Meet me in St. Louis

St. Louis was never a place I thought I'd be visiting often - until Jud and Kara moved there a few years ago. Even then, we thought the city might be a "passing phase". Now it seems they've settled in quite nicely. Kara travels and works from home. Jud is enjoying his new job at Purina, managing lines of pet food. They have lots of friends to hang out with. We're so proud of both of them. 

We hadn't really seen them since our family gathering in St. Louis for Thanksgiving. Sure, we glimpsed them briefly at ISU's fab bowl game in Memphis. But that was a few words in here and there, mostly on historic Beale Street. Not really the quality time one is hoping for with our kids, though celebrating that victory together was priceless! They seemed more excited about seeing the winning players instead of us on Saturday night.

So we scheduled this early March trip to STL - just after Paul's birthday. It worked out well. Mother Nature is trying to hang on - snow showers fell on the way there, and back. During our time in the Gateway City, the weather cooperated just fine.

Odie went along to see her "people" and to put up with the boys, Jud and Kara's dogs Henry and Archie. She didn't have to tune them up as much as usual - the boys are growing up and are past the puppy phase. I was tempted to purchase a pill organizer for her meds. She's now on 3 meds for her heart, but those seem to make a difference. 

We were all overjoyed to arrive at Jud and Kara's home on Friday night. Once we had the tour of all the updates they'd been working on at their 1920's home, we visited a Cajun/Cuban restaurant.

The next morning, we stopped at a kolache bakery right in Jud and Kara's neighborhood. We could choose from pastries filled with cream cheese, eggs, sausage, and fruit. Warm and tasty.

Later that morning we headed downtown to tour the Fabulous Fox Theatre. In Des Moines, we have a fine modern theater in the Civic Center and are fortunate that it pulls in awesome Tony Award winning musicals each year. That building cannot compare to the truly fabulous Fox Theatre, originally built in 1929 as a movie theater. When the building fell into disarray (damn you 1970's rock concerts), Fox Associates purchased and refurbished it - reopening in 1982.

Organ Player

Above the stage

The tour was historical. It included a short performance by the organ player - he and the organ slowly raised up out of the floor as he played dramatically. We traipsed through all areas of the large building. We got to see where the rich people sit and the dressing rooms with posters drawn on the walls everywhere - for Broadway shows and music groups. We stood on stage. The whole thing took over an hour, up and down stairs.  We heard about ghosts at the theater - one of the employees died on the job, running the movie machine.   

You can book this for your wedding for $25K

On stage

That night we celebrated Paul's birthday at a great place Kara and Jud discovered, Twisted Tree Steakhouse. The salad dressing was super and my filet was really good. Thanks to K&J for taking us out! Later we sat up and talked, sharing a nice bottle of red wine.

Have I mentioned how much I like adult children? It's fun to talk about work, tell them family stories and hear about their friends. Jud entertained us with stories from his new job at Purina. It seems they have culinary events at work. And no they don't taste the dog food.

Archie thinks Henry is his pillow

All too soon, it was Sunday morning and time to head home. It's hard to leave when we don't know when we'll see them again. Summer? I hope so. Both sets of our children have weddings here this summer. Yay. We also have a date in August in Washington for our nephew Alex's wedding. Some dates to look forward to.