Floating Away

We have just returned from a road trip to St. Louis. Because it takes more than 12 hours to get there, we decided to spend the night in Frankfurt, Kentucky on July 8th. There are a number of whisky distilleries in the area, and we wanted to check out a couple of them. I don't like whisky or bourbon myself, but several of the distilleries have historic buildings and/or beautiful grounds and I'm always up for a photo adventure. This would be our third attempt at doing this as each previous try resulted in a rainout. As (bad) luck would have it, we were rained out this trip as well. 

Trying to make the best of the situation, there was enough of a break that we were able to check out the Josephine Sculpture Park on the night of arrival. The tagline for the park is "where art meets the earth", and you can view nearly 70 sculptures on their 30 acres of land. The park is free and open to the public, and we enjoyed the wildflowers as much as the pieces of art.

Josephine Sculpture Park

On Saturday we finished our drive to St. Louis. We spent the first two nights in a hotel so that we could have the flexibility to come and go as we pleased. We had dinner that night with our good friend Diane, and it was great to catch up with her. Sunday morning we went to the Missouri Botanical Garden, which is one of my favorite spots in all of the United States. They are in the middle of a large construction project, adding a new entrance, events space and enlarged gift shop. That was followed by a stop at the ever-beautiful Forest Park, and lunch at Imo's Pizza. We were blessed with a beautiful morning, with lower temperatures and humidity. Later in the day we visited with my late sister's family, whom we had not seen since her funeral. It was nice to see them under happier circumstances.

Missouri Botanical Garden

Forest Park and the City Foundry

Monday we picked up a friend of ours and went to check out some new developments (at least new to us) in St. Louis. One of the areas was the City Foundry, Once housing the Century Electric Company, the 15-acre site is now home to businesses, a large food court, and an entertainment hall. From there we went to Union Station to see the St. Louis Wheel (a large ferris wheel) and take a peak at the St. Louis Aquarium. It's always fun for me to go to Union Station as my dad took the train in and out of St. Louis when he was stationed at Jefferson Barracks during WWII. It was nice to see the station bustling even though it was a Monday afternoon.

City Foundry & Union Station

The rest of the week was filled with playing pickleball with some of my lady friends, visiting my long-time hair stylist for a cut and lunch, and a Cardinals baseball game followed by a stop at Ted Drews for some frozen custard Friday we drove 3 hours south to a campground to join the SWT team for their annual float trip. This year it took place on the Gasconade River, which I had not floated on before. Despite the high temperatures (98 degrees on Saturday), we had a fun time and it was great to see everyone again.

rain delay

On Monday we left St. Louis at 6:45 a.m. to drive home. We decided to drive straight through, and it was a challenge. The day began with fog in Illinois, then we had heavy rains in Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. A stalled car on eastbound I-40 and a bad accident on westbound I-40 led to numerous delays. It took us over 13 1/2 hours to get home. I'm ready to stay put for awhile.

North Carolina Reopening - Phase 2

St. Louis Cardinals masks

Governor Cooper decided to go ahead with the reopening of North Carolina. Effective as of 5:00 p.m. today, the state moves from Stay at Home to Safer at Home, easing certain restrictions to help revive the economy while still protecting public health. The new order lifts the statewide Stay at Home Order and moves to the recommendation that you stay at home if you are sick, age 65 or older, or suffer from high risk underlying conditions such as chronic lung disease, asthma, heart conditions, diabetes, etc. It is further recommended that you wear a mask in public, practice social distancing by staying 6' away from other people when out and about, and wash your hands or use hand sanitizer.

Restaurants can now offer inside dining but with the number of patrons restricted and at least 6' between diners; child care centers can now serve all children and not just those of essential workers; tattoo shops, massage parlors and hair salons can reopen with a 50% reduction in capacity, requirement that masks be worn by the employees, maintaining 6' between all customers, and new specifications on sanitizing practices; swimming pools both indoors and outdoors can open at 50% capacity; and there is a limit of 10 people for indoor social gatherings and 25 people for outdoor get-togethers. Restrictions on other activities and venues that were covered under Phase 1 remain in place.

new signage at our pickleball courts

So what does this change in my life? Not a lot, quite frankly. I may end up getting a haircut if I feel my salon is safe, but it will be a long time before I will eat inside a restaurant. We  have not even done carry out food for the past 57 days. I don't want to gather inside with 9 other people, and certainly will not be with 24 others even if it is outside. There is just too much that is still unknown about this virus.

I will feel comfortable playing outdoor pickleball in my own community as we have 0 cases of the virus here. But I don't intend to play indoors anytime soon. I'll still avoid going inside of any store unless it is to buy food. And I'll continue to wear my mask when I do so even though there is now public shaming going on towards those who wear one, as well as shaming those who do not wear a mask. People in this country have gotten to be so disrespectful. It is shameful. Obviously everyone needs to make their own choice about what they are comfortable doing during these uncertain times. But the judging needs to stop, unless someone is blatantly breaking the law or purposefully putting someone else in danger.

In the meantime, I will continue to try to de-stress by enjoying the beauty and antics of the colorful creatures in the backyard.

wildlife of Mountain Island Lake

We had family visiting from out of town last week as they made their way south to visit a daughter. On Friday we took them on a drive through Forest Park on the way to visit the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. I always forget how gorgeous the cathedral is until I walk back inside it again. As it happened, our timing was perfect to catch the noon Mass, so our relatives were thrilled at the experience. From there we had lunch in the Central West End, and on such a beautiful day we were able to eat outside which is a rare treat in St. Louis in the summer.

Cathedral Basilica St. Louis

Busch Stadium

Friday night we took them to see the baseball game. It was a great game on a cool night until about the 7th inning when the Cards blew their lead. After that I was just happy the game didn't remain tied as I didn't want to sit through extra innings. I believe that baseball, and babies, should have 7 as the magic number - innings or months of pregnancy.

The relatives took off around noon on Saturday, and we got some work done around the house. Sunday Jim went for a motorcycle ride, and I went to my happy place - the Missouri Botanical Garden. With low humidity and temperatures in the 70's, it could not have been a nicer morning at the garden. As I've said before, we are incredibly blessed to have such a phenomenal institution in our city.

Missouri Botanical Garden

Minnesota Visits Missouri

Old Glory

Jim's aunt and uncle, along with one of their daughters, visited us over the weekend. They had a long drive from Minnesota, and arrived on Sunday. Normally when we have visitors they come on Friday or Saturday, so having an extra day to prepare the house was unusual for us. We were all ready for them by just after noon, with the dessert made and in the freezer, the salad and lasagna all put together, and I even had my overnight breakfast casserole for Monday morning prepared and waiting in the downstairs refrigerator. Since we were ready so early, I kept thinking we had missed something. But no, we were just extremely organized for a change.

Cardinals game

Monday following breakfast and clean up, we headed downtown for the Cardinals baseball game. Jim and I were sorry to miss the Webster Groves July 4th parade as it is always quite good, but we needed to go to the game early to grab a good parking spot for the elderly relatives, and so that we could watch batting practice. Best laid plans... It began to rain and the field was covered by a tarp. Warm-up took place downstairs out of sight. The 1:15 game was delayed first to 1:45 and then to 2:30. I enjoy going to the games, but they are certainly long enough without adding a late start to the equation. As it ended up, we would have had plenty of time to enjoy the parade and still make it downtown in time for the delayed game start time. Oh well. It was a competitive game, though the Cardinals did not win. We had a nice time anyway. As we didn't get home until nearly 6:30, it was a good thing that I had thrown a roast into the crockpot before we left. It didn't take too long to put the rest of dinner together.

We talked about walking down to the end of our street to watch the fireworks, but everyone was pretty tired. That ended up to be fortuitous, because they had a mishap with our municipal fireworks display. Normally on the 4th the fireworks show is around 20 minutes long. I was standing on our front porch to catch a little glimpse of them, and all of a sudden the noise and sounds were deafening! The whole show lasted about 6 minutes. There was a lot of chatter about the abbreviated show on our local Facebook page, and I was eager to hear what the "official" word would be. It turns out that one of the ground displays got away from them and lit the finale display. Boom! There was no way for the operators to stop it at that point. So I guess it was premature ignitulation - ha!

After breakfast Tuesday morning, our company packed up to head home, and Jim took off for work. I tackled the dishes, four loads of sheets and towels, and put the guest bedrooms back in order. The party was officially over.

Memorial Day Weekend

The weekend was quite busy, beginning on Friday when I took my niece to Barnes for a scheduled procedure which was reported to involve 3-4 hours of time. After being prepped, we hung out in her "room" for a couple of hours. Part of the time was spent in the dark (literally!) as the power went off in the hospital. It took an inordinate amount of time for the generators to kick on, and even then the computers did not come back up for a bit. We were happy that she wasn't on the table when all this occurred. The test went fine, but the bottom line may be that she will need to have surgery done in the not too distant future. As these things go, it took a lot longer than expected, and I did not get home until 5:30.

Cardinals tea light

That night a friend came over and we did some painting together. I had purchased a tea light cake candle last year that I wanted to decorate, and she had a canvas that she was working on. She has a lot of paint colors that I don't have, as well as numerous brushes. It was fun to paint and catch up.

Saturday I played catch up with all the things I did not accomplish on Friday, and Sunday I met up with a photographer friend at the Galleria. From there we went to University City to photograph "Mannequins on the Loop." Store mannequins were decorated in recycled materials by local artists and placed along Delmar. They are quite clever, and were fun to see. The Loop is filled with so many interesting buildings, storefronts and bicycle racks that it is easy to quickly pass time taking pictures. Sunday night I squeezed in a game of pickleball. Due to the holiday weekend, it was not at all crowded so I got lots of playing time in.

Jim & Kirby at Confluence Point

On Monday Jim and I set off with the dog to go to Ted Jones Confluence Point State Park, where the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers meet. Boy, did technology fail us! The car GPS kept taking us down roads that were closed, and not temporarily due to flood waters or anything. We finally got to the back side of it by taking a day pass road in the Audubon Center at Riverlands. There weren't many people there - gee, I wonder why?

From there we visited the National Great Rivers Research & Education Center across the river, and then stopped at the Confluence Tower. Jim had not been to either of those two places, and I had gone last year because each of them had one of the stl250 birthday cakes.

Confluence Tower

The flags at National Great Rivers Research & Education Center were flying at half mast, reminding us that Memorial Day is about remembering those who gave up their lives so that we can live ours freely. God bless all the fallen soldiers!

Memorial Day

The Company that Wasn't

Due to an illness on their end, we did not end up having company last weekend. Instead we had my sister and her husband over for dinner Saturday night. They had been invited over that day anyway, so we just ended up with a smaller dinner party. The weather was cool and crisp, and perfect for the chili and honey cornbread I had planned for the meal. It was nice to have some one on one time with them, as it has been awhile since the four of us have been together.

Jim took off on a motorcycle ride Sunday morning, which left me with a day alone. Hmmm...what to do? Rumor on the street was that the second Ameren cake, normally inside and available to employees and company guests only, was outside due to an event on Saturday. Early reports on the Cakeway to the West Facebook page Sunday morning indicated it was still out there. So I traded my workout clothes for jeans and a Cardinals sweatshirt, grabbed my camera and my garden gnome, and took off for Ameren. Sure enough, the cakes were there side by side, as well as a couple of other cakers.

Ameren Cakes

Since I was out anyway, I decided to take some new photos in the downtown area. When I originally went to the Shrine of St. Joseph, I didn't realize that even though the cake was behind a fence up on a stone wall, the gate can be opened to better photograph the cake. I also couldn't go into the church in June as there was a wedding taking place. I am so glad that I went back. What a beautiful church! Located at 11th and Biddle Streets, this parish traces its roots back to 1843. The cornerstone of the church was laid in 1844, and it was dedicated in 1846. And I absolutely love all of the St. Louis icons that appear on the cake.

Shrine of St. Joseph

Shrine of St. Joseph cake

Next I went to Citygarden as that cake had been moved to a new location, and then over to Kiener Plaza where I was certain the fountain would be splashing red for the Cardinals playoff game. I was not disappointed!

Kiener Plaza

I picked up a few shots of the Hilton and Drury Hotels for frame of reference shots for my cake book before walking down to the Old Cathedral. It had been draped in scaffolding when I photographed the cake back in June. It looks very pretty now. I took a peak inside, but Mass was just wrapping up so I didn't take any pictures of the interior.

Old Cathedral

This final photo pretty much sums up how it felt to be exploring downtown St. Louis with my camera on a beautiful fall day. Only one last thing to say - Let's go Cards!

Kiener Plaza

Cardinal Dynasty Versus the Duck Dynasty

Missouri Botanical Garden

If you live in St. Louis, you can't help but get caught up in everything that is Cardinals fever. After all, this is a baseball town, and when your team is going for the World Series championship for the 12th time, it is a big deal. They paint the town...well, red.

Jim and Andy

Our son flew in from Washington, D.C. to see his first ever World Series game with Jim. They were lucky enough to be at Saturday night's game, where the Cardinals won 5-4 with the now notorious obstruction call. They definitely saw a game that will be in the history books. The game that Jim and I saw last night? Not so much.

Jim and me at game 5

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was fun to celebrate it at a World Series game. Call me greedy, but I was hoping for a Cardinals victory as the icing on my birthday cake, so to speak. Instead the game was fairly ho-hum. Our defense was excellent, but our offense was just not there. The Red Sox deserved to win, that is for sure. But it was rather unpleasant to have four Sox fans right in front of us, and one loud-mouthed Red Sox fan a few rows back.

Willie Robertson

You know that it is a mediocre game when the fans are more interested in seeing what Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson is up to rather than watching the critical game. In case you are wondering, Duck Dynasty is a reality show on television showcasing the Robertson family and their company that makes products for duck hunters. Yes, really. I have to admit that at times Willie was more entertaining the our boys in red.

While it is always a sight to see the Clydesdales parade around the warning track at Busch Stadium, the highlight of the night for me came when Tech Sergeant Angie Johnson sang "God Bless America" in the 7th inning. I have been following Angie since she was a contestant on Cee Lo's team on The Voice in 2012. I think she has amazing talent, and is just overall a really good person. In fact I believe so strongly in her that I backed a Kickstarter campaign she set up in order to record an album. She was so successful in that endeavor that she was ultimately picked up by Sony Music Nashville and her first CD is out. The fact that she is a Missouri gal and serves in the Missouri National Guard makes her all the more endearing to Show Me State fans.

So I am now a year older but the Cardinals are not a game closer to the World Series title. It will be interesting to see what the rest of 2013 holds in store for us.

Game 5 rally towel

The Americans are Coming, the Americans are Coming!

There has been some activity regarding my trip to Germany this fall. Two of the couples on the trip are going over a day early, but the rest of us are traveling on the same day. The trip coordinator found flights for the rest of us that will take us all from our hometowns to Charlotte, and from there to Frankfurt so that we will be on the same flight to Germany. That way no one has to wait around in the Frankfurt airport for additional flights to arrive. Yesterday I met with the couple from the genealogical society so that we could plan our flight together, on the off chance that the rest of the people decide to take a different route. I had previously done some research and found that the best price was going directly through the US Airways website. Once we identified the type of plane we would be on (thankfully an Airbus) we went to seatguru.com where you can see a review of the seats on the plane. What a find! You can make sure ahead of time that you aren't seated by the bathroom or in a seat that doesn't recline. This will be particularly important on a flight that lasts 8 or 9 hours. We arranged our seats so that the three of us are together to and from Charlotte, since the seat configuration on the plane is three and three. From Charlotte to Frankfurt the seating is two, four and two in each row. Since we didn't want to sit in the middle of the plane, I have a window seat in front of them on the long flights. So at least if we want to talk a bit on the plane it is doable. Now my last major decision is what type of travel insurance I want to take out. I have several policies to review to make sure I get the best coverage. I don't want to take any chances should I need to cancel my trip for any reason, and I also want some health insurance coverage while I am there just in case.

Yesterday I was able to get Jim to go to the botanical garden with me to see the cherry blossoms. Usually he would be on a motorcycle ride, but he had one set up for today instead. I am so glad we went as I think we hit the peak of the cherry blossoms. Since it is supposed to get very windy this afternoon, the blooms may be all blown to Illinois by the end of the day.

tulips

cherry blossoms

more cherry trees

I guess I didn't mention that we went to opening day of the St. Louis Cardinals. The game started out pretty good, but then went to hell in a hand basket towards the end. I took some ribbing from my Cincinnati relatives since the Reds pretty much creamed us. They were silent after the Cards took two of the three games in that series. Who's in first place? That's right - the Cardinals!

Cardinals Opening Day

Flag on Cardinals Opening Day

Fredbird and me

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Jim and I went to Founder's Day at Busch Stadium today. Season ticket holders were invited to tour the stadium, watch the Cards play the Cubs on the big screens (Cards were at Chicago) and enjoy free food. Taking our hot dogs, nachos, pretzels and ice cream along with our drinks into the stadium, we settled into some seats to watch the game. Before long, it was much more entertaining to watch the crowd rather than the game. What a great place to people-watch. Our next stop was to see the Cardinals locker room, which evidently occurred to everyone else at the same time. We found our place at the end of a very long line. At first it was entertaining to watch how much food was being consumed by the large (in more ways than one) family in front of us in line. Then we were distracted for a while by the teenage couple ahead of them who were discovering each other's tonsils. Thirty minutes later we were no longer amused. A woman from the Cardinal organization stopped to ask us what time we had gotten in line. We told her "3:00." She was looking at all the folks in line behind us, deciding where she should cut the line off for the last tour of the day. She informed us that we still had 30 minutes to go before we would reach the locker room. At this point we were about 20 feet from the entryway, so I thought she couldn't possibly be right. When we got to the doorway, I saw the stairway to hell. It was crammed full of people, and by now the baby in the stroller ahead of us decided he was through with all of this and began to wail. Since the parents had already spent 45 minutes of their life in line, no way were they leaving just because their baby was crying. The further along we went, the more stuffy it became. Suddenly all the free junk food people had been consuming for hours was a REALLY bad thing. Finally it was our turn to enter the locker room. It was very cool, and worth the wait. The man in line behind us joked, "No wonder the Cards lost to the Cubs. They left their uniforms here!" Upon leaving the locker room we were able to sit in the dugout. It was cool to be able to view the field as the players see it. It's a totally different perspective. Play ball!