St. Louis, Missouri
So I spent a few days in St. Louis, Missouri with a long-time friend and her family. During the week, I spent most of my time working, just as if I’d been at home, but on Saturday we ventured out. The weather was quite nice. I expected it to be cold and snowy, but when we went to the Botannical Gardens, it was warm enough that I elected to leave my coat in the car. The gardens were in their winter state, of course, but I could appreciate what they look like during the spring and summer. I would love to be there when the Scent garden - lilac, lavender, rosemary, lemon thyme, chocolate plant, sage, and other fragrant plants must be spectacular. We did go into the biosphere and see the tropical and temperate foliage. The afternoon at the basilica was nice, also. It was quite beautiful, very ornate. I loved the black marble and appreciated huge efforts that went into the over-height small-tiled mosaics.
The oddest things I saw were two signs. One was on the door of an upscale ice cream shop that said “Concealed Weapons Forbidden on These Premises”. The other was a billboard advertising a Bike Show that had across the top “Register Now to Win a Free Breast Augmentation”.
There was a great bookstore called The Left Bank where I would have bought a trunkload of books, had I not been traveling by plane and had to clear customs. But I have to admit that I was turned off by trying to get coffee mid-afternoon and finding that in The Loop, the places near the bookstore that served coffee were only serving in their bar areas, where people smoked indoors. How last century is that? But we did find a Starbucks, which is always reliable - in its product, in the cleanliness of its premises, and its no-smoking atmosphere.