St. Louis, Missouri

The beginning of day 1 of "Girls Time" in St. Louis. My daughter picked me up at the airport we headed to Cafe'Ventana for brunch. A fabulous New Orleans style cafe with beignets (pronounced ben-YAY), Paninis, Souffles's and live jazz on the weekend. I had an early morning flight so was starved. First let me say St. Louis is one of my favorite cities, so much to see and do; and The FOOD!

It's located on West Pine Blvd in a residential area. I think you see the apartments next door. It's quaint inside and out.

Fresh fruit attractively served and my fabulous Souffle's and Herbal Tea. It was excellent!

Looking the opposite direction on Pine you can see the entrance to St. Louis University. Look at the wonderful architecture. We ran a few errands, and checked in our hotel. They were good enough to let us check in early.

Lunch was G-R-E-A-T, just like Tony The Tiger would say. We each enjoyed a glass of wine, shared this Insalata Caprese salad and a gourmet pizza that I forgot to photograph. It was yummy. The Good Pie is definitely on my must return list. If you go in the evening, I would suggest calling for reservations. When we passed it later it was packed! The Good Pie is not your average pizza joint. It's located 3137 Olive.

Next up for us ladies, painting pottery! I've never painted pottery before; though my daughter is quite good at it. This was my piece before it was fired. I attempted to do some designs with stencils and decided it look like 3rd grade work; so I painted over it. Far too big a project to do for the first time. Now she tells me! We were there for hours! I've not seen how bad it looked after firing, as I've not been back to St. Louis. She has it. I'm told, it should be brighter and shinnier after the firing process. Believe I'll stick to my yarn and knit and crochet, I'm far better at it. (check out some of my work HERE
The inside of my daughters piece. These bowls will be used for salsa and chips. We painted pottery at The Painted Zebra in Kirkwood; though neither my daughter nor I would recommend this shop. Brushes are terrible (my daughter had the only good one, at least that's part of the excuse I used for my mediocre work), tables aren't clean and the pieces being picked up after firing are handled very casually. People walk in, pick them up saying there there's without matching any receipts up. We were both floored! Price to paint is reasonable, variety of items to paint is large, no puff paints are available, stencils aren't in any order. The shop seems very hap hazard. My daughter assured me this was not like other shops she had painted in before.
Wrapping up she adds her name to the bottom. Look at that detail she painted all around the outside rim of the bowl! I need to have her send pictures of our bowls to see what they look liked when she picked them up.

We had dinner outside at a local Italian eatery we've frequented many times LaGra. It's a Tapas style Italian with jazz on the weekends. Menu is variety and very reasonably priced. It was dark and we were seated on the patio; so sorry folks no pictures this time round. But I will no doubt be back there. It's located in Dogtown.

A full and long day we headed back to the hotel and crashed. Day two was more relaxed. Breakfast at the hotel (it's free and good), followed by a massage at Massage Envy in Brentwood. The massage was wonderful, and I highly recommend this particularly location. Friendly and helpful staff. We had a lite snack and relaxed a bit at the hotel before our FABULOUS FABULOUS dinner at Lorusso's, my favorite place to eat in St. Louis. It's in The Hill and never disappoints. We enjoyed the piano music as we have many previous times. Jim Becker a darling senior can play anything. The food, service and ambiance is unbeatable. (too dark for pictures, must see what I can do about that next trip).

I love St. Louis and I really love my special girl time with my daughter.

**Details of One Lovely Blog Award Here, will be adding a few more; so stay tuned.

Potty Stops when you Travel

Potty stops when you travel are a huge consideration. You might be traveling solo, or with family, or with pets. You might be traveling for fun, you might be traveling for business. It doesn't matter; you still need a potty stop. When and where can alter your time table, so as silly as it sounds; think about your potty stops.

Here's some basic potty stop rules:

1. You're not in your personal bathroom at home, wherever you are you are NOT alone. So, be quick, do your business, wash your hands and move on. Don't sit and chat on your cell phone, don't pull out a magazine or book.
2. 
   
3. Don't pass up a bathroom because you don't have to go right then. Use it when it exists, you may not have one at hand when you need it.
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5. If you're traveling with children and or pets, don't ask them if they have to go. A potty stop means everyone goes potty, so you don't have to stop multiple times. (particularly important when in a car and the next rest stop isn't for 100 miles, or when you've just boarded an airplane and people are trying to get settled and someone who passed by the opportunity earlier now wants to go potty.
6. 
   
7. If traveling by car do you space your potty stops to coincide with eating breaks or getting gas? If you do, that's far more time efficient then stopping separately for everything.
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9. When you go potty, ladies take your purses for security reasons. Men make sure you have your cell phone on you.

**note the numbers aren't working still, err, added spaces folks, sorry for the lousy format business
The potty featured here was one I spotted at the airport in Omaha where I did a quick stop, go potty, and change planes. First time I'd seen such a clean public potty and wanted to share with you all. My daughter tells me she's seen these design in a couple of airports. You wave your hand and the plastic bag covering moves, giving you a clean surface. How cool is that! Some facilities have those paper covers; which are typically empty and very annoying.

The most important potty stop rule (more for ladies then men), when you walk into the stall look to see if the toilet paper is empty BEFORE you get undone and sit/squat. Sometimes you have other stall choices, sometimes not. Check to see if there's paper towels. Sadly though, one can sometimes substitute paper towels, if the facility is out of toilet paper, it's also probably out of paper towels and or uses one of those air hand dryers. ALWAYS, carry tissues with you in your purse.

And remember to use a paper towel to open the door on your way, if you can. Any idea how many hundreds and thousands of people use these public facilities? More then we care to know, probably. Don't let your kids walk around in them barefoot.

Happy Traveling, Be safe, Be Healthy, Be Smart and think about your potty stops.
**Due to some technical difficulties yesterday's post was incomplete, click on it... The Lovely Blog Award.