Friday, August 12

When we left for the weekend I knew that my brother Larry had a massive heart attack.  He lives in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee with his daughter.  He had been sent home from the hospital to "die at home."  When I woke up that morning, a text on my phone  told me that he had died a little after five that morning.  It was a sad way to begin a morning.  Sad in that I would miss his physical presence but happy for him that he was no longer suffering and his spirit was in heaven.  My brother has the same eye disease as Hunter so he was seeing heaven with 20/20 eyes. Larry was 6 years older than me so by the time I was in the 7th grade, he was off to college and then marriage.  One thing I can always be thankful for (sarcasm here)  was that he shattered my belief in Santa Claus by showing me where mom and dad had hidden my presents.  What a Grinch!   He would be cremated and a memorial graveside service would be held at a later date so we continued on with the weekend.

We had planned to take the boys to a restaurant recommended by my sister and then to the City Museum in St. Louis.

The Alton Bridge we used to cross the Mighty Mississippi River into Missouri.

First stop was Fitz's Restaurant and Bottling Company on Delmar Street in University City (suburb of St. Louis).  It was a neat place.  Large windows at the end of the dining area allowed us to see into the bottling area.  We could see the bottles filled, labeled, and capped.  The boys and us too, enjoyed watching the process.   There specialty is root beer but creme sodas are bottled also.

Hunter ordered a Root Beer Float.  He couldn't believe the size of it but he managed to eat/drink every bit.

Keegan ordered his favorite chocolate milk and he drank it all!  You can see the windows where you can watch the bottling process in the back of us.

 Our lunch...Keegan: cheeseburger with smiley face fries; Hunter: Mac and cheese (his review was that they were the best he had ever eaten); Me:  Chili mac; and Carol BBQ pulled pork, slaw and fries.  A first happened at this restaurant:  Carol could NOT eat all of his food and had a take home box.  That never happens.  We love the community that the restaurant is in.  Carol and I would like to come back alone and walk the streets and explore the neat shops but we will save that for another trip.

Next stop was the City Museum.  It was a neat place in which we spend over four hours.  The Museum is hard to describe.  It is four floors of slides, tunnels, mazes, and dark places,  A wonderful place for exploring but a scary place for grandparents who are responsible for grandkids.  At one point we did not know where Hunter and Keegan were.  We sat down and hoped they would run by us.  Thank heavens for cell phones.  The boys could not find us either but an employee saw them and asked if there was an adult with them.  They said yes but they did not know where we were.  The employee told them to call on their phone which they did. We were very happy to receive that phone call!  This is the one picture I took.  The boys took turns sitting in "Old Sparky" a replica of an electric chair.  Strange but interesting to kids.

A ball pit the boys enjoyed.  Can you find both of the boys in the picture below?

I can't pass the Arch without taking a picture.

Keegan was so warn out that he fell asleep.

We made it back to camp in time for a heavy rain so we stayed in, had supper, played cards and tried to stay dry.  Water did come into the camper through the new air conditioner that had been installed.  Looks like we will have another trip to Pontiac RV for repairs!  This rain is supposed to cool things down,  We look forward to that!