Last Few Weeks Smashed into One

Well, I am rather behind with posts for this thing. I have been super crazy busy. Since the last post I left my last job, finished my last class for my MFA, turned in my thesis, and started a new job. Oh, and I have been adventuring during that as well. 

Spring started with a bang and then turned into a blizzard. Not really, but it might as well have been. Suddenly 8 inches of snow fell when it had been nearly 70 degrees the day before. Not cool.

Snow from outside my apartment. In March.

Despite being crazy busy and dealing with snow, I did not let that keep me from going out and gaining more miles and being active. My sister and I walked on the Katy Trail some more (And discovered my new favorite cafe The Bike Stop Cafe. Oh my goodness. We stopped in there for a mid-walk snack and it was amazing. I got these waffles with apples on top. My sister had an egg and some veggie and cheese wrap. I made my boyfriend go there with me a few days later and I tried one of their other wraps. I totally plan on starting my day there whenever I do a big ol' Katy bike ride. 

On that walk we also hopped onto Main Street in Historic St. Charles. We walked by the First Capitol of MO site. It is a Missouri Historic Site. The store was closed but I took a picture of the sign. A few days later I was able to pop into the gift store. I now want to buy almost every book in the store. I plan on doing the tour some time soon. I feel like a lot of people do not realize (or remember) that St. Charles was home of the original Missouri State Capitol. I'd post the picture I took but something funky is going on between blogger and IPhoto. Most of the new pictures I just uploaded and edited are not showing up for me to pick when trying to load onto this. Oh, technology.

As the snow quickly melted we decided to go to Forest Park in St. Louis City. Seriously, one of the best places ever. Museums, Best free zoo ever, outdoor theatre in the summer. We chose there because the pathways are paved so we would not have to mess with as much mud and nastiness from snow turning the ground to gloop. Yes, that is a technical term. This plan worked out for the most part, but my minimalist shoes did not work so well with all the puddles. 

Not sure why there are two trails right next to each other...

I also spent time on the Katy Trail by myself. I had time to kill and wanted to walk at least five miles (which I did) so I started at the St. Charles main trailhead and walked until I reached Bangert Island Park, a conservation area that is owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation but is taken care of by the City of St. Charles. I love hiking in there. You get some nice views of the Missouri River and there are enough hills to keep it interesting without it being killer. I just remembered at this moment that I meant to call or email the parks department to let them know some of the trails were totally blocked by fallen trees. I ended up crawling under some of them but others I could not get through. So then I walked around some of the trees (yes I was off-trailing it...) but some spots were so bad that all I could do was turn around.. The nice thing about this park (when the trails are not blocked) is there are several trail loops so you can be in there for less than a mile or 4-5 miles without having to do multiple laps around the same trail. I will be spending a lot of time in there and it is SUPER close to my apartment. 

This was also my first experience of hiking in barefoot shoes. It was interesting. I would not suggest hardcore hiking with barefoot shoes (at least the type I own) because I think my ankles would need more support, but I was not planning on venturing into the conservation area and was not sure what the state of the Katy was due to all the melting snow and rain fall. My barefoot shoes are much easier to wash than my other shoes. 

Sidenote: I own those barefoot shoes but I also own a pair of tennis shoes that have a minimalist-style sole but the top looks like a normal lace-up shoe. I refer to those as my minimalist shoes because to me they are not straight up barefoot shoes. Those are Reebok but I cannot recall the style.

Truth time: this photo is not from this past visit but I left my home without my camera.

My new job actually gives me some weekends off whereas before I worked every single weekend. This is amazing news for me because I can go camping when other people are actually free to go with me! And I can do more weekend-related adventures. Bad news is this means I will have less middle of the week days off which means less sister and nephew adventures on a weekly basis. 

Here's to more time to adventure and write about it.