This blog begins with the last day of July. Mona and Ed, our next door neighbors - the ones who own the house but don't actually live there but are slowly renovating it - took us on a four hour tour of Saint Louis that afternoon. Ed grew up in East Saint Louis and he knows a LOT of the history of the area. We began the tour at the Compton Hill Water Tower that was built in the late 19th century on the highest point of ground as part of the city water system. It stands in a beautifully preserved park with a small lake and lots of sunflowers.
We then drove around downtown to Laclede's Landing and Soulard and Lafayette Park to view the various architectural styles that dominated during specific time periods in the city's history. We parked and actually went in to Union Station and learned that, at one point, it was the busiest train station in the United States because Saint Louis had one of the only bridges spanning the Mississippi River that could hold the weight of a train. The station was built by a very superstitious man who incorporated the number seven into much of the building: seven windows, seven arches, seven everywhere! When train travel became less popular, the station fell into disrepair but thankfully, it was lovingly restored in the eighties. At that time, it became an indoor mall with a fancy hotel. The mall is now gone but the hotel remains and an aquarium and a ferris wheel have taken the place of the shops. It is a gorgeous structure with a lovely fountain in front across the street. The three women in the stained glass window represent California, New York and the one in the middle is Saint Louis. It was so interesting to learn little known facts about the city we live in. For example, because of the brewery, Anhauser Busch, Saint Louis has some of the best drinking water around. Also, because of a terrible fire in 1849 that burned the city to the ground, the rebuild was required to be in brick which explains why we are a city of red brick. It was a lovely time spent with Beckie, Ed and Mona.
Interestingly, the very next evening found Steve, Beckie, and me on another history tour of sorts. Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum is over 170 years old, it is located in the north part of the city, and they were giving tours called "Sunset Strolls" throughout the month of July. I had heard of this cemetery and how beautiful it was and so I signed us up. It WAS beautiful but is was also HOT and we had to walk and be on our feet the entire two hours so, by the end, I was wondering if it was such a good idea to do something like this in the peak of Missouri summer. We saw different sections of the cemetery (like a Chinese sector) and learned about tombstone iconography. We saw assorted famous people's headstones (see Vincent Price's), and the tour guide told us that some Mormon pioneers were buried there after they left Nauvoo - only he pronounced like noveau (new-vo) when "James" Smith was murdered (Joseph) and that his likeness is on the tops of the temples. Hmmmm. For someone who knows a lot about cemeteries, he sure didn't know much about our church. Before our tour, Beckie treated us to dinner at a new Hawaiian restaurant that served very authentic Hawaiian food and she treated us to ice cream at Clementine's afterwards. Thanks, Beckie!!!
After Monday, we had a fairly uneventful week. The garden is producing and I even picked three ears of corn that had not been sullied by the stupid squirrels.
Steve finished his project of hanging outdoor lights around our deck. They are so nice and they bring up a bit of nostalgia. When I was a girl in El Paso, my dad hung outdoor lights from the house to the back fence and during the summer months, Juli and I and Jamie Kaye and other neighborhood friends would play in the back yard - going barefoot on the sticker-free grass (no one else on our block had sticker free lawns!). We'd play freeze tag and red rover into the night.
We rode bikes a couple of times in the evening and spotted a white bird of some kind on the lake in Carondelet Park.
Elise came into town on Friday so she and Steve could attend the Cardinals vs Yankees game. They had planned to take the MetroLink to the game but our historic flooding a week prior had damaged some of the stations so I ended up driving them to the game (it is about a 15 minute trip one way) and picking them back up at the end (Cardinals won!) In between time, I watched the new "Persuasion" on Netflix and thought it was a fun take on the book. Saturday, Steve and I had the baptistry and then we drove to Emily's for piano lessons. Elise also went to the temple that afternoon. In the evening we watched the 1939 version of "Beau Geste". For some reason, Steve had mentioned the movie in relation to Snoopy and Woodstock in French foreign legion attire marching to Fort Zinderneuf so I thought we should watch it. I found it at the public library and checked it out. It was a surprisingly well crafted movie and we all enjoyed it.
On Sunday, I was sustained as a Primary teacher and I got to teach the lesson right away. It was the same class that I had substituted in the week before so I kind of knew who the kids were (8 year olds - total of four students) My co-teacher had to leave for Tennessee unexpectedly this week so I asked Elise to be my co-teacher and we taught about Job! We only had two kids but one was equal to about five! Very smart but very wiggly and talkative!
Beckie and the Southerlands came over for dinner that evening. I cooked corn on the cob, Steve made baked beans and grilled pork steaks, Beckie grilled veggies, Emily brought a fruit salad and vanilla ice cream to go with the chocolate zucchini cake I baked. Good eating!
