10-30-16  A visit to one of our favorite restaurants in the St. Louis area:

Castelli's---formerly Moonlight.  The place we go to for the best fried chicken ever --- and we love our fried chicken!  It's not really all that close to our house, but it's away from the city, so I don't mind the ride.  It's actually in Fosterburg, Illinois---just on the other side of Alton.  Not sure how long it's been around, but we've been going here for 20+ years.

10-29-16  Dinner after a day of touristy stuff:

Since we were pretty far south for the day, we decided to stop at Roadhouse 61 (or something like that) for dinner on the way back to the north side.  We've only been here a couple times before, but it's an interesting bar b q place. 

 The inside is decorated with a lot of "folkie" stuff and southern charm.

10-29-16 on to Laumeier Sculpture Park:

Since we were out that way---sort of---coming back from Lone Elk Park---I suggested we go to Laumeier Sculpture Park.  This is another place I've only been to a few times, but now that we're "tourists" in St. Louis, there's a lot of places to go see again!  This was Ken's first time here.  I'll say he wasn't impressed.  It is definately a different kind of park!!!  But it was a pretty afternoon and a nice place to take a stroll.

105-acre open-air museum and sculpture park located near St. Louis and is maintained by the St. Louis Parks and Recreation Center.  It houses over 60 outdoor sculptures and features a 1.4-mile  walking trail, and educational programs.  

One of our first encounters--- 
Eye, 2007 
fiberglass, resin, oil paint, steel
452 inches circumference

 Ada's Will, 1990
reinforced steel, concrete, paint
108 x 67 x 54 inches
" Jene Highstein's Ada’s Will, 1990, has the somewhat menacing first-impression look of, perhaps, a projectile. Then, it is seen to be not airfoil-sleek, not quite symmetrical, not a representation of anything nor yet an abstraction. Its concrete is troweled with irregular thickness onto a steel armature—a darkly enigmatic presence with fleeting associations."

10-29-16- on to the World Bird Sanctuary and Lone Elk Park:

In the 40+ years we've lived in the St. Louis area, we had only been to Lone Elk Park a couple of times and had never been to the World Bird Sanctuary.  Why, I don't know!  Both are really cool spots.  With the trees in a lot of color now, we decided to head out to the woods.  Lone Elk Park came to mind.  Right by it is the World Bird Sanctuary.  It happened to be open, so we stopped there for a while.  They have a viewing area by a little museum.  Apparently they bring some birds out here during the daytime.  There are a lot of trails throughout the area, too, but Ken isn't a hiker, so we just looked at the bound birds and walked through the little museum. 

10-29-16  Butterfly House:

One of our benefits of being Missouri Botanical Garden members is that we get into the Butterfly House in Faust park in West County for free.  So I try to get there at least once a year when I have the MOBOT membership.  So this was the time I went this year.  Ken even came along.  It was the first time he's been there. 

 Faust park is an interesting little park with a recreated old village and this building with a carousel in it.  We parked in the parking lot between the carousel and the Butterfly House.

10-24-16  Back to St. Louis---again!!!!

Well, it was finally time to head back to St. Louis to have my cardiac ablation surgery.  Who knew last May when I went to my Dr. for a prescription renewal that 4 trips later I would be having surgery!?  It certainly surprised me!  Especially since I'm not in pain and doing really seem to have major complications from having A-fib.  But with it lasting 20% of the day now and progressing to permanent A-fib, I decided to take the Dr's advice and have the surgery.  Apparently it's not very effective once A-fib has become permanent.  SUrgery isn't until Halloween, but I have per-hospitalization stuff to take care of.  So bright and early on the 24th, we jumped in the car and took off on our 10+ hour trip to St. Louis.  I like to turn these rides into photo-ops.  Still manage to find different things to take pictures of along the way.
This is the first time I've noticed these old cars.

It'll really be nice when they finally finish the construction on Highway 20 that we take to avoid I-85 and I-285.  Probably takes us just as long to go this way, but at least there isn't as much traffic.

10-23-16  lunch at Chuys with the "kids" and "Sunday Social" at their place:

After listening to them brag about Chuys for a few weeks, we decided to meet them there after their church service.  It's a pretty good haul from our area---about 35 minutes, but we're retired---what else do we have to do?!  It was well worth the trip!  Not only was the food great, but the decor of the restaurant was interesting.
Loved this palm tree made of fish and bottle caps!

one of the 3 or 4 rooms in the restaurant.

10-20-16---our back yard:

Not a bad view from our apartment!

Oct. 19, 2016---Atlanta Botanical Gardens-Chihuly day and night:

Every since we moved here I've seen advertisements for Chihuly in the Garden and have been anxious to get to the Atlanta Botanical Garden before the exhibit leaves.  My MOBOT (Missouri Botanical Gardens) even gets me and guest into it free---at least in the daytime.  That's a savings of $21.95@.  Angie wanted to go, too, so we agreed we were going----before Oct. 31st when the exhibit left.  Time was running out!  So we finally decided to pick a date and go see it in the afternoon, go to dinner, then go back for Chihuly Nights (unfortunately they don't have reciprocal entrance for that).

The day finally came!  So I picked her up at 1pm and we were on our way downtown to where the Atlanta Botanical Garden is.  Surprisingly, traffic was moving and we made it there in about 30 minutes.   Had to pay for parking (goes by the half hour or hour, so ended up paying $7 for about 3 1/2 hours).  We were expecting it to be crowded at night, so bought our tickets to come back when we got our free entrance for the daytime hours.

The horticulture team here worked with the Chihuly team on a color scheme.  Then six 53' containers full of Chihuly glass were shipped to the garden.  The thousands of elements were installed over a 2 week period.   The other time Chihuly had an exhibit here was 12 years ago when the garden was half the size it is now.  I'm thinking the garden has almost doubled since I was last here!

 There happened to be a scarecrow exhibit going on right now, too.  Some pretty interesting "scarecrows"!

Oct. 17, 2016---Brasstown Bald, Helton creek falls, lot of pretty leaves!!!

After riding up to Lookout Mountain in Tennessee yesterday, I figured it was time to take a Fall ride up into the northern mountains of Georgia!  It's always a beautiful ride, but it was even more beautiful today with all the trees changing colors.

 As many times as we've ridden up there, this was the first time I noticed this graveyard, artwork of old school busses and other vehicles. 

Oct. 16, 2016---off to Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain to have lunch with the kids again.

Been a couple months since we've done lunch with Tim and Faith.  We've been rather busy with Hawaii, St. Thomas, St. Louis, and whatever else!  So it was time to do it again!  But, this time, Ken elected to stay at Angie and Josh's with the dogs.  His loss, our gain.  We were able to spend more time with Tim and Faith.  Even got to wander around through another National Park!

The day started rather early---for us.  We had to be at Angie and Josh's by 7:50, so we were on the road by 7:30.  Early enough to even see a pretty nice sunrise!  Why so early?   Since it was a Sunday, they wanted to go to church first.  So they decided to go to 8:30 mass, then continue on to Chattanooga, since church was about 30 minutes closer to Chattanooga.

 We had reservations for brunch at 11:30 in the town of Rock City.  We made a wrong turn at one point and got a glimpse of this waterfall --- Ruby Falls?

Oct. 15, 2016---Eagles cover band concert:

Ken happened to find out that there was an Eagle's cover band (7 Bridges) playing in a nearby township tonight.  Plus it was free!  So we went and had a really good time.  Hard to believe we listened to that music some 40 + years ago!!!!  Where is the time going!?

 It was an outdoor amphitheater in Sugar Hill.  Nice set up.  There was room to put up chairs between the retaining walls, or you can do like we did and sit on the walls.

 It was right by the Sugar Hill City Hall. 

I'm glad Ken found this.  I wish we would do more of this kind of thing.  They were even a very good band.  Supposedly the best Eagles cover band in the states---so they say.  They came here from Nashville, Tennessee.  Ken checked their website and see that they've even played in St. Louis.

Oct. 13, 2016---finally back out on the bike!

Been awhile since I've been on my bike!   The trails by the apartment are really more suited for walking---or running, but it's nice to be on my bike again.  Especially now that it's not as hot.  But it's still hot!  I still ended up covered in sweat. 

the scary tunnel at one end of the trail.

Oct. 11, 2016---Suwanee Center and Sculptour Park:

We found a place called "Friends" that has great wings.  On Wed. nights they have a buy 10 get 10 special.  So we decided that's where we were going tonight.  But first, we had a check to deposit at a Credit Union near there.   Since we were out of the bank really quickly, we decided to hang out in the park in Suwanee Center.

Once we got there, we decided to go check out the sculptures.  That's when we discovered it's called Sculptour Park---clever play on words.

This is looking back at the city hall as we were wandering around the park.

I remember these guys being named "Who let the dogs out".  

Oct. 11, 2016---A Fall stroll along Ivy Creek:

Still trying to get my "steps" in whenever possible.  It's really not hard with the Preserve and the shops so close by.  Today I decided to take a walk in the Gwinnett Environmental preserve adjacent to our apartment complex.  Nice to see there's still color out there!

Wild flowers

 pods --- but I don't remember what flowers were here before it turned to these interesting things.

oct. 9, 2016---more dogsitting:

Got out of St. Louis as quickly as possible!   We were granddog sitting, again, while Angie and Josh flew to St. Louis for a baby christening.  Short trip this time---only 2 nights.  Micky kept me on my toes on our walks!  Still goes totally spastic when he sees another dog!  But back in the house he's the boss.

Oct. 6, 2016---Back to Atlanta:

After my 10am Dr. appointment with the endocrinologist, we hit the road back to Atlanta.  Angie and Josh are heading to St. Louis for a baptism on the 7th and we promised to granddog sit again.

Weather was great again.

Lots more barns to see.

Oct. 3, 2016---to Washington, Mo. and then Lone Elk Park:

Home sweet home, with it's new mailbox. 

When we weren't running to Dr.s, we met up with friends and relatives.  One day we drove to Washington, Mo. to visit one of Ken's brothers and sister-in-law.  We took the wine country route there.

Oct. 2, 2016---white river!

Between all the Dr. appointments and visits with friends, I managed to get a couple walks in.  I like to walk to the park a short distance behind out house---St. Cin in Hazelwood.  I was even surprised to see these pretty wild flowers growing along the way.

 But I was downright shocked when I came to the bridge going over to the park and saw the white river!

 Cold Water Creek has been in the news a lot because of hazards found in the water, but I don't recall it ever being white before!!!

 I happened to still be there when Missouri Water showed up.  One of the drivers walked over to the creek, looked at it, went back to the truck, and they all look off.  Apparently they figured it wasn't something they did, so they weren't going to do anything about it.  For 2 or 3 days the news talked about the white creek and how water samples were taken, but they didn't know what it was for about 3 days.  Apparently a truck carrying latex crashed and they were told to wash it down the creek since it's "water soluble".   Eventually they were told to clean it up, but that took a few more days.

 I continued on my walk.  I was surprised to find bananas growing in someone's yard!  Can't say I've ever seen that before in St. Louis county!

So my exercise for the day turned out to be a rather interesting walk!

On my follow up walk on the 5th, this is how the "cleaned up" creek looked----

Sept. 27, 2016---heading back to St. Louis for a bit:

Yep, time to hit the road again!  Ken likes to say we're spending a lot of money to store our furniture here in Georgia!

I made the mistake of going to my Dr.s back in June ---mainly just to get my prescriptions refilled.  Hard to believe a mere 10 years ago I finally went to an internist for a complete physical---first one since the college sports physical I had when I was at UMSL playing varsity volleyball.  I no longer go to the internist, but now I have an electrocardiologist, endocrinologist, orthopedist, ophthalmologist, and will soon have a pulmonologist!  And some of them keep wanting me to come back every couple months since June!   After a year of calf muscle tears and then recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery a couple years ago, I thought I was finally doing well again!  Until the electrocardiologist said it was time to wear a heart monitor again,  to check on my A-fib.  Trip 2 back to St. Louis was to discus the heart monitor results with the electrocardiaologist.  I'm in A-fib 22% of the time now---even though I seldom notice it.  The Dr. recommended seeing a heart surgeon and having an ablation.  Trip 3 back to St. Louis was to see the heart surgeon.  Turns out heart surgery won't be covered by insurance until I tried heart rhythm meds first.   He also recommended a sleep study since a majority of people with A-fib also have sleep apnea.  Trip 4 to St. Louis was to see how the heart meds did---they failed.  Thought the heart Dr. would discus the sleep study results, too, but no---gotta go to a pulmonary sleep Dr. for that!   Also went back to the endo Dr. during trip 4 for more lab work since I don't go to an internist anymore---fortunately that's all good!  Couldn't get into the pulmonary Dr. this time, but they did set me up with a C-pap machine.  Apparently I have severe complex sleep apnea----some obstructed, but mostly central (never even heard of that before!  Apparently my brain forgets to tell me to breathe!).  Also something called hypopnea or shallow breathing!  Trip 5 to St. Louis will be later this month to have the ablation and to go to the pulmonary sleep Dr.  The fun just never stops!!!!

Anyway---we've been driving back and forth to St. Louis for those trips.  It's a 10 or 11 hour drive each way.  Shouldn't be, but we always get caught up in some accident or construction traffic!  I like to take pictures of the countryside as we drive through it.
Somewhere in Georgia.

yard decor?!