Lantern Time Already?

Every October for the past five years my community has entered the Mount Holly Lantern Parade. The theme for this year was announced at the end of last year's parade, and it is "The Wide World of Sports". I'm not going to lie, none of us are excited about this theme. Our goal is always to have something that engages the children along the parade route, as well as having enough lanterns for the many residents in our community who want to walk in the parade with us.

We really struggled with coming up with something that would be fun for us to work on. We actually considered not participating this year. But finally we came up with an idea that we thought would work for us. I doubt that any of our competitors read this blog, but nevertheless I will keep what we are doing a surprise. It encompasses many sports, so I think that will appeal to a lot of people.

We have begun deconstruction of our larger lanterns from last year. We repurpose the interior framing and light packs when we can. I took one last picture of all the sharks together for posterity's sake.

Baby Shark & family

Speaking of surprises, my husband will be turning 70 this year. I had planned a surprise trip for him, setting up an activity that he really enjoys. I have kept the secret, and all he knew was that he would need his passport, and to dress for warm weather. But yesterday, the group that I organized the trip through sent out an email to HIM and not to me. They were aware that this was a gift for Jim and were told not to contact him. So much for the surprise!!!

I am really aggravated about it, and am trying to get over it. They have yet to reach out to me to apologize for their error. But I don't want our trip to start out on the wrong foot, so I'll need to be gracious about it. Jim is excited about where we are going, so in the end that is all that matters.

Peru & Ecuador - Part 6

When we first planned this trip to Peru and Ecuador, my husband expressed an interest in going to the Amazon as well. We wanted to find something that would be reasonably accessible considering the fact that we would be coming back to Quito from the Galapagos. HX Expeditions offered an add-on trip, but it consisted of a small plane ride followed by a hike and then a canoe ride to the eco-resort. That sounded like too much effort at the end of an extensive, intensive adventure.

We settled on the Kuyana Lodge, a small family-owned eco-resort located three and a half hours by car from Quito. The lodge has incredibly positive reviews online, includes excursions with your stay, and has an option for an English-speaking guide, which we needed. 

Because we would not be given our flight arrangements until the last day on our ship so would not know our arrival time into Quito, we booked a hotel in the historic district and arranged for a driver to take us to the Kuyana Lodge the next morning. I didn't realize the accommodations we selected would put us in the square where we had visited the Presidential Palace previously. It was fun to view the area again at night, and the hotel was a lovely choice.

Quito at night

What we hadn't anticipated was the fact that Quito Days (a week-long celebration) began the next morning bright and early. We had arranged for our Kuyana driver to pick us up at 10:00 AM. The celebration, with the parade passing right by our hotel, meant that the driver could get nowhere near us. Fortunately the desk clerk called our driver and explained the situation. The bellhop helped us navigate the streets and hills with our luggage until we could find a place for the driver to meet us. As the traffic was so snarled, that ended up being in the middle of the street several blocks away from the hotel. Wow!

Quito in the morning

The drive to the lodge was long, but mostly smooth until the last 45 minutes or so, where we traveled over rocks. The scenery was nice along the way, and gave us an opportunity to see a different part of Ecuador. Upon arrival at Kuyana, we were offered a welcome glass of tea and shown to our cabin. We had opted for the Anaconda Family Cabin, which consisted of two bedrooms and two bathrooms. That is literally all that was inside the cabin. The only area the three of us could gather in was the front porch. 

Kuyana Lodge

After we put the luggage in the cabin it was time for our first activity - a dusk hike in the jungle. We put on knee-high rubber boots, and to say this was a vigorous hike is an understatement. It had rained earlier in the day, so the trail (and I use the word loosely as our guide kept a machete handy to clear areas) was wet, slippery and steep. I think he used this hike as a litmus test to see how we would handle subsequent excursions. 

When we got back it was time for dinner. We were the only guests there, which seemed a little odd. As it ended up, we were the only guests for three of the four nights we stayed there. After a long day of travel and the hike, we were ready for a nice shower to clean up and cool off before going to sleep in the non-air conditioned cabin. Unfortunately there was no hot water, so we made due with a cold shower.

first hike and dinner

Lighting Up Mount Holly

seahorse lantern

Last night was the 8th Annual Mount Holly Lantern Parade, and for the 5th year in a row our community had an entry in the parade. Also for the 5th year in a row we took 1st place in the Group category. This year's theme was "Into the Deep Blue Sea". 

As we plan what we want to do we take a couple things into consideration: What is going to resonate with the kids who line the parade route?, and how can we involve the large number of people who want to walk in the parade with us? We have a core group of 8-10 people who consistently show up each week to build the lanterns. But we normally have 30+ folks who want to walk down Main Street with our group.

This year we decided to do "Baby Shark", the wildly successful YouTube video featuring a family of sharks and a few sidekicks. Mommy, Daddy, Grandma & Grandpa sharks were five feet long, not including their tails. Baby Shark was four feet and his buddy William the pilot fish was three feet. The other main character, in our minds, is Pink Fong who is kind of the mascot for the show. 

Once we built those lanterns, we moved on to ancillary items. We made a seahorse, three jellyfish, three schools of fish containing twelve fish each, seven starfish and four clams that were our first attempt at hand puppet lanterns. A crowning late addition was a coral reef that was worn around the waist of the carrier. It could have been an entry all by itself.

coral                                                banner

An Imagery banner led our entry, followed by a baton twirler with a lighted baton, then a decorated wagon with speakers playing the Baby Shark theme song on repeat. Two residents dressed as the little boy and girl from the video came next, running away from the sharks. We also had four people handing out shark-shaped small bags of candy. At the end of all of our lanterns was a wall of wavy blue streamers complete with lighted bubbles to signify the end of our group. All in all, we had 39 folks in our unit including two of our own parade Marshalls to keep us in order.

Imagery Lanterns

Though the night was a little cooler than previous years, it was a beautiful evening to be out. The parade went off mostly without a hitch. Baby Shark decided to act up and his pole disconnected inside his body. This caused him to drop down on top of my nose. Ouch! I was able to get him somewhat situated before we passed the judges station, but after that I just hand carried him for the rest of the parade. Bad Baby!

It was rewarding as always to be named First Place as we have been working since April to pull this project together. After the winners were announced, the organizer released the theme for next year - the "Wide World of Sports." All I could think was, ugh. The theme does not excite me, and I wonder what we can pull together that makes sense with the theme but will still engage the kids. What a challenge!

Tianyu Lights Festival

Tianyu Lights Festival

Tuesday night several of us who are working on the lanterns for the Mount Holly Lantern Parade attended the Tianyu Lights Festival in Charlotte. Tianyu strives to bring authentic Chinese lanterns traditions to the US and Europe. We thought it would be fun to see how their lanterns are constructed, and also get inspiration for building our own lanterns. We arrived early enough that we could see the lanterns in the daylight, but stayed until it got dark out.

The theme for this year's Mount Holly parade is "Into the Deep Blue Sea", and we already know that we our entry will be based on the incredibly successful Baby Shark YouTube video. We will obviously build the main characters, but are looking for ideas for other items to add. The Tianyu show had quite a few lanterns that were water-related, and that gave us some good ideas.

While the Tianyu lanterns are constructed of wire, lights and fabric, our lanterns are wire, lights and colored paper. But still the ideas are somewhat transferable. The festival was very well done, and included some live performances as well. They had quite a few lanterns that were interactive for the attendees, as well as many that were mechanized. We were all happy that we attended the show, and it was fun to get together in a manner that didn't involve sitting and working on our own lanterns! 

Chinese lanterns

Mount Holly Lantern Day Parade

Lantern Parade

With all the drama surrounding the theft of my rental car (and there are zero updates there), I forgot to post about my community's entry in the 7th Annual Mount Holly Lantern Day Parade. This was the fourth year that Imagery has entered the parade (our community was only formed in 2019).

The theme was "The Fantastical World of Flight", and the options of what to build were endless. Our design team takes into account the fact that we have many people in the neighborhood who, while they may never help in the building process, want to walk with us in the parade. So obviously we would not choose to build one large lantern, like Dumbo for example. We like to have a number of lanterns in our entry. The second consideration is that we want to appeal to the kids, as there are many of them along the parade route. For those reasons we decided to go with Santa and his reindeer.

We constructed a six foot long sleigh for Santa, and built his nine reindeer, each of whom was five feet long. We added ten twelve inch square gift boxes, four lollipops and four candy canes. All of these were constructed of wire, lit with fairy lights, then covered with two layers of tissue paper. We also have a lit banner with our name - Imagery - in from of our entry. We had 32 people in our unit, including two of our own parade marshalls to keep people in line and five of the Singing Elves from our community. 

We had requested to be last in the parade, and our wish was granted. What better way to end any parade than with Santa? We were greeted with many claps and cheers, as well as spontaneous renditions of "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" along the parade route. And we won First Place in the "Group" category for the fourth year in a row! 

Imagery Lantern Parade entry

Next year's theme is "Into the Deep Blue Sea". We have our thinking caps on...

I Love a Parade

The annual Mount Holly Lantern Parade is in October, but the lantern making crew here at Imagery has already been working since the beginning of April on ideas for our entry. This year's theme is "The Fantastical World of Flight." Our small brainstorming committee came up with lots of ideas. Since we are in North Carolina, the Wright Brothers immediately came to mind. But we felt that was too obvious. We tossed around Dumbo, Casper, the Jetsons, Aladdin, Tinkerbell...

We have a large number of volunteers who, while they may never come to help build the lanterns, love to walk in the parade. So we wanted something that could involve a number of walkers. We also take great care to engage the children on the parade route, because they are so enthusiastic. Having minions and 101 Dalmatians in the past were big hits! We have taken first place in community entries all three years we have entered, so we feel some pressure to do something bigger and better.

lantern construction

We finally settled on Santa, his sleigh and reindeers. The sleigh will be five feet in length, and each reindeer four feet in length. We are also building lantern gift boxes, lollipops, and probably candy canes to really make a statement. Down the road we will ask the parade organizer if we can be the last entry in the parade. Just like in the Macy's Parade, we feel Santa should bring up the rear. Who cares about Christmas in July - we have Christmas in June going here!

Mount Holly Lantern Parade

Imagery and 101 Dalmatians
(photo by Bob Leverone Photography)

I'll get back to my national parks trip postings later, but Saturday night was the Sixth Annual Mount Holly Lantern Parade. For the third year our Imagery community has entered the group category in the parade. This year's theme was Heroes and Villains, and we decided when we heard the theme last October that we would do 101 Dalmatians as our entry. It has wonderful villains in Cruella and the Badun brothers, and super heroes with Pongo and Perdita coming to the rescue of the puppies.

We began the lanterns in earnest in June, and many, many hands participated in making our dream a reality. Cruella reached a whopping 8'6" height, and Pongo and Perdita were built to the size of actual Dalmatians. The remaining puppies were much smaller in scale so we didn't need 101 walkers in the parade.

We put puppies on stars, on poles and on hula hoops to make it all come together. All told we had 42 walkers on Saturday night, and enough people dressed as puppies with painted faces and lit up ears that we ended up with 101 Dalmatians.

The entry was a hit with the crowds as well as the parade organizers. For the third straight year we took first place in our category. That puts a lot of pressure on us for next year, the theme of which has not yet been announced. But I'm sure we are up for the challenge!

Mount Holly Lantern Parade

It's Lantern Parade Time

Dalmatians 

It's time for the annual Mount Holly Lantern Parade. Well, okay, the parade is not until October but it is time for us to start building our lanterns. For the third year in a row, Imagery will have an entry in the parade under the "community" category. The pressure is on as we have taken first place the past two years.

This year's theme is "Heroes and Villains", so that offered an abundance of opportunities for sure. We decided to go with "101 Dalmatians" since the story contains both heroes and villains. There are a lot of families with children who attend the parade, and we felt like they would get a kick out of seeing the Dalmatian puppies. I don't think we will have 101 of them, however! Let alone trying to build that many lanterns, we would struggle to find enough volunteers to carry them the night of the parade.

A small group of us have begun making some puppies because we will have a lantern-making workshop here in the community next Sunday night. It's an opportunity for new neighbors to see what we are up to, and hopefully recruit some volunteers. We will also get a jump on getting some puppies constructed.

We will have four stations at the workshop, and will have completed lanterns at each to show the process. The first station will construct the lanterns with wire, the second will add lights to the lanterns, the third will glue the specialty paper over the lanterns, and the fourth will add the black spots to the Dalmatians.

My specialty is stringing the lanterns with lights, so I will man that station. I did the structural wiring of two puppies in preparation for next week, and I really did not enjoy the experience. I'll leave that to the wiring experts and stick with lighting. One thing that is nice about lighting is that I can bring the lanterns home and do it in front of the television.

lit Dalmatians 

There are a lot of logistics to work out, but we have a very experienced core group working on this so I'm confident we will have a great-looking entry again this year. And the crowd will ask, "Who let the dogs out?" Who, who, who, who, who!

Remembering on Memorial Day

Memorial Day

It's always interesting to me that people don't seem to know what Memorial Day is all about. From decorating family members graves to barbecues, we often lose sight of the fact that the this day was set aside to honor U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. 

For the second year in a row our community chose to remember by having a parade, and I was proud to participate again. Led by residents on bicycles (the first of whom was a veteran), the decorated golf carts followed as the parade wove its way through the neighborhood. Patriotic music played, and residents lined up in their driveways to cheer us on. It was heart-warming to see all the flags on display, and to see the community come together. It was our chance to show that we understand that freedom is not free.

Memorial Day Parade

Granddaughter is here!

Our granddaughter was born Monday evening! She is little, but mighty. As I'm not sure how much the kids want me to share, I'll just say that we are thrilled that everyone is healthy. We can't wait to get our hands on that baby!

My Mohs surgery to remove my latest two basal cells has been scheduled for December 1st. I pray that Dr. Mu will be able to get clear margins after the first cuts. When she did my nose three years ago, it took five tries before she finally got it all. Hopefully that will not be the case this time.

The Mount Holly Lantern Parade took place last month, and our community won First Place in the Group Category for the second year in a row. We are two for two now, and that puts a lot of pressure on us for next year's entry. The theme was Written in the Stars, so we decided to up-cycle our minions from last year. We added space helmets, rockets and stars, and created a girl minion. We weren't sure if the judges would approve of us reusing lanterns, but I think we made enough changes that they could tell the amount of work we put into them.

2022 Mount Holly Lantern Parade

The theme for next year's parade is Heroes and Villains. We are already brainstorming on what we might like to do. Due to the large number of children in the audience, it's important to pick something readily recognizable to them, I think. The minions were a huge crowd pleaser, so we need something to generate that kind of enthusiasm from the crowd. We just had a wrap up celebration party with our team of volunteers. I made sure the minions had one last hurrah by bringing minion cupcakes.

minion cupcakes

Busy Fall Weekend

fall colors

This past weekend was pretty busy - in fact every weekend in October is packed for us this year. Saturday was the Second Annual Fall Festival at Imagery. It was rescheduled from the previous weekend due to Hurricane Ian, so some of the vendors were unable to attend. But it was a beautiful day, and I think the sellers who were able to come had a good day. About half the tables were artists from our community, and there are some very talented people here. I always think that I'll have a booth with my photographs of Mountain Island Lake, but then I don't get around to making it happen.

Sunday was the Second Annual Imagery Rides show. Last year we entered both Jim's car and motorcycle. This year they added the category of electric bikes, so in addition to the car and motorcycle I brought my Trek Townie e-bike along. That required some juggling of vehicles on our part, but we made it happen.

me & my minion

On Saturday evening the Mount Holly Community Development Foundation had their black tie fundraiser. As an added bonus for attendees, the Lantern Parade Chair asked if anyone would be willing to bring a lantern and do a short walk through the event venue. I took one of our minions from last year and joined a dozen or so other lantern makers in the parade. It was fun, and the guests seemed to enjoy it. We were also able to then promote the upcoming Mount Holly Lantern Parade, which takes place on October 22nd. 

Our community is again participating, and we are fairly close to having all of our lanterns completed. It was so much fun last year, and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with for this year's parade. The theme is "Written in the Stars", and that is just broad enough that it stumped a lot of people. We are up-cycling our minions from last year, and they will be in spaceships, riding rockets, looking like astronauts and chasing stars. We even added a girl minion this year! We may not win our category again due to the reuse of the lanterns, but it seemed like a good way to get another year out of all of our efforts from last year. 

Memorial Day 2022

Taps for the fallen

Yesterday was Memorial Day, and it always fascinates me how many Americans do not understand the significance of the day. Known as the unofficial start of summer, it is typically celebrated with barbecues and family gatherings. In some families it has been called Decoration Day, as that is when they went to decorate the graves of deceased relatives. 

In fact, it is a day set aside to honor the men and women who died while serving in the United States military. It is not to be confused with Veteran's Day, which honors all those who served in the military.

Our community held its second annual Memorial Day golf cart parade yesterday. As you can imagine, the golf carts are all decked out in patriotic themes. Last year the parade was led by a group of bicyclists, but since then Phases 2 and 3 of the community have been built out. It is very hilly, and this year's route was nearly 6 miles long. The Lifestyle Director decided to invite the e-bike riders to lead the parade this year. Seven of us signed up, and most of us put at least a little decoration on our bikes. I believe there were 14 golf carts who participated in the decoration contest, plus 4 more that were on loan from Carolina Carts, one of our community sponsors.

Before the parade, we gave thanks to those who have kept our country free through their bravery. As we rode through the community, with patriotic music sounding from the golf courts, neighbors waited on their front lawns to wave and cheer us on. I'm proud to be an American, and happy to call Imagery home.

Memorial Day 2022

Fun Times!

Life has been pretty busy lately! Our community participated in the 4th Annual Mount Holly Lantern Parade, so for the past several months we have been constructing lanterns. Minion lanterns, to be exact. We made two large minions, four smaller minions and a handful of bananas. We coordinated with the art class of the Mount Holly Middle School, and the kids made an additional 40 or 50 small minion lanterns. 

The initial construction was wire and duct tape, to which we added mini light strands. This was covered with a shell of translucent white paper, and then topped with colored construction paper. It was a process, to say the least. The parade theme was "Let's All Go to the Movies", and at first I was unsure of doing minions. I'll confess I knew nothing about the characters, so I had to sit down and watch one of the movies. I have to say, the minions were a hug crowd-pleaser. The judges took note of this, and we ended up winning first place in the "Group" category. Not bad for our first rodeo! It was a blast to walk in the parade with the kids. The adults wore yellow shirts, blue suspenders and yellow hard hats, and all of our group wore minion face masks. Those were a great way to ensure mask compliance. I added a unique touch to our costumes by making minion glasses out of canning jar rims.

The theme for next year is "Written in the Stars", which sounds very broad. Our group is getting together tomorrow night to begin planning our entry. The pressure is on since we took 1st this year.

Minion Mania!

We took a quick overnight drive up to Blowing Rock, NC on October 26th to photograph the fall color. We sure found some nice foliage! The previous two Octobers here the colors were virtually non-existent. It did our Midwest hearts good to see the pretty reds and oranges this year.

finding fall

  
On October 30th Imagery had a Halloween Pet Parade. There were two categories - cutest and best matched. We don't have a dog right now, but we sure enjoyed photographing the event. The parade was followed by a demonstration of the K-9 unit of the Mount Holly police department.

pet parade

On Halloween, the Lifestyle Director brought a band in to perform in the afternoon. The weather was perfect for us to be outside listening to some great music. Jim and I reprised our minion costumes as we knew our lanterns were going to be out on display. We never got a good picture of us the day of the parade, so we were able to rectify that on Sunday.

Minions 'R Us

Tuesday was such a pretty day that we decided to take our kayaks out on Mountain Island Lake. We found some beautiful color along the shoreline as we paddled along, and even startled a blue heron who was napping in the afternoon sunlight. As the weather has since turned rainy and chilly, I'm glad we took advantage of the day. 

Mountain Island Lake

Photography Challenge Week 27

For this week we were to show gratitude in our photo. I'm grateful to live in a community that still embraces a hometown parade, and for the men and women who make it possible for us to celebrate America's freedom. It was an added bonus that our son was visiting from the D.C. area and wanted to attend the parade with us. It was been many years since the kids have been here to enjoy the 4th of July festivities.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 27

Summer Celebrations

As we have rolled into July, I've been able to get out a bit and do my favorite pastime - taking photographs. Jim and I, along with another photographer friend, have gone out several times together in the last year or so to take pictures. Then after a couple of days, we share our favorite photo from the outing with each other. It is always fun to see our different perspectives, even though we were in the same area together. This month we went to the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area in north St. Louis County.

Located at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, Columbia Bottom has over 4,000 acres of land to explore by car, bikes or walking. They also have an area to put in boats, and I have seen people coming there to fish as well. The conservation department has planted fields of sunflowers, so that was the draw for us on this trip. Four fields were in bloom, and they have staggered the plantings so that there should be flowers in bloom through August. Though I wish we had arrived earlier than 9:00 as it was already hot and humid, the sunflowers were amazing.

Columbia Bottom Conservation Area

We also attended the Webster Groves 4th of July parade, which is a time-honored tradition for us. We simply have to pack up our chairs and water bottles and walk over two streets to the parade route. After years of practice, we know where to set up our chairs so that we will be in the shade the entire time. Jim set our chairs up early, and we walked over around 9:15. The parade starts at 10:00 and it takes a good half hour to reach our spot. But the time passes quickly talking to the folks around us and people watching. Despite all the political entries in the parade, I thought it was a good one and that people were very respectful.

Webster Groves parade

On Friday, July 6th we had a nice treat. An architectural firm that Jim works with, Fox Architects, was celebrating their 40th anniversary with a party at their office. It happens to be located directly across the street from the St. Louis Arch, the grounds of which have been newly renovated. For the first time in several years they were able to have Fair St. Louis back on the arch grounds now that construction is complete. We had a bird's eye view from the 18th floor of the One Memorial Drive building, high above the crowds and an exceptional spot to watch the fireworks display. It was a great time!

St. Louis Arch

The 4th of July

We did the usual and customary (for us) things over the July 4th weekend. Jim's office celebrated the holiday on Friday, so we were actually able to go play pickleball together during the day for the first time. Only four people showed up to the special session in Affton, so we got a lot of playing time in. Saturday was our local community parade, and we are lucky in that it passes just a couple blocks over from where we live. We can just grab our chairs, a small cooler, the pooch, and walk over. We had been sitting on the same parkway each year for over 20 years, but those homeowners had the audacity to sell their house. How rude! The new owners have a party and they take lawn chairs and rope off their entire parkway. Doubly rude! That spot was great due to several large trees, and we could sit in shade the entire duration of the parade.

We wandered a little further up the street and found a small spot next to a driveway just big enough for our two chairs. With the slope of the drive, I told my husband that no one would be able to set up chairs there. "The only way our view will be blocked is if someone decides to stand there." Famous last words. A man from the huge party going on across the street came over to our side with his wife and granddaughter. And they stood, which would not have been bad except the guy was taking non-stop photos and/or videos of the little girl, stepping into the street to do so. My husband politely asked him to step back as we couldn't see, and he did so after shooting us a dirty look. That lasted about 5 minutes before he was back in the street again. Unbelievable. Nevertheless, it was a very nice parade and we were blessed with perfect weather this year.

Saturday night we walked up to the end of our street to watch the fireworks. The display was good, but the people watching (and listening) was even better!

On Sunday we went to visit my niece at Barnes as she had open heart surgery to repair a valve on July 1st. I went the day of surgery as well as the day after, but this was the first time Jim was able to go with me. We didn't stay long as she was understandably not feeling up to much company. From there we went to look at one of Jim's projects, Cortex. It is really something! I am so impressed with the quality of their design work.

As an added bonus, I was finally able to find out where it's at!

Independence Day

Webster Groves Parade

We are having a relatively quiet 4th of July around here. Thursday morning Jim and I went to the parade as we always do when we are in town. It is such a great experience. We met a really nice couple who sat on the parkway next to us. They have four children, and the younger two were with them while the older two walked in the parade. It ends up that their 10 year old daughter is best friends with the family who moved in next door to us two years ago. We kept our opinions of them to ourselves. But as we talked about other things I learned that the woman's mother is first generation American from Scotland, while her dad is from Switzerland (and the two met in Africa!). The husband's mom is from Ireland. It is rare to meet anyone who is first generation these days, at least in my little world. Since we arrived at the parade route early in order to secure a coveted spot in the shade, it helped pass the time conversing with new people.


 Later in the day we went to the lake house of Jim's business partner, located a mere 45 minutes from our house. I brought some snacks and a Patriotic Bundt Cake, and we had fun boating and enjoying the grilled shishkabobs and later the fireworks. It was different sitting in the middle of the lake on a boat as the fireworks were set off. I did miss our fireworks in Webster Groves though. They always put on a good show.

Friday I began the day with a tough work out at the fitness center, and then ruined it all by having a margarita with chips and salsa at the Hacienda. We met our old next door neighbors for lunch there, and it was fun to catch up with them and all their activities. Then today we took our bikes out to Route 66 State Park and road for about an hour before it got too hot. So far it has been a great holiday! Happy 4th!

Happy Birthday, America!

This past weekend seemed really long, which is a good thing. Saturday night we finally got around to celebrating Father's Day. Katie was in Prague and Jim on his motorcycle trip on the actual day. We took Jim to a new restaurant in Webster Groves called The Block. It is an interesting concept in that they have a small butcher shop inside the restaurant. So if you love their pork chops, say, you can buy fresh pork chops to go and they will tell you how to prepare them. It took me forever to locate their website (not good, restaurant owner!) so that I could see what their menu looks like. They bill themselves as a family restaurant, but the menu is definitely not kid-friendly. When my kids were young, they would not have liked anything on the menu. I never could find the hours on the website, so I had to call to see when they are open. (Not good, restaurant owner!)

When we arrived a little after 5:00 (this being the time they open), all of the wait staff was sitting in the dining room going over the specials for the evening. We were seated anyway, which was more than a little weird. I ordered the burger and fries with coleslaw, Katie got the mussels appetizer (see what traveling abroad does?), and Jim got the pork chops. I am not a very adventuresome eater, thus my dinner decision. But the burger was grass fed beef with a strange little spice in it, the fries had salt and pepper and something else on them - maybe sage or oregano? - and I don't know what was up with the slaw, which I usually love. Katie said her mussels were good, though not as fresh as Europe. Go figure, right? Jim loved his meal. So there you go...I would not rush back there, which is too bad. I like patronizing the local businesses.

The Block

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday we drove about 30 minutes from St. Louis to a friend's lake house. The day had been sunny and hotter than Hades, and we were looking forward to a boat ride and swimming in the lake. As we were driving, lightning lit up the sky and it began to rain. And it rained for the entire time we were there. So we were cooped up in a small house with 7 adults and 3 kids. But we played games and were still able to grill, so it turned out fine.

On the 4th Jim, Kirby and I walked over early to claim our spot on Gore for the Webster Groves parade. Fortunately I had brought umbrellas, as we ended up getting a nice little downpour for a bit. People improvised on keeping dry as you can see in the pictures.

But they were still able to get the parade in, and in fact it was not so ungodly hot for a change. Then in the evening we walked up to the railroad tracks behind Schnucks to watch the evening fireworks. I drug my tripod along as I wanted to see if I could get any decent photos of the fireworks if I used it. The show was really good, but only lasted 15 minutes. We spent that much time trying to navigate through the crowds to walk home. Is it really worth it? I found a super nice cell phone on the tracks as we were leaving, and debated what to do with it. The owner might come back for it. Or one of the PAS persons might steal it. Do I take it home? Take it into Schnucks and turn it in to the courtesy counter? I ended up bringing it back to the house with us. We turned it on and went through the contacts until we found Home. I called that number and probably really confused the man who answered the phone. He thought it might be his father-in-law's phone, which made no sense to me. Katie said it looked like a woman's phone, not a man's. I gave him my name and phone number to call if someone in his house reported it missing. Then the cell phone rang. To answer or not to answer, that is the question. Thinking it was probably just a friend calling, we didn't answer it. Katie went into the Facebook account through the phone and found the gal's name, along with the fact that she recently married the guy who had just tried calling the phone. (All of this felt like a huge invasion of privacy to me, but I couldn't see any way around it.) So I called him back and explained where I had found the phone. They had just been walking the tracks looking for it so they were still in the area, thankfully. They came by to pick it up, and we learned that they just bought a house a couple blocks away from us. They will be moving into it as soon as it passes inspection. All's well that ends well.