12-22-17  MOBOT toy train exhibit with Karen:

Another thing I never did until we moved---go on photo excursions with volleyball friend Karen.  She took up photography shortly before we moved.  When we lived in St. Louis, we just didn't see our friends nearly as much as we do now.  Took us moving to get us to see people!

Anyway, one of our favorite places to go to is MOBOT (Missouri Botanical Gardens).  She did an apprenticeship there and has pretty much the run of the place so I know she likes to go there.  So when I found I had the afternoon free, I sent her a message to see if she wanted to join me.  She did and we had a great visit.

Another cold dreary day in St. Louis---perfect time to head to MOBOT's indoor Winter train exhibit.

 The train exhibit room.  Every year they have some sort of theme.  This here it was Mexico.

 one of the trains

 looks like this horse got ran over by a raindeer!

 love the horses

 lots of colorful flowers in the exhibit, too.

 lots of different kinds of poinsettias, too.

 love the watermellons

 Doesn't look like a Mexican house to me!

 more colorful leafy plants

 There were even moving farmers

 This reminds me of Mexico.

 Love the poinsettia Christmas tree.

 hibiscus---always reminds me of Hawaii.

 more colorful poinsettias

 admiring visitors

 cute little restaurant

 Neat planter

 Love this plant

 a Mexican pixie?

 This reminds me of my school in Oregon where I went to part of 1st grade and all of 2nd and 3rd grade.  We had a bell tower and a patio and 3 grades in a 2 room school.

 Love the barn quilt on the model barn

 so much so that it gets 2 pictures.

 there were even young admirers here.

 more colorful flowers

 another colorful poinsettia

 The room really isn't too big, so we were done in an hour or so.  So we went up to the little cafe and had a soda and soup and visited for another hour or so.  On our way to the cafe, we passed a wreathe exhibit.  I thought this one was particularly cute.

 and this simple one.

 Had to cut our visit shorter then our usual 5 hours so I could get back home for our dinner date with our neighbors.  We went to Masa's Italian Restaurant---another place we didn't go to regularly when we lived there, but do now whenever we return for a visit.  Wish I could move our friends and restaurants with us---to someplace a lot warmer and with beaches!