The Gateway City

St. Louis Arch

Following our Kentucky and Indiana stops, we drove the remaining three hours to St. Louis. Even after all these years, it remains a thrill to catch sight of the Arch as you cross the Mississippi River into Missouri.

The main purpose of our trip was to attend the 30th Anniversary celebration of SWT Design, the company Jim founded with Ted Spaid and Susan Trautman in 1995. What an accomplishment!

But the trip also gave us an opportunity to catch up with friends and family while we were in the area. We were able to see my sister's family, which was great, and Jim got in a bit of motorcycle riding with his friend.

While he was off the first day, I met a girlfriend at the Sophia Sach's Butterfly House. It was a pretty hot day so neither one of us wanted to go on a long walk outside. While the butterfly house is on the warm side, at least you are in the shade. It was great to sit and chat while the butterflies flitted around us. We grabbed lunch after that. 

Butterfly House

The next day while Jim rode, I picked up another friend and she and I went to the Missouri Botanical Garden. I have been to many gardens in my travels around the world, but I have yet to find one that is as wonderful as the one in St. Louis. It is easy to navigate while offering a different visual and sensory experience around every corner. As this particular friend is also a photographer, we were in perfect sync stopping to photograph the flowers and insects around us. When we were finished, we went to the Trainwreck Saloon for lunch. This restaurant is owned by a gal that I worked with at the American Cancer Society from 1980-1982. In all the times I have eaten there, she has never been around. But that Wednesday was my lucky day as Chris was in! We had the best time catching up, and since my lunch friend graduated from the same high school as Chris, they had things to talk about as well.

Missouri Botanical Garden

On Thursday Jim and I spent the day together since the party was later that afternoon. We first went to the St. Louis Zoo. Again, I've gone to a lot of zoos in my lifetime, and none of them compare to this zoo. And it is FREE to get in! SWT Design has done a bit of work in the zoo, so in addition to enjoying the animals it was fun to check up on the progress/maturation of some of their work. The nice, hot day necessitated a stop at Ted Drewes for some frozen custard - always a highlight of a visit to St. Louis.

St. Louis Zoo

That afternoon was the SWT celebration garden party. While it was hot, it was wonderful to catch up with staff members and clients. I don't think Jim and Ted ever anticipated what their dream would one day become. It's a huge milestone to make 30 years in the design field, and to know that their projects have made and are making a lasting impression not only in St. Louis but throughout the country.

Friday was our last day and we began it by playing pickleball in a nearby park with Jim's riding buddy, who has been playing even longer than me. Then the three of us had a late breakfast, and the guys dropped me off at the hotel so they could go pick up the motorcycle trailer. For a few months Jim's motorcycle has been garaged in St. Louis. But it is time for the annual inspection and licensing, so we needed to get it back to Charlotte. It seemed easiest to trailer it back so Jim wouldn't have to make that long bike trip on his own.

Saturday morning we left St. Louis as the sun was rising and made the thirteen hour drive back home. The trailer added time to the trip as we had to stop more often for gas, and be a little more cautious when driving through the mountains. So we saw the sun rise and the sun set, but made it safely back here.

sunrise, sunset

 

Fall Photo Shoot

Fall finally arrived in our area, so last Saturday Jim and I along with another photographer friend went out to shoot some fall color. We started at Forest Park, intending to drive through looking for inspiration. What we didn't know was that there was a huge run taking place that morning. Parking and traffic were quite a mess, but we finally found a spot near our intended location at the Muny. The lake and bandstand outside our outdoor theater never disappoints in any season, but it is bathed in brilliance in the fall. This year was no exception.

The Muny at Forest Park

From there we made our way over to the zoo, which is also located within Forest Park. Despite the overcast skies and cooler temperature, the zoo was actually fairly crowded. Many of the animals were out, though we were not lucky enough to get close to the new cheetah family. In November of 2017, the female cheetah gave birth to eight cubs, a first in zoo history. The normal size of a litter is four. The cubs were kept out of the public eye until May of this year, but sightings of them are still pretty rare. Here are some of the other animals we saw though.

St. Louis Zoo

While walking back to the car, we stopped to admire the trees around Art Hill. The colors were outstanding, and there were many people taking advantage of the beauty to capture family photos. I really enjoy our photo walk outings, and the opportunity to be outside taking pictures with other people who get my obsession.

Art Hill in Forest Park

Grizzly Ridge

Last night we attended a donor's event at the St. Louis Zoo to celebrate the new exhibit, Grizzly Ridge. The exhibit opens to the public on Friday, but donors got a sneak peak. Jim's company, SWT Design, is not only a donor to the zoo but also was part of the design team for this project. It was a beautiful evening, and the donors came out in droves to see the two new grizzly cubs, Huckleberry and Finley. The two sibling cubs were left orphaned when their mother was killed in July of 2016 by Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Service for being a menace to domestic animals and a threat to humans.

The cubs were taken in by ZooMontana until the exhibit in St. Louis was recently completed. They could not keep the cubs as they currently have two adult males in their zoo, and they were concerned the males would not accept the youngsters. In the interim, they alternated the times that the bears were in the outside space so that the adults would never be in the same area at the same time as the cubs. I'm not sure exactly when the bears arrived in St. Louis, but they probably quarantined them for at least 30 days before letting them into their new enclosure. They were allowed in the outdoor space on Wednesday the 12th in preparation for their debut on the 13th. As mentioned above, the Centene Grizzly Ridge opens to the public on the 15th of this month.

Grizzly Ridge

The new grizzly space is very nice, complete with a waterfall and pool for the bears to swim in. The glass surrounding the space allows ample opportunities to view the bears. But as someone who takes lots of pictures, I have to say that I miss the old space where glass did not interfere with photography. Just for fun, here's a photo of the bear exhibit that my father took in 1943 when he was stationed at Jefferson Barracks for training.

St. Louis Zoo 1943

commemorative bears

Following a buffet dinner at the zoo, we were free to wander around a bit so we caught some of the antics of the popular polar bear. As it began to get to dark, we headed back to Living World to exit to our car. Everyone received a commemorative stuffed bear on their way out. It was so cute I could hardly bear it - ha!

Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

peach jam

Summer is winding down in my neck of the woods, perhaps sooner than normal as we have been blessed with temperatures in the 80s during the day and 60s overnight. Peaches are abundant right now, so I decided to try my hand at making peach jam. For the first batch, I made five jars of peach and five jars of a peach/blackberry mix. As the peach turned out well (haven't tried the mixed jam yet), I made a second round of peach on Saturday. For whatever reason, the peaches did not ripen as much as I would have liked, which made them challenging to smash with the potato masher. Consequently, I'll have to say that the end result is more peach preserve than peach jam. But I'm okay with that. The flavor is still quite good.

St. Louis Zoo

Sunday morning I met my photographer friend Caren at the St. Louis Zoo. With temperatures in the 60s when we started out, it was a perfect time to experience the animals. Because it was a Sunday, the zoo was not yet crowded so we were able to stroll and photograph at our leisure for the first hour or so. By the time it got really crowded, we were ready to head out anyway.

I had yet to visit the Grace Taylor Broughton Sculpture Garden behind the St. Louis Art Museum, so we walked there next. It was slightly disappointing, to say the least. There are no paths leading to each sculpture so you have to walk on the grass. As the irrigation system had been on that morning, it was a soggy endeavor. And I have no idea how the project met ADA requirements as I can't imagine pushing a wheelchair (or a stroller, for that matter), let alone trying to maneuver a walker through the area. Over 400 hundred trees have been planted, some purportedly representing "rooms", but all I could see was too many trees planted too close together. There will be tree casualties due to this, and that is a shame. Perhaps they should consider using a local landscape architect next time, instead of bringing someone in from France.

Sculpture Garden

We then headed inside to have an early lunch at Panorama, the restaurant located inside the museum. This was my second time eating here, and I have found both the food and the service to be quite good. Caren and I had both parked in the open lot across from the museum when we arrived that morning, so it was an easy walk back to the cars following our meals. It was good to get out and photograph again. It's been too long since I have taken time to do that.

Family Fun at Christmas

Crown Candy Kitchen

On Tuesday the 22nd I took Andy and Megan to Crown Candy Kitchen so they could experience for the first time the yummy goodness of St. Louis' oldest candy store. Normally I get the BLT sandwich, which is so huge that I never order any ice cream to go with it. Megan and I decided to split a sandwich so that we could each get a shake, too. For the second time in a row I actually received a BL sandwich - there was no tomato. I really didn't mind as the tomatoes this time of year are usually not that good, but I probably should have said something. Andy noticed that the people in the booth behind us had tomato on their sandwiches. Strange... Megan and Andy were both amazed at the size of the BL, and of the shakes as well. I ended up taking more than half of my chocolate shake home with me.

BLT sandwich

BLT side view

We had barely walked in the door when Jim and Katie arrived from their trip to Iowa. Perfect timing! After spending time catching up, we had dinner and then played some card games.

Wednesday night it was our intention to drive through Tilles Park to see the Winter Wonderland lights. Apparently everyone else in St. Louis had the same idea. The cars were lined up from the park all the way beyond I-64, and both exit ramps on the interstate were backed up as far as the eye could see. When we saw a man's car overheat while waiting in line, we decided we were not going to wait to see what kind of additional back log that created. Instead we hopped on I-64 and went to Candy Cane Lane in the city. Located near Ted Drewes, this neighborhood tries to outdo itself each year. Two other streets, Angel Avenue and Snow Flake Street, are in the competition as well. The area is well worth seeing, with the added bonus of being near our favorite frozen custard stand, Ted Drewes. We stopped there for dessert, which in this case happened to be before dinner.

Candy Cane Lane

Ted Drewes

Gardenland Express

Thursday we headed out early to the Missouri Botanical Garden for one of our annual family traditions of visiting Gardenland Express, the indoor train exhibit that is set up each year at the garden. We all agreed that this was one of their better years. It was not at all crowded, and you could actually spend time admiring each of the different exhibits without a bunch of people in your way.

We decided to see if our lack of crowds luck would hold, and traveled next to the St. Louis Zoo. With the mild weather, I expected it to be packed. But we scored a parking spot along the street right outside the zoo, which indicated that not too many people were visiting the zoo on Christmas Eve. Jim's firm had worked on the design of the new polar bear exhibit, and none of us had seen it yet. It was nice to be able to check it out with the kids along. There is only one polar bear in the pen, but I understand that the males are pretty territorial so he may not have to ever share his space. He seemed content enough, I suppose. At any rate, it was a nice day to stroll through the zoo.

polar bear exhibit

St. Louis Zoo

Saturday I invited my sister and her family over to see the kids in the afternoon. They hadn't seen Katie for several years, so it is nice that the timetable worked out for some of them at least. We took one last family photo in front of the fireplace before Megan and Andy left that night to drive the three hours to her mom & dad's house in Indiana. Then at 6:30 Sunday morning we drove Katie to the airport to catch her plane back to LA. Now the house is all quiet again, and I am catching up on cleaning and doing laundry after having company for over a week. But what a great time we had!