Back From St. Louis

So it rained most of the time we were there, and MY GOD did I forget how humid it is back east (yes, to me St. Louis is back east), but we had a fantastic time over the last weekend-plus. To begin with: it can now be revealed to the world that the clandestine reason for our visit was a surprise party for Melissa's parent's 25th wedding anniversary. This was pulled off to perfection by Melissa and her sisters Megan and Kelly through a clever ruse; Megan and Kelly had their parents thinking that they needed to distract Melissa while they supposedly arranged a surprise party for Melissa's birthday. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We flew out on Friday morning, but when you fly east from the west coast it always pretty much costs you a whole day. Although we left before 8 a.m. we didn't get to St. Louis until almost 4 p.m., thanks to an itinerary that brought us through Dallas and a two-hour time change. I was able to meet Melissa's parents Bob and Sue for the first time, as they had just returned themselves from an anniversary trip to Colorado--one of Bob's passions in life is his Harley, which he towed west so that he and Sue could do some riding in the southern Rockies.

After meeting the family, Melissa was eager to reconnect with high school and college friends, of which she seems to have several thousand. I was told most of their names but haven't a prayer of remembering most of them. They were universally eager to celebrate Melissa's birthday, so after a quick nap--I am getting old, after all--Melissa, Kelly (pictured here on the right), Melissa's many friends and I went down to Laclede's Landing. We spent most of the night at a piano bar called Big Bang. There I endured much mocking of my beloved Cubbies by the piano-playing leaders of St. Louis' amassed legions, who's Cardinals were at that time (as I was reminded repeatedly) 17 and 1/2 games up on the Cubs. My one consolation is that during the four days I was in St. Louis the Cubs and Cards happened to be playing a four-game series, of which my down-and-out Cubbies were able to take three. The Cubs actually lead the season series against the Cards 6-3; it's just a shame we're not any good against the rest of the National League.

Other than that, we had a terrific time. I figured I'd throw in one more picture of Melissa and her friends. A good looking bunch, huh? I just wish I could remember some of their names. I'm terrible, I know, but in my defense I must have met dozens of new people over the course of my four days in Missouri.

Saturday was the day Melissa's sisters were to set up for the surprise party, and so they had their parents believing that the best was to get Melissa out of the house all day was for the two of them to take the two of us to some of Missouri's famous wineries. What's that, you say? Missouri has no famous wineries? Well, okay that's true. But a moderately successful wine industry does exist in Missouri. You generally won't find the more famous European varieties; there's hardly any Merlot or Cabernet or Pinot Noir. But they do specialize in lesser-known local varieties like Chardonel (not to be confused with the much more well-known Chardonnay) and Cynthiana, some of which are surprisingly good.

By the time we got back, all of Melissa's extremely large family had come over for the surprise party, including her twenty cousins who range in age from 22 to 2 years old. Thinking that all the cars outside the house had come for Melissa's faux birthday party, Bob and Sue appeared to have been caught completely off guard and the whole thing went really well.

The next day Melissa and I went to my favorite old hangout in St. Louis (where my sister Maureen was recently surprised to find out I actually lived for about a year), Forest Park. For those who have never been there, I simply cannot express what a wonderful resource Forest Park is for the people of St. Louis. It's a massive urban park, larger than New York's Central Park, which holds the St. Louis Museum of Art, the History Museum, the St. Louis Zoo, The Science Center, and "The Muny", a huge outdoor amphitheater, plus many other cultural sites. The great thing about Forest Park is that absolutely everything in it is completely free. The picture at the right was taken in the St. Louis Zoo's Cypress Swamp exhibit. One fact that has to be noted is that during our visit to the zoo Melissa was actually able to overcome her lifelong fear of penguins (it's a long story) long enough to see the zoo's new penguin exhibit. I'm still hoping to get her in to see "March of the Penguins" sometime, but that might be pushing it.

All in all there was simply too much that took place this weekend for me to effectively cover in this posting, but let me also mention that between trips to The Limited (there were three such trips, the reasons for which are also too complicated to get into right now) we were able to squeeze in a visit to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, better known as the St. Louis Arch. The picture at the top doesn't do justice to what a really impressive structure it is. They say it is a very stable design that should stand for thousands of years, although that always seemed to me to be a pretty easy claim to make; if it falls over in a hundred years, it's not like you can sue the guy who claimed it would last so long.

Let me just conclude by saying that we had a great time, Melissa's family is wonderful, and despite the fact that the dastrardly Cardinals call it home, St. Louis is a pretty great place. This final picture of us is a propos of nothing, but I like it and since this is my blog I'm going to include it. If I look tired, it's because the shot was taken somewhere around midnight on the day we got in to town. I'm just looking at that shot again and damn if it doesn't look like I'm getting a double-chin back. Guess I'll have to cut back on the toasted ravioli.