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Friday, May 07, 2004
1:42 PM

STL Day 2.5
Friday, April 30. We woke up bright and early and spent the early morning on the fabulous screened porch watching the colorful birds (see below) and waiting for everyone to get up. Then, once everyone was awake, we headed out to the Missouri Botanical Gardens. (Ok, so maybe we didn't actually wait for everyone to wake up. Dana, Laura and Chris perhaps had a little prodding. As in "If you don't get up, we are leaving without you." Worked like a charm - try it sometime.)

Given that the idea to take this trip was spurred by my crazy gardening obsession and desire to see the Garden's Spring bulb display, I was very excited to go. Unfortunately, I did miss most of the bulbs in bloom, but there were still plenty to see. For example:

and

Love the tulips. My favorite flower. Anyway . . .

Other than the bulbs, we pretty much saw every square inch of the Gardens. We saw the maze:

We spent a lot of time in the Japanese Garden, especially feeding the Koi and ducks:

Chris even managed to train the Koi to push themselves out of the water several inches to get the food. If only he could have taught them to then swim backwards, it would have rivaled the dolphin shows at Sea World. If dental school doesn't work out, maybe he can look forward to a long and prosperous career training fish. Wonder if they give you a pension for that?? (Sorry Lois, couldn't resist.)

The Japanese Garden seemed to be everyone's' favorite. It is the largest Japanese Garden in North America. Very zen. But I suspect that the calming and soothing aspects were somewhat lost on Mark who unfortunately spent a decent amount of time on his cell phone dealing with various work crises. Definitely not Feng Shui compliant.

All in all, I think we all very much enjoyed the gardens. At least everyone looked like the were having fun:

After making everyone cover every square inch of the gardens, we went to a late lunch at a Chinese restaurant that I think was actually called Wei Hong. But we referred to it affectionately as "Dead Duck Chinese" in light of the dead ducks hanging in the window. You can tell we were in desperate need of sustenance given our complete lack of nickname creativity. Somehow I still fail to see the allure of eating at a place with dead animals in the window, but I must admit that the food was great. My favorite was the Chow Fun recommended by Lois (again, Lois proves her brilliance). But it had to be good. It was Fun!

After all the walking and eating we were again - wait for it - tired. So back we went to the screened porch to lounge around. Lois, Chris and I then made a quick shopping trip to the beloved Aldi's and Marshalls. I even managed to buy a couple of things. I think Aldi's may be growing on me. Where else can you get 2 packs of hot dog buns, 2 boxes of brownie mix, an avocado, a bag of bagels, and a bunch of boxes of Kraft mac & cheese for the grand total of $8.18 (and I think I may be forgetting something). Truly amazing.

That's all I have time to add today. But that should give you enough to tantalize and keep you coming back for more!

Coming up - the extremely cold trip to Grant's Farm. Thank God they give out free alcohol!

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