Cake Hunting: Days 1 and 2

So the first two pictures I have that feature STL250 cakes are from a day I wasn't traveling with my cake hunting team. Like I said, we didn't know it was a thing yet, so these pictures were just taken for fun!

This picture is from MARCH! March! Can you believe it? My mom, Jason, Kelby, Emily, and Zaach hit the Magic House for a day of fun and happened across our very first cake! The Magic House is full of exciting exhibits and is tons of fun for kids of any age. It also has a little bit of history with my family, since Kelby took her first steps here fourteen years ago! First steps, first cake... This place is pretty important! If you're looking for a good place to start your own cake hunting journey, this is the place to go.

Another day where my team took off without me. Okay, really I was just annoyed with the children and I was glad they left the house. But we'll pretend I was upset that they went to Lone Elk Park, not that my mom hasn't been dragging me there against my will for years anyway. When I was a kid, driving around in a car with my mom and my younger sister to look at animals I couldn't pet was not my idea of fun. Now, however, I get excited about any animal that is within eyesight. And since Lone Elk has plenty of elk, deer, and BUFFALO to stare at, I'd love to spend a day out there now that the weather is warmer and the animals are out to enjoy the sunlight. Just remind me to bring bugspray. Animals are cool. Bugs are not. (More on that later.)

Fort Zumwalt Park Cake
brilongg on Snapchat

Emily, Zaach, and I

After dinner last night, we really started looking into the cake thing. My mom pointed out that there was one less than ten minutes from our house (we actually live a little outside of St. Louis), so the five of us piled into Jason's car, with Jason driving, and headed to Fort Zumwalt Park. I had never been to Fort Zumwalt Park, so not only was I seeing a new cake (my first cake!!!), but I also got to see a new park, which is full of history and is also really pretty, especially in the summer time. I wish we could've stayed longer, but it was close to closing time, and Zaach really doesn't like doing anything that doesn't involve swimming, roller blading, or games on his phone. Fortunately for me, I will get to go back, because the STL250 app wasn't working for us at this location, so we'll have to return to get the points for this cake! Perfect!

After our first official cake stop, I had plans at a friend's house, so I went over there and spent the night. Then in the morning, my mom texted me asking if I wanted to participate in today's cake hunt. Of course I agreed, not fully understanding just what today would entail. I headed home and had a quick lunch of Ramen Noodles (it's like I never left college), and then our day began.

Zaach, Bri, and Emily
Zaach and Em look so happy 

Sappington House Cake

Our first stop of the day was The Sappington House in Crestwood. The Sappington House may be the oldest brick house in St. Louis County, and it is absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately they were closed to tours today since it was Sunday, but I'm out in Crestwood a lot to visit a friend from college, so I'll probably check it out sometime soon. This cake was definitely the most colorful of the day. We headed out after my mom took some pictures of the house and surrounding areas, and then we moved on to stop number two.

Zaach, Bri, and Emily

Grant's Trail Cake

We decided to skip the Grant's Farm cake for today since we wouldn't have time to actually spend there, and instead opted to head out to Grant's Trail to visit that cake. It was interesting to get to, since we had to drive through a neighborhood, and there were signs everywhere saying that people for the trail couldn't park there. But no worries, we found the proper parking lot eventually, and from there we could see the cake! When we see a cake, my mom and I just start chanting "CAKE, CAKE, CAKE, CAKE, CAKE," until it's not even a word anymore, and then we take a picture. I guess for this cake stop, my mom forgot we were on a bike trail, and she was standing right in the middle of it. She only almost got hit about four times, but she's fine. Probably irritated some bikers, though. Sorry!

Zaach, Bri, and Emily

St. Anthony's Hospital Cake

After running away from the scariness that is people exercising, we checked out our list to find our next cake point. Maybe it's just me, but this stop was the weirdest of them all today. St. Anthony's Hospital. Hospitals are obviously very important, but it still felt weird running out of the car to go take a picture with a cake and then immediately leaving. We did also see the St. Anthony statue, since the cake was right behind it. Also, did you know they have valet parking? That's beside the point. Back to the cakes. I really liked the color scheme on this one, it was very pleasing to the eye. Very soft and pastel-like, unlike our fourth cake for the day...

Zaach, Bri, and Emily

Gateway Harley-Davidson Cake

...The Gateway Harley-Davidson Store! Another place closed for Sundays, which I was extremely upset about because they had coupons out with their cake! If you buy ten dollars worth of merchandise from the store, you get a free shot glass! I love free things, so hopefully that explains the exclamation points for this one. At this point in the day, we had dropped Jason off to do his weekly radio show, so the team was down to just my mom, Emily, Zaach, and me. It was nice having shotgun, so I won't complain.

Zaach, Bri, and Emily

Missouri Civil War Museum Cake

Bri, Emily, and Zaach (and a bug)

JB Park Visitor's Center Cake

Following a short drive, we ended up at Jefferson Barracks County Park. There are actually three cakes in this park, so after visiting here we felt incredibly accomplished. The first cake we stopped at in JB Park was at the Missouri Civil War Museum. The patriotic cake looked right at home outside the museum, which we would have toured if we'd had the cash. But like I said, this is supposed to be a free summer activity! It was nice to stop in the airconditioned building for just a second, though. It was a very hot and humid day. Then we piled back into the car on the hunt for cakes two and three (well, technically nine and ten). On our hunt, we also saw four little deer! The one on my side of the car was eating leaves off a tree, and like I said earlier, animals are great, so I was squealing the whole time. The next cake was at the Visitor's Center. Of course, there was a bug on it, so Zaach and Emily were petrified and didn't want to stand anywhere near it, which is why they're pretending to like each other: the bug was on the other side of the cake, so they had to share. The cake after that was just one road down, and we could have walked but we didn't know it would be so close. The cake at Jefferson Barracks Trail was my favorite of the day because of the color scheme. I really like that teal.

Zaach, Bri, and Emily

Jefferson Barracks Trail Cake

That concluded our day of cakes with Zaach and Emily, but we had them til 8, so we stopped on the trail and had a picnic lunch while Emily and Zaach complained about being hot and bored. I, however, enjoyed my PB&J and cherry Kool-Aid. My mom and I spent most of lunch reading the list of the other cake locations while the kids played on the nearby monkey bars. Then they convinced us to drive over to the playground/splash pool, so we did. It. Was. Awful. Screaming children, bugs crawling all over me, and mosquitos treating me like their dinner. Ugh. We were there for two hours, my phone was dead, and I hadn't brought a book with me. It was a long wait.

Bri and Jason

Spellman Center Cake

But, after we dropped the kids back off at their mom's house at 8, we made an unexpected cake stop at Lindenwood University at the Spellman Center! I love Lindenwood's campus; it's all brick and very pretty. I spent a lot of time there when my cousin was a student, plus it's really close to where I live. I also took prom pictures there last year. The cake was decorated in Lindenwood's school colors, which looked amazing. And while we were there, we ran into some other cake hunters! A couple and their baby were taking pictures with the cake, and we got to talking. They've found forty cakes already! I'm jealous. We did only just start yesterday, so I guess we've got time to catch up. After getting our cake count up to eleven this weekend, I'm pretty proud of our team.

I can't wait to see how many cakes we find next week! I'll keep you guys posted! xoxo Cake Hunter