Still, St. Louis held some real surprises. I checked out The Loop on reader recommendations, and lo and behold, found a cute fair trade shop right on Delmar!

The store: Plowsharing Crafts. The plus: All fair trade goods, with free fair trade coffee readily brewing for customers. The minus: Rather crunchy.

I sorta wanted the store to take a tip from the awesome Ten Thousand Villages store in Pasadena, putting the sleek and sexy goods up front and not focusing on the odd woven stuff so much.

Then again, I can’t say I know the aesthetic tastes of the average person living in St. Louis.

And in any case, there were some cute whimsical things I wanted, like this eyeglasses holder that makes me smile. Those are my bro-in-law’s glasses perched there :)

Perhaps most importantly, Plowsharing Crafts had some very yummy coffee from Just Coffee, Equal Exchange, etc. Fair trade chocolate bars, hot chocolate, teas, and the like were also present :)

This museum’s like an over-energetic kid’s paradise. Tunnels and little slides abound, many of them too small for adults to crawl through.

Another cool thing about the museum: While I’m sure the museum used a lot of new materials, it also re-used a lot of old stuff in creating its exhibits.

The museum describes itself as an “eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects,” emphasis mine.

Never underestimate the utility — and the fun-ness — of found objects :)

Below are me and my sis, as monkeys.

Why does she look so much happier than me? :P

One snafu — Woke up yesterday morning to discover that the only coffee in the house was a rather skanky, flavored kind — and not fair trade!

Luckily, with a lil help from TransFair USA’s website, I quickly found Northwest Coffee Roasting Company. This fair trade licensed roaster had a cafe just a half block away :)

I was kinda disappointed to discover that Northwest Coffee only offered one fair trade blend — an organic Guatemalan — which I got an lb of for my sis (and also for me for the duration of my stay).

But the barista was super sweet and helpful, and she did a lil latte art — pretty :) The coffee shop also has spacious indoor and outdoor seating — and free wifi :)

In any case, it’s great to see that an indie coffee culture seems alive and well, in St. Louis :) Support local coffee shops! And if you drop by Northwest Coffee, buy the fair trade, organic Guatemalan coffee — and let ‘em know you’d love to have more fair trade coffee options :)

Northwest Coffee Roasting Company. St. Louis: 4251 Laclede Ave. 314.371.4600. (Central West End). Clayton (2 locations): 8401 Maryland Ave. 314.725.8055; 50 Gay Ave.

On Thursday, I fly out to visit my sis in St. Louis, Missouri, for T-giving weekend :)

Got any suggestions for places I should visit? I’m open to everything from museum to restaurant to bar to literary greats’ homes…