6-29-17  a trip to MOBOT!

Didn't know if I was going to get a chance to go to MOBOT this trip, but when we decided we weren't leaving until Friday, I messaged Karen and asked her if she wanted to meet me there on the 29th.  She did, and we did, and it was great---although the heat and humidity had reappeared by then.  I don't know why we didn't run around together before we moved.  She has a lot of the same interests as I do---photography, sports, biking.  It's fun going to a place like the botanical gardens with another photographer and comparing photos later.  I always find it interesting how people can have different views of the same subject.  So we met there at noon and spent the first hour visiting in the cafeteria.  They make a really tasty lunch.  Mine was a quiche and salad.  Then we spent about 3 more hours wandering around the gardens taking a ton of pictures.
love all the cone flowers in full bloom.

6-28-17  another lunch date!

This time it was to the Ameristar Casino lunch buffet.  Friend Becky told us about them having half price buffet on Wed., so that was where we went.  Even Don made it.  Nice visiting with both of them again, too.  And the buffet was fantastic!

Gonna have to remember that 1/2 price on Wed. thing.  Too bad we didn't know about it when we lived here full time!

6-27-17  lots of yard work!

With the weather still being unseasonably beautiful for St. Louis, we did a lot of yard work in the past few days---when we weren't running around having lunch or dinner with family and friends----like dinner at Ferguson Brewery with Bill, Lena and Nick (I wanted to pay them back for the anniversary party, but when it came time to pay, they wouldn't let us pay theirs)---I also went to a new restaurant to me in St. Peters (Hobo's) with good neighbor, Connie Lococco, ---another fantastic place to get fried chicken!
Anyway---I decided it was time to tackle our 45 year old lilac bush again.  I thought it was really nice and full and thought I'd get rid of a lot of the dead wood in it.  But when I thought I was done, I realized that half of it had totally different leaves then a lilac!  Don't know why that surprised me.  So I spent a lot more time cutting out the healthier non-lilac growth and cutting it into pieces to fit in trash cans and bags. That and leaves left over from fall and other yard waste ended up filling 4 cans and 5 bags.  We even had to add yard waste to our account to take care of it all.  All these years we never had yard waste, now that we're away most of the time, we now have yard waste.

 We also made our 2nd trip to the DMV.  Got the new Edge licensed.   Also got the Escape relicensed a couple days later.  The worries we had about it on the ride up from Atlanta turned out to not be too bad.  Ken took it to one of our nephew's house and he was able to fix it for about $60 in about 20 minutes!  Needed a new coil for one of the cylinders and needed a new plug for one of the warning switches (a critter had eaten through it).  Now we have a dependable vehicle for when we fly back to St. Louis---or drive and want to both go off somewhere.

6-23-17  Happy Anniversary mom and dad---hope you're celebrating in Heaven!

Don't remember what all we did today.   I'm sure it was another Dr. appointment (nice to hear this summer---"see you for a normal check up in another 6 months"!), or yard work, or lunch of dinner with someone, but all I have pictures of are from my walk.  I actually did pretty good with keeping up the walking while I'm here.  Instead of just walking to St. Cin park behind the apartments behind us, I also walked around in the neighborhoods back there.  The weather this trip has been gorgeous!!  Mid 80's, but really low humidity.  Lots of outdoor time!
Another view of the mess of overgrowth on the fence and wires next to our house as seen from my walking path.

 And just another beautiful St. Louis sunset!

6-21-17  surprise anniversary party---sort of!

Whenever we're back in town, we like to get up to Stef's restaurant and visit with one of Ken's brothers.  So we called to see if he was working tonight and he was so we made plans to go for dinner.  Bill took it upon himself to call the other brothers and invite them and their families to come, too.  Even though we knew they were all coming, it was a nice surprise when Bill picked up the bill and presented us with a Happy 42nd Anniversary cookie for dessert!  Don't remember ever having an anniversary party, so this was really sweet and special!  Thanks, Bill and Lena!!!  And everyone else for coming up to celebrate with us!

 first course---salads and appetizers!  Next was pizza for most of us.

6-20-17  Happy 42nd anniversary to us!!!!

What better way to celebrate then by bringing home your new vehicle!!!???  I jokingly asked isn't anniversary 42 metal and Angie said no, it's real-estate.  

 I did take several walks while we were in town.  Still trying to get those 10,000 steps in.  I was rather shocked when I went to cut behind our house along my walk and saw this mess off "weeds" overgrowing everything back there---the chain link fence, the lower wires and heading up to the higher wires.  It had even grown across the 3' opening between our fence and this one and started covering our fence

6-19-17  Landlord school and car shopping:

The main reason why we came back at this time was because Florissant now has a rule that if you're renting a house out, you must attend a class on being a landlord.  They also raised the annual landlord fee from $15 to $50.  So when we were back in St. Louis for our tax papers we checked on when we could do the class.  Turned out is was full up until June 19th, so we signed up for it.  We pretty much dreaded the class---8 hours long.  But it actully turned out to be really interesting and very informative.  They even provided Old Town Doughnuts for breakfast and Firehouse Subs for lunch.

 one of the 2 policemen running the show.

6-18-17  Castelli's Moonlight!!!!

One of our all time favorite restaurants.  And our order is always the same----half chicken, 2 house salads, and fries.  A bit far from our home in St. Louis, but well worth the trip!

6-17-17  back to St. Louis:  and Happy Birthday, Faith!!!

We thought about going to Knoxville on our way and celebrating Faith's birthday with them, but when we asked them what they had planned, they mentioned taking off work and going on hikes all weekend.  So we figured we'd see them in July when we come out to pet sit.  Plus they've been having visitors from St. Louis just about every weekend for a month and more to come, so figured they may be visited out.
So, we headed up to Chattanooga and on to I-24 and across Tennessee.  Love the mountains in Eastern Tennessee.

 and all the midwest farms. 

6-16-17  walk along Ivy creek greenway--east:

heading down to the trail from our apartment complex---

 a squirrel having a mushroom for lunch

 wild morning glories

 We've had a bit of rain lately and the waterfall at the mill is flowing!

 A detour from the trail shortly after it turns to a dirt path.

 why did the turtle cross the trail?

 water droplets on some leaves.

 It's always interesting to see what I'll find on the trial any given day.

6-10-17 Atlanta with the Hickes:

I'm so glad we get along with our kids' inlaws so well.  They really married into some great families!   Josh's folks were still in town and we all decided to go into the city for lunch and to a really nice old historical cemetary there (very botanical!).
It was after noon by the time we got downtown, so we decided to eat first.  Josh, his folks and Ken had never been to Mary Mac's, so we decided that's where we should go for some really great Southern food!  Unfortunately we weren't the only ones with that idea.  Our wait was over 30 minutes.  This was just a fraction of the people waiting.

 Don't know why it's called a Tea Room---they have a full menu, complete with fried chicken, turkey, pork chops, sausage, chicken and dumplings, even stuff like cube steaks!  You write your own order---pick an entree (I got fried chicken and it was really good!), then you choose 2 sides (I got black eyed peas in rice and home made applesauce---loved them, too). 

6-9-17  Josh's birthday

Dinner with the kids to celebrate Josh's birthday!  Hopefully next year they'll be celebrating it with their baby!

 Yep, that's my son-in-law!

6-8-17  our Golden Finch birdies and a picnic and sunset at West Bank on Lake Lanier.

The golden finches don't come to our feeder often, so when they do, I will run to get my camera.  This guy was up there with a House finch.

 another view of the gold finch.

5-29  through 6-6, 2017 walking along the nature trails by our apartment complex:

Been getting out on the trail more lately.  Been rather wet lately, so I didn't want to ride my bike.  Plus the trail is rather short for biking, anyway.  Nice for walking, though, since there are several trails that can be taken.  Usually I stay on the paved ones when I'm walking.
Going down the one trail leads to this large lookout with seats.

 Along the pavement are lots of little wild flowers

6-2-17  Atlanta Botanical Gardens-Curious Garden

  
Today Ken and I took Angie and Josh to the ATL airport.  They were escaping to S. Florida for a few days.  Lucky them---oh, yeah---we were just there, too!  Anyway, their flight was at 3:15, so we left Suwanee at 1pm.   Now that the highway is open again, it's faster to drive through the city then to bypass it on 285.  So that's what we did.

Sure wish people we heed this!!!!   Between all the anti-Trumpers and the international terrorist attacks that seem to be going on monthly now, people are crazy!

5-31-17 Old Federal Park sunset:

Time to get back to the lake and check out the water levels.  It is up quite a bit, but according to the news it's still down about 7'.  Pretty obvious with how the swimming area is still all beach.

 A bunch of these cute little guys were flitting around in the trees.