Diverse Different Things

Some days it's difficult to find something noteworthy to post about. Other days there are an embarrassment of riches. Today was one of those. Hubby Tony and I spent an entire afternoon (and early evening) visiting places we had never been to before in a small section of the city.

The inspiration for the whole thing was a heat advisory warning, which made us concentrate on inside activities. Hubby Tony and I take Foster Cat Pimento to the vet, there are several interesting storefronts. One of them is the Miniature Museum of St. Louis. Then, a couple of months later I saw a story about the museum on the local PBS station and added it to my list of places to see. The museum is only open on the weekend, so a hot Saturday in June seemed like the perfect time.

The two-story storefront in the Bevo neighborhood had an incredible collection of dollhouses and buildings of all types. Each of the displays had a push button to light up the interior (which was very helpful to see the tiny details). For example, the tiny Monopoly board on the right hand side of the floor in this one was about an inch one each side!

I enjoyed looking at the displays, but I suspect that if ever I went back I would see a completely different set of details. There was that much!

After we left the museum we headed one neighborhood to the east to visit Dad's Cookie Company in Dutchtown, where they have been making cookies since the 1930s. We thought about getting some of their Original Scotch Oatmeal, but after the friendly clerk gave us samples of two different types we ended up with a half pound of peanut butter chocolate chip and a bag of imperfect (broken) toasted coconut. The old-fashioned store put our purchase in an old-fashioned paper sack marked with an old fashioned stamp that had the address and their obsolete letter-based phone number.

Not too far from the cookie store was St. Anthony of Padua parish, where we went to Mass. I love old, ornate churches and this one definitely fell into that category.

Before mass started the priest was walking from the sanctuary back to the narthex, greeting people as he went. He stopped and asked where we were from, and after the service he told us to drive home safely.

For dinner we ended up across the street from our original location at Das Bevo (originally called Bevo Mill). The building, along with it's windmill, was built in 1917 by the Busch brewing family as a rest stop between the brewery and their farm in the county.

Due to the weather the biergarten was closed, so we ate in the bierhall-a large room with paneled walls, beamed ceilings, and large chandeliers. Tony got a loaded wurst brat with sauerkraut and grilled onions that came with fries. I chose a German-ish Mushroom Spaetzle, and added crumbled bacon.

Even after a filling dinner there's always room for dessert. We weren't too far from the South Grand branch of Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard. I had never been to that location before, but now I can say I've crossed it off my list of places to visit. The menu was the same, and my Johnny Rabbit Concrete (with hard shell chocolate and maraschino cherries mixed into vanilla custard) was as good as it always is.

Five years ago today: Rockery