Monday, September 28, 2009

Anniversary Weekend!

This weekend we took a trip to St. Louis to celebrate our 12th anniversary!

We started with a Friday night stay at the Drury and on Saturday we took a trip to O' Fallon Illinois (where everything was spelled correctly and made sense, see later in the blog) for the Strange Folk Festival. It was great but the batteries in my camera were dead! I have supplied a link so you can get a feel for the festival. It was fun.



After the Strange Folk Festival we ran over to St. Charles, Missouri to check it out. St. Charles is a great town and we recommend that you visit. Here is a shot of the historic riverfront district. Great restaurants, wine bars and cool little shops.


Waiting for Christy on a front porch.


On my way to the next stop.




Christy leaving a shop.





Another shot of the historic district.



Alas, we were in Missouri so we had to deal with a number of "interesting" things. Here is a prime example of what I am talking about. Note the sign in the background on the other beam. Nice work Missouri.


Another sign that could use an edit. I like being called "baby" but to call everyone that?
Was it the case that they were going for an Elvis theme, Baby?




This shot is specifically to tease Yancy back to Missouri for a visit. I don't think he has a pair of babyblue shades yet.






The buildings slope down to the river. It makes for a neat place to visit.







Ice cream!



We sat down by the Missouri river (which, by the way, flows north at this point) and had a snack on a beautiful late summer day.




All of a sudden a storm blew in. Christy captured these shots of the storm on the way.



It looked bad, but turned out to be just a bit of wind and rain.




We made our way to a tent at the Oktoberfest in St. Charles. Anyone catch that yet? Oktoberfest on September 26th? That fact did not escape Christy. Remember, we were in Missouri where they don't let the facts get in the way of an occasion to drink beer and dress funny.
Here is a dude in his German outfit, feather and all.


More lederhosen and a pink shirt. I guess he can handle himself in a fight if he is wearing that shirt or he turned in his "man card" a few years ago.




Christy caught this shot of me in my DropKick Murphys t-shirt. I recently read that Dropkick Murphys was a place in Boston where people went to "dry out". Several Boston Red Sox players from the 1949 team all went together in the off season. #58, Papelbon the Yankee killer....nice.

Dancing to German polka, with feathers. We had a few German beers and took in the show.
The sad Coors Light bottle after the storm. Can't say that I felt sorry for it given the politics that come from Golden Colorado and their boss. And the Cards clinched the NL Central against the Rockies!
A few German flags for the day.
Cool caboose from the 1950s.


Another older extended vision caboose from the KATY.

Saturday night we went to one of our favorite restaurants in St. Louis, Gian-Tony's. We strongly recommend it.
On Sunday we went to the St. Louis Zoo!




The awesome cheetah.

Christy watching one of the elephants.

Very cool.


Trying to mount a bug statue to look like one of Beth's figurines. Easier said than done.
Bear in the tree.

Now sleeping in the tree.

Flamingos at the zoo.




Penguin.

My favorite exhibit, the gorilla den.



Wow, what a powerful animal.


A great view of the gorillas through a waterfall.



Prairie dogs!


A touch of home, Otters!

Hanging out by the kangaroos on a great fall day.


Sleeping tigers.




Monday, September 21, 2009

Labor Day update

Cindy sent us some fun photos from the Labor Day weekend extravaganza in Kansas City.
Dirk re-enacting George Brett coming out of the dugout against the Yankees.
Victory.



Having a great time with Jerry Terrell.




Terrell shooting his imaginary .38. I guess you had to be there. Don't miss that World Series hardware on my finger.




Dirk and Fitzmorris. They look a bit alike.



Dirk and his new Irish friend.


Cindy and the Royals mascot.




Dirk and the Royals mascot.




Me and Christy Hartner and her awesome boys!


I love these photos. Christy and me walking back from the Irish fest with downtown Kansas City in the background.


Another great shot of a super weekend.

Lincoln Gardens

This weekend we drove over to Lincoln Memorial Gardens and took a walk around the lake. The gardens are located on the SE side of Springfield and they are great. We walked around them a few years ago when we went to a lame festival along the lake.



Here is a shot of the art deco style bridge across Lake Springfield.



Checking out the lake.




Walking along the paths. They are very well done, wide with mulch to keep the path clear.




Up in a tree along the lake.




No tree climbing for the Monkey, note the flip flops.



Old school wrist snap here.


All of a sudden I was assaulted by acorns. I turned around to see this!



Mushrooms growing on a tree.




The deer were really out in full force. We saw many and this young one was very close and did not seem to care that we were out walking.




We also attended the Edwards Place art fair.


It was fun, here is a shot of Edwards house and some of the tents.





Grendel and Isabelle in the west widow catching some sun before it all went away with the rain.




Our dogwood is starting to change for fall!