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.