Cross country USA Part 1: Gateway to the West

Three hours after we exited from our wedding, we arrived at our first destination on your honeymoon -- Blackberry Farm. It's an actual working farm, that also has guest rooms like a hotel. All meals are included, and on top of that, Raymond had included a bonus -- an exclusive wine tasting and dinner with the wine makers of "Chateau Le Pin". In case you are not familiar with Le Pin, like me, here's a link to Wikipedia for you to browse a bit more.

The Le Pin vintages in the picture below were 1983, 1994, 1999, 1998, 2005, 2001, 1996, and 2004 (the order we tasted them for lunch and dinner on May 11, 2009).

Finally, it's time to relax. After a few quick pictures on the property, we went to the barn -- yes, an actual barn for some real gourmet dinner. Blackberry farm is located at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountain in Walland, TN. It was originally purchased by a couple by the last name of Laiser from Chicago in 1940, when the wife accidently snagged her silk stockings on a blackberry bush, that's what they decided to name their new home.

In the 1970s, Blackberry Farm was turned into a six-room country inn by then owners -- the Beall family. After numerous acquisitions, the modest country inn was expanded to a 63-room Relais & Chateaux estate and restaurant today. This expansion also included a new farm house, where guests could relax, enjoy a cool refreshment before dinner (the mint julep is a must), lounge, and partake on formal dining.

Our day consist of getting up, shower, etc -- 3 course breakfast. Gym. 5 course lunch. Gym. 7 course dinner. And it was still hard to work up an appetite, but some how food disappeared when it was placed in front of me. It definitely helps when a simple picnic sandwich looked something like this --

After 3 days of stuffing our faces and finally sobering up from all the wine drinking, we were sad to leave all this behind. Our next destination was Saint Louis -- "The Gateway to the West". We arrived at Saint Louis in the early evening, and checked ourselves in to Napoleon Retreat B&B.

Saint Louis was named after King Louis IX of France, but was lost to the Spanish in the Seven Year War. Then secretly transfered to Napoleon, who then sold it to United States in 1803. AND it hosted the FIRST Olympic game in US in 1904. Since our cross country journey is taking us from east to west. It was only appropriate to visit the famous arch as first stop on our agenda (May 14, 2009).

The arch's construction was from 1963-65, 630 feet tall, and 630 feet wide. It's widest part at the base is 54 feet and narrowest part is only 17 feet at the peak. The elevator ride is in a small, cramped, un-airconditioned pod, that takes about 5 minutes to get to the top. Once at the peak, you can clearly see the entire city of Saint Louis and the Cardinal's ball park.

After the arch, we had lunch at Eleven Elven, one of the top restaurants rated by Wine Spectator and Zagat. However, I think partly due to the raised level of standards that we had at Blackberry Farm, I was not at all pleased with my lunch. The sauce on my seafood fettucini was overwhelming and completely drenched my pasta.

To walk off our lunch, we decided to go to the Saint Louis zoo and park. We saw lions, elephants, seals, snakes, turtles, etc. And my personal favorite went to their butterfly house. I wish I could have stayed there longer. :(