baseball game

kat dave's girlfriend, dave (oldest son) becky (daughter). we were at the game because granddaughter brit was selling ticket for cheer leading camp. brit so the most tickets so she was going to throw out the first pitch of the game, but one of her fellow cheerleaders had just graduated from high school and brit decided to make her friend's senior year even more special and let the other girl throw out the first pitch. BRIT, you have alot of class. i don't have a photo of brit at the game, she was running around with all of her friends, but i am really proud of her.

old courthouse under repair and "the runner" this is the first time i've been to the "new" stadium. i grew up down the street from sportsmen's park the first stadium, the second one was built in downtown st louis and called busch stadium for the owners of the the anhauser busch brewery and torn down to build the newest stadium, so now i can say i've been to all of them. the above photo is the part of the stadium that is on street level and you can see some of the field.

the budweiser sign and the cardinals

view of the arch from ballpark plaza

fred bird and the t shirt girl, they shoot t shirts into the crowd from a big slingshot

albert pujols

new courthouse as dusk

view of arch and old courthouse

midsummer's night dream or shakespear in the park

the mid summer nights moon

st charles riverfront had a shakespear in the park event a few weeks ago. i only knew a little about "a mid summers' night dream" the above is a prince from a fairy tale they presented before the actual play

the play was done in the steampunk style--a sub genre of science fiction and speculative fiction frequently featuring elements of fantasy. HUH!!!! the term denotes a work set in a era or world where steam power is still being used. it is influenced by and often adopts the style of h g wells, jules verne, mark twain and mary shelley, ok this part i understand. the customers were not what i would have expected for shakespear, but that made the play more intriguing

here we have the lord of the underworld, woodland fairies, puck in the back and i can't remember to the character in the green is

don't know exactly who this guy was suppose to be. he did magic trick and just wandered around in the crowd. i really enjoyed the production and would go again

sunday in the park without george

statue of st louis, king louis IX of france was the original symbol of the city of st louis, the statue stands in front of the art museum on the top of art hill. it stood at the entrance to the 1904 world's fair. his sword has been stolen about 6 times in the past years.

entrance to the muny opera, a outdoor musical amphitheater located in forest park. actors and dancers at rehearsal

the theater seats 11,000 people with approximately 1500 free seats at a first come first serve basis. the season runs from mid june to mid august. this years shows are damn yankees, footloose, beauty and the beast, Titanic the musical (can't figure out how you can make a musical out of the tragedy) showboat, and the sound of music. (picture above from wikipedia) My first visit here was when i was 15 years old and saw "westside story"

st louis art museum also located in forest park (photo from wikipedia) the museum was build for the 1904 world's fair as the palace of fine arts designed by cass gilbert inspired by the baths of caracalla in rome

bridge by the muny

the gazebo in front of the muny opera. its used for weddings in the summer.

view from st louis statue looking down art hill to the grand basin. art hill is a very very popular place to go snow sledding in the winter and you better hope the lake is frozen, some times you can go thru the straw bales. my aunt took me here when i was 12 and i remember flying down the hill and praying i could get off the sled in time

grand hall in the art museum

my attempt at being creative with my photography

looking from the grand basin up to the art museum the art museum is free and on sunday we went on a guided tour. we toured with people from new york, florida keys and hong kong. they were all amazed there was no admission fee.

there is a charge for the opera, but most of the places in forest park are free

on a summer's eve or a mother's work is never done

cousin adventure quatre (four in french)

we visited Petit Lyon, a 16th century village in France

preston in the jail, declan wouldn't go in, but had no trouble at all locking his grandma in the jail, and he did with a BIG smile on his face!

the good guy is in yellow, the bad in blue; the boys related to batman and mr freeze for good and bad

story telling belly dancers, notice the boys rapt attention, including the big boy on the left

declan loved this turkey hen, got right in her face and talked to her. a future vet in the making?

horse back riding

and again

watching preston's memaw in a play

memaw was the evil knight

missouri history museum

last weekend i took myself to the Missouri history museum in forest park. I've never been there before and it is really interesting. the special exhibition is treasure from the Vatican. i unfortunately didn't bring enough money with me to see it, darn! the eagle keeps watch

this little corner shows a typical kitchen in the suburban city of St Ann Missouri which is where i grew up. i was so surprised to see my little town here. St Ann was built by the Vatterott company and most of the families were service men coming home from World War 2 and Korea. compared to the home today, St.Ann homes could fit inside on them with room to spare.

the museum also has a wing dedicated to the 1904 world fair held in St. Louis, where the ice cream cone and iced tea were first served. i can't image wearing all these clothes in the heat and humidity of a St Louis summer

i especially love this photo. the baby was born at the fair, her parents worked on the fairgrounds; her name is Louisiana Purchase O'Leary. the fair also was dedicated to the Louisiana purchase

another wing is all things related to Charles Lindbergh's flight across the ocean to Europe. this is his flight suit

the spark plugs, passport and oil taken from the spirit of St Louis

a duplicate of the spirit of St Louis, i believe the original is in the Smithsonian museum in Washington dc

up and away

this ballon flies over the neighborhood several times during the summer. The really get people outside