Combining Have Tos And Want Tos

Yesterday I had a couple of activities that took me to the South St. Louis area of the city. The temperature was decent, so I asked Hubby Tony if he wanted to come along with me and walk. He did. 

We both like finding new places to see, so I suggested to Tony that he do some research on what was around the area. He came back with a mainly residential street route that would also pass by a couple of parks. The area has a lot of mature trees, and their shade would make the walk even nicer.

As part of the adventure I promised Tony dinner from Imo's Pizza that, in honor of the nice weather, we would eat al fresco. Their "original" St. Louis-style pizza has a cracker-like crust, topped with Provel cheese (a combination of cheddar, Swiss, and provolone cheeses), and it's cut into squares.  I like having salad with pizza, but I think Provel is pretty rich, and the restaurant puts it on just about everything. We decided to supplement the pie with our own salad (a bagged butter lettuce blend) and Italian dressing. 

Our first stop was at Son Donald's house to drop off some things. He was in the middle of cutting his grass, so we said a quick hello to him and his dogs and continued on our way. By this time it was almost rush hour and the street traffic was stop and go. I picked a parking spot not too far from the location of the restaurant and we started walking. 

Twenty minutes later I saw a store I wanted to go into.  It was filled with Mid Century Modern furniture, art, kitchen items, collectables, and jewelry. I'm always amazed that things I grew up with are now considered vintage. This place even stretched the boundaries of MCM to include things like the Pyrex and Corningware casseroles I got for wedding presents (and still use).

We spent so much time in the store that when we left Tony rerouted us to a park. It's wide paths were lined with trees, bushes, and flowers. Eventually ran into a talkative man who told us how excited he was because he had just a deer in this park. Our conversation segued into a discussion of nature centers, green spaces, and astronomy. When we finished talking I decided to call in our dinner order so it would be ready when we got there. Along the walk back there I saw a picnic table that we decided would be a great place to come back with our food.

The person on the phone at the restaurant said my sausage and pepperoni pizza would be ready in twenty minutes. I ended up having to wait ten minutes longer than that and was really hungry by the time I received the order. We drove back to the park, carried the food to the table, and dug in. It was the best pizza/salad combination I've had in quite a while.