Welcome to Mexi-louis
(that's mex-ee-loo-us)

Ha! Had you fooled! We weren't in town the whole week...we've been to Mexilouis and back!! To prove we were there, here is a sample of the local fare--yum! Artichoke, potato, mushroom, peppers & guacamole with vegetarian black beans. Yum squared!

Okay, so it's not Riviera Maya....

....but, nary a case of swine flu did we see in Mexi-louis.

The trip to Mexi-louis was a total success. No one threw up in the car, no one harmed anyone, the room was awesome, the activities were fun, there was no sun poisoning, the wife petted a stingray, I ate ice cream and we both enjoyed walking for miles to/from the zoo.


For those of you who don't exactly know where Mexi-louis is, let's see if you can figure it out from this photo:


















Sunny, warm, urban setting, giant Budweiser sign in the background. Hmmmm. America's favorite past-time. Think: Fukodome.

Maybe the hotel will help you figure it out:



Or, maybe not. Chances are you haven't heard of the Moonrise Hotel. (Yes, the moon on the top of the building does indeed slowly revolve.) The name worried the wife as she thought it sounded like a scary, seedy, dumpy place...but, that was far from any of those things. It was an awesome hotel--I give it five of five stars and I'm pretty brutal in the ranking department. I'd recommend anyone stay here, especially if you like eclectic places and have a hankerin' for a "W" kind of experience. I picked it out via the Internet--kind of like a crap shoot, but I thought it seemed like a great idea as it is located on "one of the top 10 streets in America" (I don't know who came up with the top 10 street list--it wasn't me) and because the description made the place sound awesome. Indeed, we found both the street and the hotel to be quite wonderful. Besides, it was right next to a bowling alley--what could be better?



I know, I know! A tattoo parlor down the block:


















Seriously. I had researched tattoo parlors in Mexi-louis and didn't realize the one that showed the most promise was literally steps away from the hotel.

I will leave it up to you, dear reader, to decide if I did or did not get a tattoo while in Mexilouis.....

Now, I know most of you are now thinking, "bowling alley and tattoo parlor...WHAT kind of place was this?" But, I assure you that this was a very upscale place to be.

We were on Delmar Loop in St. Louis.

You might be thinking, "You went to St. Louis instead of Mexico and you're happy about this?" There really isn't any comparison. But, I'm here to tell you that we really liked St. Louis. We had just enough time go shopping at malls, look up at the Arch, attend a Cubs/Cards ball game, visit the zoo, ride the Metrolink several times and wander through the Botanical Gardens. The wife had never been to St. Louis so it was fun to take her there. It was a whirlwind--you didn't even have time to miss us. (The dogs didn't even miss us, although that's because they were having all sorts of fun while we were gone--thanks to the dog sitter and Cheeseball Neighbor.)

Now that we are back, we'll continue with our Mexican food theme; after all, we'd still be in Riviera Maya had our trip not been canceled. Unfortunately, now that we're back there is mowing to do and laundry to wash...but, we won't let that stop us from enjoying our last few days of our non-Mexican vacation.

Excuse me while I open another bag of tortilla chips....and while I go put some salve on that new tattoo.....
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