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2015: Anheuser Busch Brewery Tour
Another stop that we made on our Thanksgiving Dinner was to the Anheuser Busch Brewery Tour in St Louis. I should be clear to share that I choose not to drink alcohol, but the tour is fascinating even for those that do not drink. I have enjoyed taking our exchange students there, and they are always sad that they are not old enough in the United States to participate in the free samples that are given out at two times during the tour. During this visit, our exchange student Henry, decided that he was going to make a sad face in every picture because he was not allowed to drink 😦
For this spread I had to use red paper to match the logo of the Brewery, and had fun with the ephemera that I collected on this trip – there is a piece of beechwood used in the fermentation process (picked up in the massive fermentation room), a coaster from the biergarten at the end of the tour, our ticket for the tour (By the way – it is free!), and magnetic borders for the photographs that I purchased from the tour.
Tour Tips:
- Arrive early as tours can fill up quickly, and later tours tend to be much larger, and it is harder to hear the tour guide.
- Be aware that at two points in the tour they will provide alcohol to the tour members. During the tour a sample is offered, and at the end of the tour drink cards are given for people to make their own selection. The drink cards can also be exchanged for a soda drink for the kids, or for teetotalers like me :).
We have been on this tour a couple of times – so here are the creations from our other visits:
2015: Indianapolis 500 Museum Tour
Another experience that we like to take our exchange students to is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. We normally just take the short bus tour around the track and look at the museum, but they were running a special for a behind the scenes tour and I thought that it would be fun to do that.
For the first spread I used background paper that looked like tire treads and one of vintage cars. The left hand page has two brochures that are not mounted to the page, but instead sit inside the plastic page protector. It also has a sticker from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The right hand page has pictures from the track and the pagoda. We got to sit in the press boxes, and stand in the winners box as part of the behind the scenes tour.
This second spread is a mix of several things. Between our museum tour and the behind the scenes tour we had to go get lunch, and our exchange student, Henry, really want to go to a White Castle! Interestingly enough, all of our exchange students wanted to do this, but after going once, they never asked to go back again. So on the top right hand page we have a picture of Henry outside of White Castle and a burger box behind it. The right hand page has pictures of Henry outside of the Museum and also pointing to the last German winner of the Indy 500.
The left hand page has the paper from the pin that we had to wear on the behind the scenes tour (I carefully took the pin apart so that I could save the paper), a picture of Henry inside a mock car from the museum, and the brochure for the behind the scenes tour.
We have been to this location a couple of times so I wanted to share some of the previous scrapbook pages that I have made for this location:
2015: Mythbusters
My son and I love watching Mythbusters, and when we heard that they were coming to our area I knew I had to buy tickets right away. We started the evening eating at Mesh on Mass, a high end restaurant with very innovative food. The meal was amazing and the desserts were scrumptious. You can see our decant delicacies on the left hand page. I also attached the business card to the page to remind me down the road of the restaurant.
The right hand page starts the adventure to see the Mythbusters with pictures outside of the venue, and the “curtain” that was on the stage before the show. If you look carefully at the background pages of these two spreads you will notice that it is the same pattern, but in different colors. This was how I was able to bring these two seemingly disparate events and color schemes together on one spread. I chose brown for the restaurant to match the table top, and purple for the Mythbusters to complement the color scheme of the show, and the color of my son’s shirt.
This second spread shares our signed photograph of Adam and Jamie and some pictures I took during the show. The guys did an amazing job of being entertaining, fun, and educational all at the same time – but what else would you expect from these two!? For the background of this paper I chose an industrial themed blue background which complements the background of the autographed pictures, as well as the backdrop to the stage show.
I don’t know if the guys are going to continue to have tours – but if they do – it is an amazing experience for kids of all ages (and their parents too!).
And for your young ones that like building their own experiments and projects I would love to share Kiwi Crate! They send you a new project every month for your child to work on.
2014: Anheuser-Busch Tour
2014: Anheuser-Busch Tour
During our Spring Break trip to the St Louis area I wanted to do something that I had never done before – visit the Anheuser-Busch Factory Tour. I should be clear that I don’t drink alcohol and am not endorsing drinking alcohol. But Luca, being from Germany, I knew would be interested in this tour, and I wanted to see the Clydesdales.
Tour Tips:
- Arrive early as tours can fill up quickly, and later tours tend to be much larger, and it is harder to hear the tour guide.
- Be aware that at two points in the tour they will provide alcohol to the tour members. During the tour a sample is offered, and at the end of the tour drink cards are given for people to make their own selection. The drink cards can also be exchanged for a soda drink for the kids, or for teetotalers like me :).
For this spread I had to use red to match the colors of the Ahneuser-Busch company! I mounted the photos that I took on a black background, as well as the framed picture that was taken of us on the tour. I also included on the page: a coaster from the sampling room, bottle bookmark bought in the gift store, a promotional brochure, the Budweiser logo from the store bag (mounted on black cardstock), and a piece of Beechwood that my son picked up off the floor of the brewing rooms which is used to increase the action of the yeast in the brewing process. I used the black stripes to help break up the single tone red of the page, and to make the page more visually appealing.
Canada Cruise 2010: Behind the Fun Tour
Canada Cruise 2010: Behind the Fun Tour
We had a day at sea while we were heading back to New York, and unfortunately the weather got cold and rainy. My son wanted to hang out with the other teens at their indoor activities so I decided to do a behind the scenes/”Behind the Fun” tour. While it was pricey to experience this – I think it was around $100 – I was so glad that I did it. We got to see all of the things going on behind the scenes – the kitchens, the massive refrigerators, behind stage at the performance hall, the front of the ship, the back of the ship, and even up in the control room.
I think that one of my favorite parts was that we got to spend some time with the head Chef from the fancy restaurant on the ship, and he gave us some cooking techniques and tips. I learned how to grill the perfect steak from him, and I still use that method to this day. (But I’m not telling 🙂 ).
They took pictures of us at several points and when I got back to my room later that night there was a very nice gift package that included these three pictures, a piece of soap carved to look like a swan from the kitchen staff, and some amazing chocolate covered strawberries. I took the gift note and put it on the page and it can be flipped up to read my journaling about the experience. Included in the gift package was a bracelet that I cut so that I could lay it flat on the left hand side of the page. I also cut the lanyard that held our security passes (you can see us wearing them in the pictures) and used that as a border along the bottom of both pages.
The background papers come from a scrapbooking kit that I purchased while on the cruise. It was old stock and at a discount, and I will be honest that most of it was not very good, but I used these background papers from that set. You will notice that I used a grey border around the picture on the left hand page – this was to help it stand out and bring a little more grey to this page to help it blend better with the right hand page.
Related articles
- Canada Cruise 2010: Halifax – Bus Tour (mascrapping.com)
- Canada Cruise 2010: Halifax, Nova Scotia – Maritime Museum (mascrapping.com)
- Ships cruising into the future, focus on families (tbo.com)
- Welcome, Cruise Miss! (timespentatsea.blogspot.com)
- Carnival offers ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ excursion (usatoday.com)
