No Blues in St. Louis

Road trip #1 continued this past weekend after a brief one day break. Andy and I headed down to St. Louis on Friday... an evening trip through Illinois. If you've ever driven from Chicago to St. Louis you probably know that its about as entertaining of a drive at night as it is during the day. The main purpose of our trip was to head to the St. Louis Summer Opportunities Fair. The fair was on Saturday the 29th and we had a great time talking to prospective campers about North Star.

At the fair we were visited by a few current and former camp folks. Camper Max Weiser hung out with us for a while and we must say that he does a better sales pitch than either of us. We also saw alums Howard Weiser (also Max's dad), Jesse Drapekin, Steve Simon and Mike "Moose" Jay, who was there to promote his camp, Camp Kamaji.

Following the fair, we had the chance to hang out with a few counselors from 2010. We headed to Lester's in Ladue, MO and hung out with Jordan Santo, Jon Kohl, Jon and Jordan Schack, and Jesse Drapekin. Since Sunday was Jon's birthday, we had to fete Jon with the NSC birthday song... and yes, Jon did thank the kitchen staff for his cake.

Later that evening we had the opportunity to get together with several of the camp directors/assistant directors who were in St. Louis for the camp fair. Amongst them were folks from Camp Timberlane, Kamaji, Birch Trail, Thunderbird, Chippewa for Boys (in Minnesota), Lincoln and Lake Hubert. We had a great time sitting around, sharing ideas, and of course, hearing each others ridiculous camp stories. A keylog to Shari Sigoloff and Michael Rawitscher for their hospitality.

Before heading back to Chicago on Sunday, we figured that we had to properly celebrate Jon Kohl's birthday... with a lunch at Pappy's Smokehouse. Neither Andy nor I had ever been to Pappy's, but Andy had been told by multiple people that it was a must stop. It didn't disappoint. Thumbs up from both of us, and we highly recommend the ribs. If you do go, be prepared to wait in line for quite some time, but its worth it!

The St. Louis trip added another 715 road miles, though Andy drove this time. Andy, Leb and Sue will travel to Phoenix on Thursday and LA on Saturday, before we all meet up in San Diego on Sunday for the ACA National Conference.