05/06/07

Quail Ridge Park (permalink)

park missouri st_louis wentzville quail ridge disc_golf travel

On the way back from Anime St. Louis and ShowMeCon a couple weeks ago, we stopped at Quail Ridge Park just outside of Wentzville Mo, off I-70 and Highway 40/61 in St. Charles County to play a round of Frisbee golf.

The disc golf course at Quail Ridge Park is very well maintained and fairly challenging, with a wide variety of hole types, ranging from simple open distance shots to narrow paths in the woods. It is one of the shorter courses I have played, with most of the holes well under 300' in length. The shortness of the holes makes the course fairly easy, so advanced players may be left wanting more challenge.

The park has very nicely kept facilities, with many clean public restrooms, water fountains and faucets, and a number of picnic shelters. If you live nearby this park, I highly recommend a visit, but due to the overall simplicity of the course, players who live very far from this park may not find it worth the drive.

04/25/07

Anime St. Louis / ShowMeCon 2007 (permalink)

gaming anime convention con science_fiction scfi st_louis missouri showmecon travel

During my trip last weekend, I attended the ShowMeCon and Anime St. Louis held at a Marriot hotel. It was a joint anime/science fiction convention and attracted over 1000 nerds, geeks, and other socially awkward types to come together and celebrate their nerdiness for a weekend.

Aside from the other anime convention I attended this year, Naka-Kon in late march, I hadn't attended a convention of this type in several years. Prior to this year the last one I attended was Otakon in 2000, at a time when the anime fandom was just starting to get huge and there were still only a handful of anime conventions. Now, even living in the midwest, there is one or more convention almost every month within driving distance of my home. Even more surprising is even the smaller cons are attracting upwards of 1000 people.

This year was Anime St. Louis' first year at a bigger venue, and the first (and probably last) time they partnered with SciFi con "Show Me Con." According to the numbers they gave at the closing ceremonies, last year's con attracted only 300 people and was located on the college campus. This year they were hosted at a Marriot Hotel (who treated the con horribly) and had upwards of 1000 people in attendance. At least 80% of those in attendance were there specifically for the anime portion of the con.

Overall my convention experience was awesome, though there were problems. The hotel, a Marriot located in south-west St. Louis, pretty much dicked the con over with some bad business practices. Originally the convention organizers had reserved many of the meeting rooms and salons as well as the grand ball room to host the activities in. The hotel, however, decided it would be a good idea to double book everything and also promised the grand ball room to a wedding, a fashion show and a bat mitzvah, and gave the anime convention several smaller rooms instead. This made the larger and more popular events uncomfortably crowded, and caused many con-goers to be left out.

The combination of Anime St. Louis and Show Me Con caused some problems as well. Though the two cons were supposed to be partnered for the weekend, the two had separate schedules, meaning people without both did not know the full extent of what was scheduled when. Additionally, from what I heard, the Show Me Con folks did not fully live up to their part of the obligations and left Anime St. Louis to do much of the running of the con. Finally, most of the con-goes were attending only for one con or the other, and the two groups of attendees mostly ignored each other. In the end, it would have been better if either the two cons were kept separate, or, if they spent more time truly integrating the conventions with crossover panels, joint events and a shared schedule.

Even with it's problems I had a blast at the convention, and only wish I had more time to see more of the panels. The ones I did make it to were: Dragon's Keep, a combination LARP and play, Piano Squall's Concert, the Masquerade, the Swimming party (and Mankini Con, which will only make sense to those who were there), a Filking concert with Gary Hanak, the strange Japanese fetishes panel, a panel on MMORPGs, a panel on single player RPG gaming and the closing ceremonies. I will make a more detailed post later on a couple of the bigger events. I was definitely glad I attended the events of the convention last weekend and hope that I can make it back next year.

04/24/07

Maggie's Cafe (permalink)

diner montgomery_city danville missouri restaurant travel cafe maggies breakfast

On day two of my trip last weekend, I stopped at a trucker cafe near Danville, MO and Montgomery City, MO called Maggie's Cafe. It was pretty much what you might expect from such a place -- Quaint, inexpensive, and home to some great American diner food. I had a huge breakfast, with biscuits and gravy, chicken fried steak, eggs, toast and truck stop coffee for just over $6. It was too much food to finish and was easily the best breakfast I have had in ages. If you are ever driving down I-70 between Columbia and St. Louis, I would definitely recommend a stop as a great alternative to the ubiquitous fast food joints.

04/23/07

Graham Cave State Park (permalink)

graham cave state park missouri friends travel outdoors

As part of my trip last weekend, I visited Graham Cave State Park (google map here). I was there primarily because the park is close to I-70, and is an inexpensive place to spend the night camping. However, the park turned out to be a nice place to visit for other reasons as well.

The park is named for Graham Cave, a shallow cave cut into a hillside which has great historical significance. University of Missouri Archaeologists discovered evidence in the cave suggesting that it housed human occupants as long as 10,000 years ago, much earlier than historians previously believed possible. Today, the cave itself is accessible to visitors to the park and is kept as a historical monument. The cave site is very well kept and features a number of informative placards pointing out locations of interest. I found the visit to the cave to be interesting, but not alone worth the trip.

The park is very scenic. The majority of the park is hilly and wooded with a few creeks and streams crossing through. The rocky hills offer good scenery, but are not severe enough to deter casual hikers visiting for the variety of marked walking trails. One larger creek can be accessed a small boat ramp and looks very promising for fishing. The park is segmented into several areas each with it's own parking, so you can spread out from other park visitors if you prefer. These open park areas offer many useful features such as covered and uncovered picnic areas and several playgrounds. Overall, it seems like a good place to spend an afternoon with friends or family, or just to go on a quiet hike through the woods.

As mentioned prior, our stay was primarily for camping. The campgrounds were clean and well kept, though they were positioned a little too close to each other for my preferences. We opted for a basic camp site which included just a parking spot, a picnic table and a fire pit. Some of the campgrounds offered extra amenities such as electrical outlets or water spigots. While we did not use them, there were two separate bathroom facilities with showers and laundry machines. Despite those good features, the campgrounds' proximity to I-70 causes constant traffic noise that can distract from the peacefulness of the thick woods.

As a place to stop and rest on our trip to St. Louis, Graham Cave State Park more than provided for our needs. I am not sure the park is worth the drive from Kansas City otherwise, but people closer to the site or those interested in very early American history may disagree.