Get Your Kicks on Route 66, Missouri

While I don't make a habit of looking down when I walk...look what you can see if you actually look around when walking.  It was raining the day we spent time walking the historic area of Maplewood Missouri, so pictures were a quick snap and move on.  I didn't even take time to read the plaques that day.  But, found several that were very interesting.  The signs says 66 Park in Theater (drive in).  Young folks may have to look that up.  lol  This was locaetd at 9438 Watson Road.  It was built in 1947 by Flexer and after one year taken over by Wehrenberg who operated it til it's closing.

This was located on historic route 66.  I get my kicks on Route 66...something else young folks might need to look up.  We old folk well remember the song and the tv show.  This open air theater advertised "cool breezes" long before air conditioning came about.  There was a playground up front for kids, pony rides, ferris wheels even throughout it's history.    Teens called it the passion pit.  It held 800 cars and had 4 concession stands.  The picture was taken by Chuck1231 and uploaded to Cinema Treasurers(along with 2,551 others). 

Drive In's popularity lessened with more available on tv, with folks going to the movies and having air conditioning.  66 Park in Theater closed after the 1993 season, and was demolished March 19th, 1994.  Though I also found information that said it was razed in 1996.  It made room for a grocery store, National and after that a Schnucks.  Now there's a shopping center there and all that remains is memories of historic route 66, drive in movies are a thing of the past.

Hope you'll take time to listen, Nat King Cole Singing Get your kicks on Route 66

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Historic Maplewood's Saratoga's Bowling Lanes in Missouri

St. Louis Missouri is a most unique city with many different sections and very different neighborhoods.  There are in fact, 79 different neighborhoods listed on official records.  One area is Maplewood.  The historic area of Maplewood is fun and interesting place to spend a day.  There many shops, cafe's and area's of interest.  We did not see a shopping mall, but cute, unique and old school shops as well as newly formed shops to visit.

Walking down the main street you see these historic markers for landmarks along the way.  Notice the sidewalk isn't plain ordinary concrete.  Saratoga Lanes is the oldest bowling alley of it's kind west of The Mississippi River.  It's been in existence since 1916.  This small, 8 lane upstairs bowling alley is truly old school.  There are pencils and paper to keep your score, not electronic flashing screens posted on the walls.  It's located at 2725 Sutton Blvd, Maplewood Missouri 63143.  It's often rented out for corporate and birthday parties.  It has been designated a National Registered Historic Place.

You can bring your own food, or have your event catered; as food isn't served...though snacks are available in vending machines.  You do need to purchase beverages there.  It is highly suggested you book your event or your game well in advance, as it's quite popular and books up early.  In addition to bowling you can shoot pool.

Reviews I read indicate it's quite smokey there, but I wonder if that was before St. Louis got up with the rest of country with smoking bans in public spaces.

I'm sorry we didn't go in, and actual see the place; but it was raining and I very quickly took this photo with the thought I'd look at it later, so didn't actually even read it between the rain drops.  There will be other trips though, so may re-visit this site.


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Cafe Osage in St. Louis

 Doesn't this plate make you want to pick up a fork?  Mixed grain pancakes with bananas foster type compote.  It was absolutely yummy.  Darling Daughter and I had a fantastic brunch at Cafe Osage in the Central West End in St. Louis. 

 Now that most interesting thing is...when you first walk in, you're in a nursery.  See seeds!

 A nice gift shop, both of garden and non garden related items.  During warm months you can dine outside on their patio among the beautiful plantings.

 Shop before or after you dine, there's plenty to pick from.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner is served. I highly recommend Cafe Osage and hope to return.

Brunch at SqWires in St. Louis

 I love a good Bloody Mary.  This was a very good one.  Actually it's a Bloody Mary Bar.  You get a carafe of Bloody Mary already mixed with Vodka, and add whatever your heart desires.  They had lemon, lime, celery, horseradish, pickles, olives, blue cheese squares, hot peppers, and more.  I went with banana peppers, pickles, olives, and celery and horseradish in mine.  It was yummy.  I refilled several times and still had mix left in my carafe.  You'll see the carafe further down in pictures.

 My Darling Daughter is partial to Mimosa's, which is also an option as they have a Mimosa Bar  with lots of choices of fruit and goodies to add to your drink.

 

 The environment is very comfortable.  Check out the piano player under all the neat antique radios.  They have entertainment for Happy Hours on both Friday and Sat nights, as well as Sunday morning brunch.  Brunch starts at 10 am.

 

 Decorations are interesting, flowers, and unusual arrangements like this one in the window by our table with pussy willows and purple thistles.  Notice my carafe of Bloddy Mary's?  Our table was a bit crowded so I placed it on the window ledge.

 

To give you an idea what it looks like, look up...see pulleys and coils?   Okay, so you're probably wondering where I am, what this place was.  This is SqWires located in historic Lafayette Square in St. Louis.  1415 South 18th Street, St. Louis, Missouri  63104.  Lafayette Square is a short 3 minute cab ride from downtown St. Louis and is the oldest Historic District in St. Louis.  400 Victorian homes have been restored in this area.  There's a 30 acres park, Lafayette Square Park which is the oldest park west of The Mississippi!  Impressive and very interesting area.  SqWires has outside eating during warm weather and a banquet area.  They have an extensive wine list (50) along with an impressive choice of beers.  The restaurant serves local fare and won The Open Table Diner Choice Award in 2012.

 Brunch was fabulous.  I had beef brisket hash with eggs and would most definitely order that again.  The menu is varied offering something for everyone.

 

My Darling Daughter had an egg sandwich with fresh goodies oozing out.  She would also re-order this item.

I mentioned coils and pulley's above...historically this building was part of a wire factory that encompassed the whole block.  The area now has 80 businesses and residential lofts.  

I highly recommend having brunch here, and exploring the area.  In June and December there is a tour of homes which I would love to do, if I happened to be in St. Louis then.

**This awesome brunch with my Darling Daughter was only part of our wonderful "Girls Wkend"

HandleBar in The Grove St. Louis

There's a story behind the animal prints and me climbing up on this rather large bike sculpture, (HERE), but for now let me tell you about Handle Bar.

The bike sculpture is outside the bar, and once inside you understand why.  Bikes also hang from the walls and ceiling,

It's a friendly, neighborhood establishment located in The Grove in St. Louis on Manchester Avenue (4127)

Where it's not uncommon to see people really relaxing, playing games or cards.

Born in Moscow, Tatyana immigrated in 1999.  She was homesick for her native land, but soon fell in love with the city of St. Louis and moved there in 2005.  She rode her bike through all the parks, The Riverfront, and interesting neighborhoods St. Louis has to offer and realized she could truly commute on her bike, not something possible in Moscow.  She was free to pick a destination, hop on her bike and just pedal.  She opened HandleBar in 2010 at the Old ChurchKey Bar5 location to share her interest in healthy food with a bit of a Russian influence (unusual for bars), local beers, local artists, and bikes.  Bikes as art, bikes to sell, bikes to ride. 

The Grove..seems to be a newly named neighborhood area in St. Louis.  Manchester Road, parts there off are part of Historic Route 66.  St. Alopysius Church was vacant for years, demolished and some of the brick and other items were used in the building/rehab of ChurchKey, now HandleBar.

**I'm reminded of a saying, Get your kicks on Route 66.......and you still can.

Stop in, enjoy a brew, play a game and enjoy!

Street Art in St. Louis Missouri

These words popped immediately into my head when I saw this street art out the car window in St. Louis. I almost always have my camera in my purse when traveling. You just never know when you'll see something of interest. Take time, look around when you travel. Travel is more then your final destination.

If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening
All over this land
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters All over this land

This words come from the song "The Hammer", written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays back in 1949.
The song was written in support of The progressive movement and song by Pete and Party on June 3,.
1949 in New York at a testimonial dinner for leaders of The Communist Party who were on trail here.
The progressive movement wanted change in tenement housing, change in child labor laws, and improved
working conditions for women.  Art in many forms speaks.  The purpose of these words was probably
forgotten by August of 1962 when the song,  hit the top ten song by Peter, Paul and Mary.

Demo Man is a 20 foot statue made from "stuff laying around". Don Bellon of Bellon Wrecking and Salvage Company had a small statue on his desk, a gift from his wife titled, "The Wrecker". He liked this little statue and wanted a larger version of it. When outdoor art became popular this was made and placed on Vandeventer at Highway 40 across the street from his business. It's visible from Highway 40.

Perhaps next trip, I'll be able to get a picture without the electrical box blocking part of it by parking the car.

Look around when you travel, you'll be amazed what you see, and what you can learn.

**Just deleted 67 comments in my spam folder that were nicely caught by the blogger spam filter, and reviewed 9 comments half of which were good to post, the other half I marked spam. The filter works great folks. PLEASE get rid of your captcha it takes time, it's annoying, it's hard to read, and it's unnecessary. It makes people not want to leave comments**

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.

Turtle Park, St. Louis, Missouri (Dogtown-Forest Park)

Remember to click to see pictures larger
Exit 34A, Skinker and Clayton Roads is the spot. The walk bridge you see is at the intersection of Tamm and Oakland Avenue's in St. Louis, Missouri. Some will argue this is Dogtown, some will say it's the far southern end of Forest Park. At the very least it is were the two neighbors join and come together.
Cute little turtles lining the walking paths make a good place for children to sit.
And who could resist climbing on such a large repile? Seriously, there are children of all ages here. Climbing, walking, photographing.
Funny the small children didn't seem to be afraid of this large creature with it's mouth opened. These fantastic cement sculptures are the work of a local artist, Robert Cassilly on land donated by Mrs. Sonya (Sunny) Glassberg.
And yes, the park is in-fact named Turtle Playground. In August of 1996 it was officially opened. There's parking on the street and plenty of place for bikers, walkers and those with strollers on a sunny afternoon. You could try your hand at identifying a Snapping Turtle, Soft-Shelled Turtle, Mississippi Map, Box Turtles or a Stink Pot as they all reside here in cement form. There's even a long snake which makes a place to sit, or climb along side the walkway.

With the covered walkway over the freeway there's easy access to the park. Though I must admit this is the first time we've actually visited the park; we've seen the large turtles from the freeway many many times in our travels there. Take time, get off the freeway and enjoy it; it's well worth the effort.

The park is open daily til 10 pm and is free!

Travel Tips to Eat Well and Save Money

Coupons! Seriously, who looks for coupons when they're traveling? I do and look what I found. Lo Russo's a favorite Italian Restaurant in St. Louis. We're traveling out to St. Louis this weekend to see a play our daughter's directing. Doing a search for the restaurant in order to get the address to plug in my GPS and found this very pleasant surprise of a dinner coupon. It's been several years since we've eaten there and are really looking forward to it. Our daughter spent the last 2 years in Baltimore and so we hadn't been back to St. Louis.

So here's my travel tip for you, check your computer before you go and see what's available by way of specials and discounts. Always click on deals for this hotel to see about a cheaper room rate. Always ask the front desk for dinner coupons (we've had some luck with this too), and plug the restaurant's name in your computer before you dine to see what specials are available.

Click on my Traveling Suitcase Badge in the sidebar for details about The Contest. You still have plenty of time to get your name entered.

Budweiser Brewery, St. Louis, Missouri

We toured The Budweiser Brewery when we traveled to St. Louis. It was still an American owned, family owned company at the time. Sad to know after all the traditional things we saw it no longer fits that category. The plant is spotless, the guided tours are interesting and educational. I particularly enjoyed the historic buildings, and pictures of the original family members.

The building that served as the school for family and workers is still in use, occupied as office space now.

This is a good tourist item for a rainy day and general travel throughout St. Louis.

At the end of the tour you do have options of tasting. I'm not a beer drinker; but my husband and daughter enjoyed that part. I'm a wine drinker. Didn't want to give the wrong idea here. There's pop for the kids too, so no one is left out.