Early yesterday morning (23 March), I picked up Julie from her apartment and we went to downtown Maplewood. The city was holding its annual Coffee Crawl event, in which downtown merchants offered samples of coffee or coffee-related items to participants.
Julie and I went on the Early Riser Tour, which began at 8:30 a.m. (There was a later tour during midday. After getting our tickets, we began going to the nine establishments taking part in the tour. As we got our samples, someone at each stop would mark our ticket to prove we had visited that particular place. Additionally, the Crawl offered ticket holders discounts on merchandise from other area shops. Julie and I took advantage of this to visit five of the 12 participating merchants. I bought a candle from Maven Bath and Candle Co. and a book from The Book House using the event's discounts.
We got through the tour by approximately 10:30 a.m. and I took Julie back to her apartment before going home. I stopped by Office Depot to get some home office items and browsed at Schaefer's Hobby Shop before returning home for lunch.
Late that afternoon, I returned to Julie's place to pick her up and take her to downtown St. Louis for St. Louis CITY SC's match against DC United at CITYPARK. After parking in a lot south of Enterprise Center, we walked approximately 0.5 mile (0.8 km) to "Louligan Street" (21st Street between Locust and Olive) for the St. Louligans Pre-Match Street Party. Julie and I each got dinner from a Schlafly good tent and I got a Schlafly Supporter Session Hazy Pale Ale from a beer tent.
We also bought Schlaffle raffle tickets from the St. Louligans and also a St. Louligans button. Raffle and merchandise sales that night benefitted the St. Louligans' Charity du Jour, Colorectal Cancer Alliance. I got lucky as one of my raffle tickets was drawn. I selected one of two prize packages: two replica jerseys (Norwich City Josh Sargent replica and Inter Milan), some Fulham FC magnetic buttons, and a $50 Mission Taco Joint gift card.
