More Mary

Sunday was a beautiful day. John and Brad had a tee time around dawn, so they golfed while Mary and I slept (Troy was in Chicago for the weekend), and later the four of us met for brunch in the Central West End area of town. After brunch the golfers went home to shower and nap; meanwhile Mary and I took advantage of the perfect weather and went for a walk. While walking we found another St. Louis 250th birthday cake outside of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.

We also went inside the Cathedral Basilica. It was the first time for both of us, and inside it was gorgeous. (One of these days I plan to find out why it's called the "Cathedral Basilica.")

Later we met up with Brad and John at iTap for the Packers game. Troy arrived home in the evening and Mary stayed the night with John and Troy so they could all hang out together.

On Monday, Troy had the day off so she and I took Mary to Sump Coffee, which has become one of our favorite places. Unbeknownst to us, Monday is their "R&D" day when they make experimental concoctions, so we got to try some unique and delicious drinks.

Troy and Mary had this yummy coffee Mojito mocktail, while I had coffee cherry tea. All were absolutely delicious! This is a super serious coffee establishment and their coffee is perfection. But that's all they serve. Don't you dare go there expecting decaf, sweeteners, dairy, pastries, or tea. They serve only coffee and espresso (except on Mondays!).

After the three of us had lunch, Mary and I visited the Missouri Botanical Gardens - or as she likes to call it, MoBot. (Not really.)

Mary went back to Stanford today, so last night we capped off her trip at iTap for their Brews N Clues trivia night. It's a really tough trivia contest. And by tough I mean really tough. (Just ask Peter and Troy, who have suffered the agony of defeat with us before.) Our team of "Can You Beer Me Now" consisted of me, Brad, Mary, and John. (Troy had a meeting and couldn't join us.) We were thrilled to win the first round (out of five rounds). Our prize: a round of beers. We figured this would be the highlight of our night. But then we also won the third and fourth rounds, and suddenly we were contenders. (And for winning another two rounds we also got ….. another two rounds of beers. Yikes, now we had more beers than we could possibly drink so ….. we had to start giving them away, which was very difficult for poor John.) And by the end we found ourselves the victors, winning the night by one point. Needless to say, this was a great way to cap off Mary's visit. (And a great way for John to walk away with a generous gift card to his and Troy's favorite bar.) Brad had to leave after the fourth round (it was a work night and the trivia went late) but John and Mary were happy to represent the team in a photo with our prizes. Brad and I can't stay up until midnight every week, but if Peter or Mary is ever visiting over a Tuesday night ….. you'll know where to find us!