meet me in...

 Todd and I recently went away for a long weekend...

...to St. Louis!  Because I knew we were in for hot weather and lots of walking, I opted not to bring my good camera and had to rely solely on my terrible cell phone camera.  The pros outweighed the cons, though.

First, to Tower Grove, considered the largest 19th century "Gardenesque" park in the United States.  It was gorgeous, full of shady paths, lakes, and flowers.  I am a sucker for water lilies and lotuses.  It's always blooming around our anniversary and that makes them extra special.  

Keeping with the theme, we headed to the Botanical Garden next.  It was the Tower Grove Park, expanded!  So much to see.  

The next day, we hit up the Science Center and Planetarium...

...and headed over to the Anheuser-Busche factory for a long tour.  I'm not a beer person, but the factory was amazing!  The complex covered over 140 acres...beautiful brick buildings...

...the assembly lines, the Clydesdale stables, and the brewing area.  These tanks were massive...25 feet tall and wide, and over 60 feet long...and there are dozens and dozens of them!  

We had to squeeze in the zoo...of course.

We walked miles, ate tons, and enjoyed ourselves greatly!  It's only a 3.5 hour drive and I have a huge list of things that we didn't get to see.  I think we'll be going back again.

Have a great week!  

snakes and chatter (ers)

 Time is marching on!

It's been a busy week.  A "Beatles" concert by the Fab Four:

For me, seeing a tribute band is the same basic experience as seeing the real band in concert...and this definitely feels like a positive thing.  In the same vein, seeing an animal at the zoo feels no different than watching that same animal in a nature documentary.  When we went to the Indianapolis Zoo earlier this week, it was nice to see animals (in the same way that a nature documentary is interesting), but I was mostly captivated by the shapes and textures that I saw.

The perfect curve of a warthog tusk.

The shifting and saturated colors of the flamingoes.

The arresting regularity of snakeskin patterning.

Spikes...

Triangles...

Stripes...

Hexagons.

The really pleasurable exhibit was the lorikeet enclosure.  They're friendly, as you can see a typical greeting here:

To more easily reach their favorite foods (fruit, nectar, and pollen), lorikeets have a long tongue that terminates in something like a miniature toothbrush head.  I got a good cleaning!

They're noisy ("The loudest rainbow you'll ever hear!") and social.  Super fun!

Back at home, late season flowers...

...blue skies...

...and lazy kittens.

Not too shabby for late August.

Have a great week!