June 14 - United States: St Louis, Missouri

Last night, we spent the night at my Aunt Chris and Uncle Walter's beautiful house.  Their guest room has a king-sized bed, which is SUCH a treat.  If you'll recall, we've been sleeping in twin and double beds for most of the trip.  So anyway, I woke up at one point in the middle of the night and felt completely disoriented because I couldn't immediately find Jon.  It took me a few seconds, but I soon realized it was because he was waaaaaaay over on the other side of the massive bed!  Whew.

Run Along Deserted Road

We got dressed for our run and went outside.  Uncle Walter had taken a rare vacation day and was working on his yard and flowers.  He told us about an old road that runs next to a nearby elementary school and goes on for quite a few miles.  He said that it's been closed off for years and would be a great place to run.  So we took off for the deserted road and ran down it.  It was a very gradual slope down and along a small stream.  The road was so old that most of it was completely crumbling in places.  In others, there were trees and branches laying across the way.  And in still others, the road was barely discernable.  So our run turned out to be a bit of an obstacle course.  But it made the whole trip very interesting!

Taking Care of Business....

Jon spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon washing and waxing the car, which definitely looks like it's been driven across country.  Unfortunately, there are some new chips in the paint on the hood where rocks have flown off trucks and hit the car.  But that's the price we have to pay, and Jon thinks that if we plan to keep the car in NYC then we should get it repainted.

I spent the morning and afternoon putzing around Aunt Chris' glorious kitchen.  We're going to my Aunt Ann and Uncle Roy's lakehouse tomorrow, and I've been tasked with bringing a potato dish.  (Actually, I'm supposed to bring vegetables, but Jon is insisting that I make the garlic mashed potatoes because they ARE vegetables.)  So I spent  the morning chopping garlic and potatoes and grating cheese.  Not long after I'd started, I found my way to Aunt Chris' Pampered Chef drawer.  And I have no idea how I've survived so long without the Pampered Chef.  There's a cheese grater that I MUST have, not to mention the slicer (Uncle Walter's favorite item) and a few other items.  All in all, the Pampered Chef and Aunt Chris' fully stocked kitchen made the whole cooking process a wholly enjoyable experience.  Our kitchen in NY is the size of a closet, so I have neither the room nor the gadgets to enjoy cooking.  But this... this is heaven.

I loved it so much that I made lunch for "the boys".  Nothing terribly complex, just hot ham and cheese sandwiches.  But it prolonged my kitchen experience.

Nana

After Jon had showered up, we left at 1:30 to go see my Nana - my mother's mother.  We had seen her last night at dinner, but hadn't had a lot of time to talk to just her.  So we took a few hours today and went out to her Assisted Living home.

We got a bit lost on the way out there because we were looking for 6033 Laclede Station Road.  Soon we realized we were going the wrong way and called Nana, only to learn that the address was 1633.  So we made our way back, but first stopped at a grocery store for flowers.  All in all, we were 45 minutes late but I don't think Nana cared at all.

Nana and Heidi

We spent the next few hours sitting around and talking and sharing stories.  Nana sometimes has a hard time recalling recent conversations, so we had a few repeats while we were there but Jon and I didn't mind.  Jon - bless his heart - sat there for hours with us despite the fact that he was probably bored nutty.  We showed Nana the Mel and Ken China slide show, which she seemed to enjoy very much.  Jon and I will have to make one of these for our own trip.  After a few hours, we kissed Nana goodbye and she walked us to the door.

Dinner with Marci and Jeff

We met my cousin Marci (daughter of Chris and Walter and sister of Bridget) and her new guy Jeff, at a bar called OB Clark's for dinner.  Marci is almost 21 and a riot.  She said she had 150 questions for us about the trip, but could only think of three to ask us.  Jon told her he was disappointed because he'd been practicing his answers all day... "Yes... No... Maybe... Sometimes...".  We had a good time hanging out and eating chicken fingers together.

Busch Stadium - Cardinals vs. KC Royals

We followed Marci and Jeff to Busch Stadium where the Cardinals play.  Uncle Walter had pulled some strings and secured two tickets to this evening's game.  Marci gave us the tickets and said she and Jeff would buy some tickets for the bleacher seats.  We were floored that she would do this for us, especially because today was Jeff's birthday!  But they didn't seem to care and told us to have a good time.

Jeff, Heidi, and Marci at Busch Stadium

Our seats were absolutely incredible!!!  They were "dugout" seats, about 30 feet to the right of the the Cardinal's dugout and three rows back.

Our View of Busch Stadium

I told Jon that I could become a serious Cardinals fans for these seats alone!  We had such a great time at the game.  The fans were terrific and nutty and zealous and wonderful.  The Cardinals won (of course) and that made the game even better.  The Cardinals' pitcher, Morris, went eight innings and threw a two-hitter, so of course the fans went crazy.  Baseball is such a terrific way to spend an evening!  

A Blurry Picture, Courtesy of the Man Behind Us (too many beers perhaps?)

We didn't see Marci and Jeff at all until after the game was over and we went to the parking garage.  They were getting back to their car as well so we shared stories and teased them about their parking place (which Marci decided was the worse spot in the garage) before getting in the car and leaving.