I'm going to Kansas City . . . Kansas City here I come!

   It had been way too long since my last adventure, so when my life buddy DMan said "What about going to your Aunt Peg's in Kansas City for Thanksgiving weekend?," I started packing and we hit the road as soon as I got off work on Friday afternoon. Everyone else must have already had their holiday underway, because traffic was light and we made it to my aunt's place on State Line Road by 7:30. Peg had her apartment decked out with two festive Christmas trees; twinkling lights, garland and shiny trinkets everywhere; and candy dishes loaded with holiday-colored Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Hershey's Kisses, and Andes Mints. DMan was in heaven. He loves everything about Christmas, especially the candy! Which paired surprisingly well with wine, as we munched a few while we had a couple of glasses and chatted away the rest of the evening with Peg. 
   Without knowing it, we had picked the perfect weekend for decent weather: sunny, barely a breeze, and temps in the fifties instead of the arctic blast we had been freezing through. Our first stop Saturday morning was Crown Center, packed with holiday shoppers and gawkers checking out the explosion of Christmas decorations that adorned every inch of the mall. I guess I should mention here, in case you're catching the sarcasm in my tone, that: I am the Grinch-ette and I hate the holidays. But I needed an adventure, even if it included Christmas chaos out the wazoo, and the beach was out of my financial reach. Plus, DMan and Peg really dig all the festivities, so I endured it for their enjoyment and drank as much wine as I could to temper my bah-humbug disposition. Now back to Crown Center. After a bit of window shopping, we scoped out the food court and settled on Milano's Italian Restaurant. Excellent choice! Elegant and pleasantly peaceful after the cacophony of the mall, Milano's served up a delicious lunch buffet of Caesar salad, gourmet pizzas, and made-to-order pasta which we enjoyed in the sunny atrium. To burn off our lunch, we headed across the street to watch the ice skaters -- none of us were brave enough to try it -- and then walked back through the mall and the spectacular Westin Hotel and over to Union Station. It was bedecked with all manner of holiday hoopla as well, including a full-size Christmas village with a tiny train the kiddies could ride and a display of model trains that ran through what looked like the Alps and covered an entire wall. If you are a "Big Bang Theory" fan, this would be Sheldon's train paradise! My favorite thing of all was the ornate ceilings, restored to the original splendor of when the Station was built in 1914. I got a crick in my neck from all the looking up.

Ice skating park outside Crown Center

Christmas tree and fountain outside Crown Center

DMan and me outside the ice rink. The sun felt wonderful!

DMan, just a big farm boy at heart!

Waterfall and Christmas tree at The Westin

DMan and me at Union Station

The gorgeous ceiling at Union Station

Another gorgeous ceiling at Union Station, looking toward the Christmas village

Union Station Christmas village

Kiddie train waiting for more kiddies

Sheldon's paradise of model trains!

   Next stop was Trader Joe's to stock up on wine, ten bottles to be exact plus a bubbly Prosecco to save for New Year's Eve. If you haven't been to a Trader Joe's, why not? They have a fabulous selection of reasonably priced wines, plus cool snacks from all over the world. As we were checking out, I grabbed a tub of Cranberry Oatmeal Dunkers (cookies) with White Fudge Drizzle and they are to die for! Springfield must get a Trader Joe's -- and soon! -- so we don't have to keep road tripping to KC or St. Louis.
   Back to Peg's for a quick nap, then we were on to the Country Club Plaza for our dinner reservation at Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurant. We had dinner there last December right after they opened and had such a good time, we made a point to go back. We weren't disappointed. The wines are excellent, the dishes feature unique blends of flavors and ingredients, and the atmosphere is relaxed yet refined, with dark wood, polished steel, and cozy, romantic lighting. In order to try out the maximum amount of wines, DMan and I both ordered a pick-your-own flight: Sangiovese, Barbera, Lux Pinot Noir, and Cooper's Hawk Red (new since we came last year) samplers for me; Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Cooper's Hawk Red, and Petite Syrah for DMan. I don't recall that we'd ever drank a Barbera before, but it was our fave of all we tasted. The Cooper's Hawk Red was very nice, too, so we bought bottles of each to take home. If you are ever in Kansas City and want a lovely dinner with excellent service and fine wine, give Cooper's Hawk a try.

The side view of Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurant, corner of Broadway Terrace and 49th

Wall of wines at Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurant

Looking down at the Cooper's Hawk bar from where we had dinner

Looking down on the wine tasting area at Cooper's Hawk -- I love the funky lights!

DMan, me and Peg (she took the picture) dining at Cooper's Hawk

   What's the best way to top off a fabulous Kansas City evening? Why, a carriage ride through the Plaza, of course. And not just a carriage, we rode the Cinderella carriage! Peg had made a reservation (we wanted to do this last year but the wait was two hours!), so we walked right up to the kiosk and were swept away in no time in our lighted carriage by John, our driver, and Dan, our steed. The lights of the Plaza and even the shops looked magical through the twinkle lights surrounding us, and I felt like a princess headed to the ball. There was holiday music playing on every corner, including a very talented fellow playing a bagpipe lit with red and green bulbs. People smiled and waved at us, even took our picture, and I smiled back and did my pageant wave. It was the coolest experience I've had in a long time and well worth the $70 it cost us to ride! Maybe if I could be squired around in the Cinderella carriage throughout the holidays I could squash my Scroogey attitude?!

Our Cinderella carriage

Aunt Peg

Even the ceiling of the carriage looked magical!

Prince DMan!

Checking out the Michael Kors store from our carriage

A street musician playing Christmas songs on a lighted bagpipe

Checking out the Plaza lights as another Cinderella carriage passes by

Feeling like a princess cruising around the Plaza (me, not DMan -- he's the prince)

   Our plan for Sunday was to watch the Chiefs' game with Peg -- one of the biggest Chiefs' fans ever! -- but the NFL got greedy and moved the kick-off from noon to 3:25 p.m. to get more prime-time coverage, so we hung out for a while, Peg made a hearty breakfast, and we hit the road. We still got to listen to part of the game in the car, then catch the last half on TV. You played a good game, Chiefs, and you came close to winning, but those damn holding penalties are killing you. Cut it out, okay?! Sorry, I get grumpy about football too.
   If you haven't been to KC lately, jump in the car and go. There are so many hootie things to see and do, and with Highway 13 being four-lane all the way you can get there from Springfield in under three hours. Hasn't it been way too long since your last adventure? Your very own Cinderella carriage ride is only short drive away!         

Sunning and sipping

   A spectacularly sunny Sunday was the perfect time to hang with my sweetie DMan and check out the fall colors. First stop was Tyler Ridge Winery, 7325 N. Farm Road 171 (stay on Glenstone north of I-44, turn right on KK, take the second right onto FR 171) for a bottle of Burnt Barn Red -- our favorite of all their wines. I'm not usually a Chambourcin fan, but this blend has just a touch of Chambourcin to give it a unique flavor. This was Tyler Ridge's last weekend to be open for the season and there was quite a crowd enjoying the deck overlooking their vineyard, so we took our vino (two bottles, one for drinking, one for our wine rack!) and headed to nearby Fellows Lake.

Tyler Ridge Winery -- isn't it too cute?!

      The trees around the lake didn't boast the awesome burnt crimsons, pumpkin oranges, and fire reds that we've seen around Springfield, but the water was gorgeous! We found a secluded pavilion, poured up some wine, and basked in the late afternoon sunshine that danced like a zillion sparklers on the lake ripples. All around the park folks were walking dogs, playing Frisbee, picnicking, and soaking up this beautiful fall day, but we still felt like we had the entire lake to ourselves. What a fabulous way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Sipping Burnt Barn Red by the lake -- life is good!!

   Here's a link to the Tyler Ridge Winery Facebook page in case you want to visit when they reopen next May. It's just a short drive north of town, then a quick cruise from there to enjoy the relaxing vista of Fellows Lake. Happy adventuring, Yall!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tyler-Ridge-Vineyard-Winery/161562913955650

   

relax * sip * visit * paint!

   What better way to cap off a stressful week than to Relax, Sip your fave beverage, Visit with friends, and Paint on a Friday night, right? Right! That's what RSVPaint -- the hottest new trend in Springfield -- is all about. My sister Kris and I tried it out last night and had a fabulous time, along with nearly 40 other wanna-be artists.
   Here's how it works: bring your own wine, beer, or whatever drink you fancy and RSVPaint provides the easel, canvas, paints and instruction to create a work of art. They also throw in inspiring music along with glasses, corkscrews, and a fridge to keep your beverage chilled. Each "class" has a themed painting, which can be viewed on their website, that the instructor walks you through creating step-by-step. Last night's piece had a Halloweeny feel, with a dusky blue night sky and owls on a stark tree branch. Some attendees choose to paint the picture verbatim with the teacher's directions, others gave it their own flare, choosing bats or doves over owls. A few, including me and Kris, said phooey on have-tos and created whatever the drinkypoo and music inspired in us. Kris -- who is tactilely talented in sewing, painting, designing and so many other things --  went avant garde, letting her brush flow with fanciful colors and shapes. Always gaga over sunrises and sunsets, I recreated my vision of the sun melting beside a Rapid Roberts gas sign and streaking the sky and contrail cotton candy pink that I saw while driving to RSVPaint. An artist I am not -- take a look at the photo of my painting below and I bet you'll agree. But it was an amazing experience to work with my hands instead of my brain, to experiment blending colors together instead of words, to feel the stroke of the brush on the rough canvas instead of the glide of pen on smooth paper. I don't give a flip that the result is amateurish and silly. One woman commented, "You must really be concerned about gas prices," and I just smiled at her. I will keep my painting to remember the delightful sensation of playing with color and texture and watching a vision materialize from my eyes into something real that only I could create. I may not hang it on the wall, but I'll treasure it nonetheless.
   Sounds pretty cool, huh? The classes are only $35, and Kris got a two-for-one deal on Groupon. Plus, they have Walk-in Wednesdays from 6 to 9 p.m. for only $25, and you can paint anything you want without the class. Grab your gal pals and cocktails and check out RSVPaint in downtown Springfield. Try it, you'll love it!

http://www.rsvpaint.com/

My painting of the sun melting beside a Rapid Roberts gas sign. Besides the gorgeous sunset, gas for $2.93 got me excited!

         

A hair-smoothing adventure!

   Some people get hair-raising adventures, but I got a hair-smoothing adventure courtesy of my new job -- which I absolutely love, by the way -- as a Salon Coordinator at Details Salon. Yesterday, smack dab in the middle of my work day, there I was sitting in the chair getting my hair done! I have never had such a cool job in all my life!! And this wasn't just a snip-snip-and-you're-done trim job they set me up with. No way. This was the big kahuna of the hair-do world -- a Keratin Complex Smoothing Therapy! (Cue Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" and heavenly spotlights, please!)
   What the heck is a Keratin Complex Smoothing Therapy, you might ask. It is a hair-do miracle for someone like me who has coarse, more cowlicks-than-curls hair and always wanted a shiny, smooth mane (hence the hallelujahs and lights). I am serious! You can check out the "before" and "after" pictures below if you don't believe me. How this stuff works I have no clue, but it somehow smooths and seals the hair's cuticle AND THE RESULT LASTS FOR FOUR TO SIX MONTHS! The treatment was time intensive for my stylist, Lindsay Shaffer, requiring multiple steps: wash and blow dry; apply the smoothing complex to the entire head doing only small sections at a time; let the treatment process for 30 minutes; blow dry again; then finish each tiny section ten times with a Keratin smoothing iron. The process took nearly three hours, which was rough because I'm not good at sitting still for very long at all, especially when I felt I should have been working. But the end result was FABULOUS!! Especially after Lindsay transformed my now-smooth hair into a funky chic style exactly like the picture I picked out from a magazine. She is a hair artiste!
   If you are considering having Keratin Therapy yourself, I must warn you: you cannot wash or get your hair wet for three days after the treatment. I'm having a bit of trouble with that rule, being used to washing and styling my hair every day. And the treatment costs $300.00. Yikes, I know! They do offer a version that takes less time, lasts about six weeks, and costs about half. Still seems pricey if you're a working gal like me, but for miracle hair, it's worth it. And I got another miracle -- the big kahuna treatment didn't cost me a thing! How can that be? I asked that very same question. The owners of Details Salon, Jan and Mike Pearl, wanted to give my stylist Lindsay more chair-time at doing the Smoothing Therapy and said my new "do" would be good advertising for the salon. They sure know their business because I have had tons of compliments on my hair already, even hearing words like "fabulous" and "chic," which I can assure you have not been said about MY hair before. Besides that, they are the kindest and most generous employers I have ever had! They donate time and goods to so many charities and causes, not to mention being great bosses in running a salon with a happy team that is totally focused on providing exceptional customer service in a friendly, fun and comfortable atmosphere. Exactly why I love my job!
   Check out our website to find our more on the Keratin Complex Smoothing Therapy that transformed me from an unruly mop-head to a sleek, sassy stylista! They've even posted me on the team bio page, so I guess I'm here to stay!!

www.mydetailssalon.com

The "before" picture on my first day at Details -- see the unruly poofy hair, even with all the time I took to blow it out?!

After the Keratin Complex Smoothing Therapy and my funky chic cut!

I can't believe my hair is so smooth and silky! Feels like baby hair!!

My new sassy sleek hair-do! DMan says I look sexy and younger -- what a sweetie he is!! 

     

     

Wine Tripping

   After the wild week we've had (see my lifebecrrr-azy blog for details), a getaway wine weekend was just what the doctor ordered (I love a doctor that prescribes wine, don't you?!). Our first stop was Three Squirrels Winery, just 4.5 miles north of St. James on State Route B. Situated on a gentle hill overlooking a vintage vineyard, the converted-barn winery is charmingly rustic and serves up some pretty tasty wines. All squirrel themed, the short list of wines would please any palate. DMan and I sampled the Acorn White and Red, plus the Red and White Squirrel. The owner was most friendly, even though he got a rush of folks while we were tasting. After perusing the small art gallery lining the walls (some of the photographs by local artists were amazing!), we settled on glasses of Red Squirrel -- a medium bodied wine, Pinot Noir-ish, with a nice kick -- to sip on the covered deck. Sitting in the quiet looking out on the countryside through a light rain gave me peace for the first time in a week. AHHH! The winery has live music on the deck on select Friday nights, which we plan to catch on a follow-up trip. Although not access-friendly for the disabled (lots of stairs to maneuver to get to the winery and deck), Three Squirrels was a delightful place to spend a relaxing afternoon.
   Belmont Vineyards and Winery was our main weekend destination, located just east of Cuba on historic Route 66. We'd stumbled onto Belmont on our way home from St. Louis this past July and decided right then to come back for one of their live music Saturdays. And did we pick the perfect weekend for our return visit! Despite the intermittent rain and dropping temperatures, a crowd of 100-plus came out to hear Butch Wax and the Hollywoods. Based in St. Louis, this band is one big P-A-R-T-A-Y with instruments and mics! Nearly every member of the group got their turn at the mic, allowing them to cover a huge range of tunes from the Fifties to the Seventies and rock them all with two keyboards, bass, drums, rhythm guitar, sax, trumpet, and two female singers. Young and old alike hit the dance floor as soon as the band got started and kept right on grooving through all three sets under the beautiful knotty pine roof that covered the huge patio. DMan and I even put on our boogie shoes, doing a little buckle rubbing to the Righteous Brothers "Unchained Melody," rocking out to Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," and getting all funky to The Trammps "Disco Inferno." It didn't hurt that we were well into our second bottle of Belmont's Bella Rosso red (our fave!) by the time the disco tunes started rolling! DMan requires a bit of "lubrication" to get past his what-if-people-are-watching-me-dance nerves. Besides the fabulous wine and awesome music, Belmont serves up some of the best wood-fired pizza I've ever eaten. We tried the chicken-bacon pizza -- jazzed up with spinach, red onions, feta cheese, and a creamy, garlicky white sauce -- and ate every bite! We had such a hootie time at Belmont that it would have been worth the two-hour drive up in the rain even if we had to drive another two hours right back home after the show!
   But we didn't. We spent the night at The Chateau Inn and Suites in Cuba. For $69 a night, we had a quiet, spacious room with a comfy bed, large bathroom, and complimentary breakfast the next morning. We skipped the breakfast, lounged around our room watching "Twister" until check-out time, then found Country Bob's Cafe for a hearty nosh before hitting our last winery. Meramec Vineyards and Bistro is just down the road from the more well-known St. James Winery but miles ahead of them in terms of the sophistication of their wines and winery. The exterior is rough-hewn and rustic, while the interior is done in soothing new-sprout green and light pine. We did a tasting with the owner -- the first female to solo own a winery in Missouri! -- a lady who certainly knows her wines. We brought home a Bistro Red, Bistro Gold, and a Silvio's Red, but we could have bought more. They were all good, even though I'm generally not that crazy about wines from Missouri varietals. We hope to go back to catch their Wine Down Friday night music and Saturday brunch, that is if the owner doesn't sell first. If you're in the market for a winery, you can get Meramec for a cool million as the owner is retiring from the wine biz. It would be tempting to buy it if I had that kind of money -- which I don't -- but I'd probably make a mess of the good thing she's created because I know a lot more about drinking wine than making it! And now we've got lots of great local wines to be drinking while reminiscing about our wine tripping weekend!
   If you've got a weekend coming up with no plans and relish trying some tasty vino, cruise up I-44 to Cuba and St. James. Here are the websites for the wineries and some pictures for you to check out:

http://www.threesquirrelswinery.com/

http://www.belmontvineyards.com/

http://www.meramecvineyards.com/

Roni and DMan hitting the road to wine trip.

Sipping Red Squirrel on the deck at Three Squirrels Winery.

Three Squirrels Winery's courtyard.

Three Squirrels Winery

Butch Wax and the Hollywoods at Belmont Winery.

Check out the crowd and beautiful ceiling at Belmont Winery.

The fabulous gals of Butch Wax and the Hollywoods!

Scary sky but big fun at Belmont Winery!

 

Everyone had the boogie fever at Belmont!

The outdoor bar and wood-fired pizza oven at Belmont.

Last stop -- Meramec Vineyards and Bistro

DMan hiding in the foliage at Meramec Winery.

Rustic huh? But Meramec is upscale cool inside.

Roni and DMan say good-bye to our wine tripping weekend -- but we'll be back!!