The Arch

Today was a pretty slow day. I got to sleep late, have a late breakfast, and then we were off to see the St. Louis Arch! That was pretty cool. It towers 630 feet into the air. There’s still plenty of evidence though, right near the Arch of the flooding that has hurt so much of this area, and especially to the south. Take a look at the no parking sign! The water has risen so high that it has flooded the parking lot.


Dinner tonight was salmon, steamed carrots, and mashed potatoes, with chocolate iced bundt cake with ice cream for dessert.

Nashville

Yesterday, we left at three o’clock in the morning so that we could drive to Nashville, Tennessee, to be present at the first profession of vows for 12 women in the community of the Dominicans of Nashville, Congregation of St. Cecilia. The Cathedral in Nashville is very unlike the Cathedrals Basilica of either Denver or St. Louis. It’s very beautiful inside, but is much more nondescript than either of the other two. The service lasted for about two hours, and was followed by a lunch at the Motherhouse, also located in Nashville (too far to walk, but really pretty close). We spent the evening after the reception in and around downtown Nashville, including some time at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge.

Today was a lot of fun. We had breakfast with friends, saw the Grand Ole Opry Museum (which was free), and traveled back to St. Louis through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and back to Missouri. Back in St. Louis, we’ll probably visit the Arch tomorrow.

Nashville, TN

I've spent yesterday and today in Nashville Tennessee. It's been a great time, and I'll be back later on today with pictures and more description!

St. Louis Science Center

There is a Mass today celebrating the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, which is an encyclical letter written by Pope Paul VI in 1968. The Mass will be at the Cathedral, and celebrated by the Archdiocesan Administrator, Bishop Hermann. There currently isn’t an Archbishop, as Archbishop Burke has been called to an important role in Rome. Before we went to the Cathedral, though, we stopped at the St. Louis Science Center for a visit. The picture is of a person holding a power tool. I realized after I took the picture that the angle to see the person could have been better, but here you are!

Wine Country, MO

On our way to try and get a winery tour or two, we saw the sign for the Daniel Boone Home. It was almost on the way, so we decided to stop and find out about a potential tour. The Daniel Boone Home was actually built for Daniel’s son, and was completed in 1799. The structure and the inside of the house were original, including the furniture and everything, so the site wouldn’t allow pictures inside. So here’s a picture I took outside the house. Augusta, Missouri, is home to a number of wineries in the state. We stopped at the Montelle Winery, and bought a bottle of peach wine. Apparently, peaches grow in Missouri too!

Yesterday and today

We visited the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis for morning Mass. The Cathedral was just dark enough that no pictures were really turning out good enough to post. I found, on the back of a pillar, the Episcopal Motto of the former Archbishop of St. Louis. The words are Secundum Cor Tuum, and they mean ‘After Your Heart.’ I was able to get a good shot of the bear in front of the Archbishop’s coat of arms.

We spent a good portion of the day at the Missouri Botanic Gardens. It was really a lot of fun, and is way bigger than the Denver Botanic Gardens, judging by the way my feet felt! They have a cool display going on right now. We met one friend and her kids at the Gardens, and had lunch together in the parking lot. After that, we went back to the friends house, in Wentzville, MO, and spent the night. We went to Mass this morning at St. Gianna's Parish, which is currently in a storefront, but they're working on building a church building for themselves.


We’re back in St. Louis now, getting ready for Dad’s birthday dinner. It ought to be really good; steak, Brussels sprouts, salad, cake, rolls, ice cream, mmmm…

Visit to Hannibal, home of Mark Twain

After a nice breakfast at the house, we drove to Hannibal, MO. Hannibal is the town in Missouri in which Samuel Clemens grew up. For one price, the tour of Hannibal is pretty complete: access to all of the museums, the boyhood home of Mark Twain, a one-hour riverboat ride, and access to the Mark Twain Caves, Missouri’s first show cave. We had a picnic lunch in the middle of the day, and came back to St. Louis by a scenic byway.


The scenic byway had lots of little towns and libraries. One town we drove through was Louisiana, Missouri. Looking at the picture, you can see that the MO flooding earlier this year was pretty dramatic.

We actually got back pretty late, but we were still able to have dinner. Chicken stir fry over rice, and fresh fruit. It was really good.

Cardinals beat the Padres

Today has been a good day so far. I was able to sleep until almost 9 a.m. and we all gathered for breakfast. Fried or soft-boiled eggs, sliced tomatoes, bacon, potatoes with green chilies, and peaches & blueberries were served. We talked about going to the St. Louis Cardinals game this afternoon.



The game was fun; the Cardinals ended up winning 9-5 over the Padres with a grand slam home run in the bottom of the 9th. The announcer reported that 41,412 people were in attendance. We had seats that were about three rows from the very top, but that meant we got some shade. St. Louis is HOT, HOT, HOT in July!



There’s a small break in the day right now, but I understand that we’ll be having steak, corn, some kind of potatoes, and brownies. Yum I couldn’t think of how to get the bear alone by the Busch Stadium image, so it’s a little different this time. What do you think?

At home in St. Louis

I went to St. Louis today for a visit. The Denver Airport is way more fancy than the one in St. Louis for sure! My hosts were waiting right outside the secure area. They seem really nice, and have been extremely welcoming. We stopped on the way back to their house (where we’re staying) at the Saint Louis Bread Company (also called Panera in Denver) to get some bread for our lunch. Lunch was really nice, rotisserie chicken on sourdough Panera bread with chips and Coke. I never heard of wasabi mayonnaise before, but it’s good!

We all went to Mass at 5:00 at St. Catherine Laboure parish. That was a nice experience. Once we got back I was able to watch some of This Old House, and an episode of the Lawrence Welk Show, which is on PBS (channel 9) here. Dinner was salmon, asparagus, wild rice, a pepper/piñon nut mixture, and fruit salad cups in the kind of fancy cups that Mom serves shrimp cocktail in. About that size too, except for there’s no stems on these cups.


There are two dogs and a cat. I’ll try to get pictures of the dogs (Sam and Ginger), but I was able to get a pretty good picture of the cat, Ringworm. The other picture is of where I’ll be sleeping, can you find the bear?

Off to see a Cardinals game tomorrow, that means I probably ought to go to sleep now!

Thank you, Riley!

So I got home today, and the very first thing that I saw was this picture from Riley. It occurred to me that this blog exists because of her, so I thought I'd take a picture of the bear next to her work. Thanks Riley, I love it! Stenciling is something I'm still not really good at, so I can tell that this represents a lot of detail work.

I also thought that it's been a pretty long time since I've posted anything here, so I was really excited about the opportunity. I will be taking pictures in St. Louis, so stay tuned...