Feeling Away
We spent a bit of the weekend in St. Louis. Because we're not going on a full fledged summer vacation (no Maine this year, sniff, sniff) we let each boy pick a weekend. Owen picked St. Louis because he wanted to go back to the City Museum and Leo has chosen Green Bay, as it is the repository of one of the last 8 surviving Union Pacific Big Boys. The bonus for Leo is that St. Louis has one too. One summer...two Big Boys....whew!
Here is the LAST time the boys saw the Big Boy at the St. Louis Museum of Transportation:
and THIS time:
We also enjoyed wonderful doughnuts, and as we ate them outside, we chatted to a woman who has worked there 37 years. Nice.
I couldn't resist the USA doughnut.
Other than the Museum of Transportation the Doughnut Drive-In, there were walks to the Arch, a walk over to my favorite building, the Wainwright, the City Museum, a couple of lousy but still enjoyable dinners. For my souvenir we stopped at Salume Beddu and bought a few salumi....looking forward to trying them!!!
It felt good to just be away and feel as though we were away, away from home. My favorite part of the trip, apart from the USA doughnut, might have been just driving and seeing the fields on either side of us in full summer colors. We took US 40 back for part of the ride home. I loved seeing the wild orange daylilies and the blue flowered chicory in the ditches as we drove past, and the little towns, some all closed up, some bustling. I did get us lost at one point which required some back tracking but I thought it was delightful and a great opportunity to explain the glories of the National Road to the boys. Leo was not impressed but he did seem amused by me so that was nice. Owen seemed somewhat interested once he took his headphones off but he may have just been sucking up. I love roads so much.
All I have are a few lousy phone pictures I'm afraid. Oh, and note the last one....a crack in our pretty new car's window. Damn it.