend and I headed to the free St. Louis Zoo to walk off all our meat calories. Although the majority of the animals were in hiding (it was so cold!), we did manage to see a very friendly elephant who came out just in time for us to snap pictures.

On the way home, we stopped at one of the St. Louis "treasures"- the Cathedral Basilica. The Cathedral looked like a giant fortress from the outside, but inside it was beyond gorgeous with its gold painted murals all over the ceiling and walls. Visiting the Cathedral was the perfect peaceful ending to our hectic day.

The inside of the Cathedral is covered in gold murals that tell Bible stories

Gorgeous Cathedral architecture

                                         

My favorite part about today was that despite the fact that we went to so many places and saw so many different things, the majority of everything we did was free! Really the only thing activity that costed money today was our bbq lunch- everything else did not charge us anything. This is such a huge difference from many other places I've been (especially New York), but I loved it! Who doesn't love saving money?

Love,
Kathleen

I'm still in St. Louis... Day 3

Day 3- Playing on an Adult Playground?

Today was a slow start for me because I stayed up late the night before watching a Korean drama (can't resist!) so we did not leave the house until about 11am. First stop was Pi Pizzeria, a pizza place that serves Chicago style pizza and is known as one of President Obama's favorite places to eat. I was excited to try out the deep dish Chicago pizza because that isn't something that is available to Texans. Chicago style pizza is basically pizza backwards- cheese is on the bottom and the sauce is at the top, making it a very messy eat (but obviously still delicious). Thought'd share a photo of our very large, very saucy meatball pizza!

Meatball pizza- we love meat!

Next stop was the City Museum, which is basically a giant playground for adults. I wasn't sure what to expect when I first heard about the place because... isn't a playground meant for children to play on? But City Museum turned out to such a fun experience and I definitely recommend anyone in the St. Louis area to visit. There are secret tunnels within the building and tons of slides everywhere- even one that was 10 stories tall! There was also an outside portion that was my favorite part because the climbing areas were so unique and interesting and best of all, there was a ball pen filled with colorful balls (just like the ones you might find at a McDonalds play place). City Museum was like returning to my carefree childhood of nonstop playing and climbing and exploring. I loved it!

You can see the huge playground behind us

Conquered my fear of heights!

Back to my childhood...

We were somewhat hungry after playing around for so long , but it wasn't dinner time yet so we headed to the famed frozen custard place, Ted Drewes. Normally there would be lines of people waiting, but because the weather was so cold and it was a weekday there was no one! Here's a shot of my deliciously creamy caramel and pecan frozen custard. Don't be too jealous!

Our last stop of the day was to do some shopping at the St. Louis Galleria. I'm from Houston, which has the 7th largest Galleria in the country so I wasn't expecting much from the St. Louis one. However, it was so nicely decorated for the holidays and had a variety of shops (Forever 21, Nordstrom, Brookstone) that I throughly enjoyed myself. Shopping is one of my main passions in life so I really wanted to check out the place. It was a nice relaxing end to our day :)

Love,

Kathleen

Caught the Traveling Bug... I'm in St. Louis! Day 1

Hello peoples :)

I love traveling. Its as simple as that. I love seeing different parts of the world and getting to experience new things. Something that I think many people forget about when they decide they want to start traveling is their own home country. While international locations may appear to be more attractive, there's something to be said about the simplicity (and cost effectiveness) of exploring your native lands. I've lived my whole life in America but have yet to really see many parts of the country. To rectify this issue, I decided to visit my friend in St. Louis, Missouri and see what the Midwest is all about.

This vacation wasn't about rushing all over the city to see every last tourist attractions. Instead, I wanted to spend time with my friend (whom I haven't seen in a few months) and see St. Louis leisurely. Although I was in no hurry to see everything in St. Louis, I did have a list of must- sees and a loose schedule on when I wanted to do everything. Traveling is all about organization and background research. The worst thing any traveler can do in a place they have never visited before is to come unprepared. If you don't know anything about the city you are in, why did you even come tour it? I've never been one of those people who travels to a destination just to say they've been there and check it off some imaginary list they have. So before I came to St. Louis I compiled a short list of major attractions such as, the Gateway Arch, that I definitely wanted to see. Because my friend is somewhat a local, I also left many aspects of this trip up to her. Here's how I spent my first day in St. Louis!

Day 1- Classic SL
Obviously we chose to visit the most famous St. Louis attraction first! The gloomy day didn't stop us from taking the tiny white pod up the Gateway Arch and enjoying the views from above. The Arch is something I've only seen in pictures on the internet, so getting to see it up close and even travel inside it was an interesting experience. The white pod you take up the Arch is not for the claustrophobic! Its literally so small that the door is under 4 feet tall and it seats 5 people side by side. It only takes 4 seconds to reach the top of the Arch and the views are definitely worth the trip (and the wait). One side of the Arch allows you to see downtown St. Louis and the other side overlooks the Mississippi River into Illinois. The windows are tiny and viewers have to lean over to look through it. I've been up several types of towers to see city views, but I have to say the Arch was a truly unique experience.

A windy day can't stop me from visiting this famous landmark!

Old Courthouse

                          
The first day we also toured the Old Courthouse (across from the Arch) where the famed Dred Scott case occurred and walked through some of Forest Park (a Central Park imitation).

I also got to walk around the Washington University campus since that's where my friend graduated from. WashU has one of the most beautiful campuses I've ever seen- the buildings look like they belong in Europe or... Hogwarts lol.

Longhorn in Washington University!

Entrance to the University

Because I had an early start that day (I flew in from Houston), we decided to have an early night too, BUT not before going to Jilly's Cupcake Bar! Jilly's is famous for its huge delicious cupcakes that won twice on the Food Network's Cupcake Wars. Eating my giant Reese's cup inspired cupcake was truly one of my favorite moments of the day (spoken like a dessert lover).

I have the biggest sweet tooth around...

It was so cold and windy today in St. Louis- much colder than what I'm use to back in Texas. But I survived my first day in the city! I'm excited for the coming days and being able to explore more of this interesting place.

Love,
Kathleen

I'm Backkkkkkkk!!!

After almost a year hiatus, I've finally made the decision to start blogging again! These past 10 months have been so hectic for me- I studied abroad in Hong Kong, traveled around Asia, completed an internship in New York City, received a full time job offer (so I'll be moving soon!), and started my last year of college as an undergrad. If you're wondering right now how I managed to survive my busy schedule, its all due to the magic of eating stress relief desserts LOL. I've become hooked on trying new desserts and always remembering to indulge in something sweet after dinner. As you can probably guess, this hasn't meant good things for my diet plans... 

This all leads to why I wanted to restart up my blog again. I've come to realize that my life will always be hectic and full of so many adventures and its better that I take the time to document them one by one rather than let them pass on by because I'm too tired or lazy. Over this past year, I've eaten so many wonderfully delicious foods, traveled to so many beautiful places, and had a lot of amazing life experiences that I really wish I could have written about. Although its way to early for New Year's resolutions, I wanted to get ahead of the game and name writing weekly posts on my blog as one of my resolutions. There are so many upcoming events in my life that I want to document and remember as important- college graduation, moving to NYC, starting my first job, traveling to Europe, tasting new and yummy desserts, etc... This year I've realized that its so easy to let laziness or excuses get in the way of something that's good for you. Writing about my life and my experiences is how I de-stress and remember all my precious memories. Instead of lying around and being lazy, I should be proactive and do something positive with my free time and create something lasting. I'm so excited to share my adventures with all of you and hope that in the future I'm truly able to live my life to the fullest.

Love,

Kathleen

Taiwan Trip Day 1-2

This is day 2 of being in Taiwan with my family and finally I have some down time to let everyone know what it’s like here. Unfortunately, my body isn’t adjusting too well to the air here and my allergies have come back in full force. But even though my nose is in a constant state of stuffiness and I’m sneezing 24/7, I’m determined that it not stop me from enjoying Taiwan. I’m currently visiting with my family in the port city of Kaohsiung. The weather here is around 70- 80 degrees on daily basis despite it being January. Instead of cooking at home, the people here mainly rely on small family owned restaurants to get their meals. Yesterday I went with my aunt to eat “dan bing”, which is Chinese for egg pancake (only the best breakfast to ever have existed) and for my daily dose of milk tea. 

One of the best things about being in Asia is that milk tea is a staple of every meal and it comes super cheap here! I also went to have my hair washed and my head massaged at the neighborhood salon (another typical activity for many Taiwanese residents). Right now I’m shuddering at the thought of having to go back to America where I’m required to cook my own food and wash/ dry my own long hair. Yup, I’ve become super spoiled in the 2 days I’ve been here…

My hair after its been pampered :)

Something new I experienced here was riding on the back of a motorcycle, which was TERRIFYING! I occasionally get scared just riding in a car so having to sit on a motorcycle while it weaved back and forth in traffic made me have to close my eyes throughout the entire ride. I know... I'm so lame lol... On the bright side though, being out in the open allowed me to view my surroundings more clearly.

The street leading to our apartment

More on my Asia adventures later! I gotta catch up on my Korean dramas right now...

Love,

Kathleen

Kiss me, I'm dangerous~

Hello Everyone!

Today, I will be showing you all how to create this make-up look inspired by St. Patrick's Day.

We typically think of bright green colors, but today I will use muted colors to create a darker, sexier look.

1. Start off with your typical foundation routine and contour and highlight your jawline and nose to make those features slimmer.

2. Using your favorite eye primer, apply a small amount on your eyelids.

3. Taking a flat brush, use a medium green color and create a upside-down triangle shape on the center of your eyelids.

4. With your angle brush, take a darker green color and apply it on the outer corner and inner corner of your eyes.

5. Using a smaller flat brush, take a light yellow green color and pat it on the center of your eyelids and on the tear-duct area of your eyes.

6. Taking a grey color on your angled brush, brush this on your outer corner of your eyes. You want to brush this color in a v-shape.

7. Using a dark brown eyeliner, line your water line and your lash line entirely.

8. Take your darkest black liquid liner and create a cat eye effect.

9. Using a lengthening mascara, coat the outer lashes.

10. Finish off with a nude lipgloss color

Good Luck!
<3 Jen