a getaway to the midwest

so i decided i needed to take off for a week and, although the somewhere on a beach with the hot sun sounded lovely, i instead chose to head to the midwest to hang out with my maid of honor and my family. my visits out there always seem to go by so fast but we had a great time (as always) and i even got a run in (once the rain stopped!). my cousin jay picked me up from the airport and we walked by this "panera".... for whatever reason they have both saint louis bread co and panera down there. they are the exact.same.thing. im slightly confused.

they also have this lovely place that i just so happened to visit twice while i was there...
these looked sooooo good, but i had a "tuxedo" cupcake and a "coffee cake" one. diet fail.

saturday night we went out for sushi.... this is me and my best friend/maid of honor at the drunken fish.

i took this as we were driving back home... busch stadium with the arch in the background. love love love this city.
and finally, the epic run i went on with serena. i had wanted to try for a long run through the streets of st louis and down by the arch, but the weather and other plans just didnt allow for that. for those of you that have never been to the midwest, here are a few pics. its flat. there are miles and miles of corn fields. the most unfortunate part of the flat land is the wind. 3 miles out on the road wasnt bad, but turning around and coming the 3 miles back was just brutal.
this is the stretch of road (pretty much one of the only roads) in the small town of prairietown (population 150, haha). we headed down this road for about half a mile....
...before turning onto this road and going the next 2.5.

those 2.5 looked just like this.... awesome.

lots and lots of corn.
the 6 miles felt great because i hadnt run in a really long time (marathon training is not going as well as i had planned) but it really made me feel lucky to live in maine along the ocean and near a big city. i can run at or near the beach and through the city streets, which are much more exciting and interesting than the corn fields, haha.
im going to try for 13 miles friday, then saturday morning i might run a prediction run and sunday is my 3rd of 12 in 2010 run! im hoping this weekend will catapult me back into full force marathon training mode cuz ive only got ten weeks left til sugarloaf!!
happy running everyone :)