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St. John's Cemetery, Fort Mitchell, KY

I arrived in town on Friday after stopping in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky to drive through a cemetery where my great-great grandmother is buried so that I could take pictures. Then one of the things that I absolutely must do in Cincinnati is eat Skyline Chili, and the cousins I was staying with were kind enough to oblige me and we ate there Friday night.  

Findlay Market, Cincinnati, Ohio

Street vendors at Findlay Market

Me with the birthday girl

This one month old was the youngest guest at the party

Sunday morning my cousins had made reservations for us to have brunch with the birthday girl at Palm Court ind downtown Cincinnati. Since I would be leaving for home from there, Gina and I drove separately and had enough time to photograph some of the pigs gracing the city. Part of the Cincinnati Big Pig Gig 2000, these pigs represent a small portion of the 425 decorated fiberglass pigs that were placed around Cincinnati and northern Kentucky that year. The pigs were later sold, raising $800,000 for local charities. Because Cincinnati hosted the World Choir Games this summer, 20 of the pigs were wee-located (sorry, couldn't resist) downtown. Wish I would have had more time to find them all. 

Three Little Pigs?

Sowwy Night

Pigtrepreneur

The Swine Arts

Chinese Tiger Pig

Amtrak at Kirkwood Train Station

Saturday morning at 7:45 a.m. we boarded the Amtrak train at the Kirkwood Station headed for Kansas City. My sister-in-law JoEllen was throwing herself a 50th birthday party at the Hotel Savoy, so we decided to take the train instead of drive. First of all, we just had the big drive up to Minneapolis last weekend and I am driving to Cincinnati for my aunt's 90th birthday party this weekend so I was not eager to do more driving. Second, it was only $116 round trip for the two of us to ride the train. It would cost me more than that to gas up my car. Third, it takes five hours to make the train trip, not much more than driving a car. So it seemed like a no-brainer, especially considering that we didn't need a car in Kansas City.

The trip over was great. There were nice people in our car, which was good since you don't get to pick which car to sit in. We left Kirkwood right on time and actually arrived at Union Station about 10 minutes early. The only snafu was that we did not see any cabs outside the terminal, which is beautiful by the way. We ended up walking on an enclosed skywalk over to the Westin Hotel to catch a cab. When we came out the front door of the hotel I asked the door man to hail us a cab. As it approached, he asked me where we were going. I told him the Hotel Savoy. Boy did I get a dirty look! I guess I never thought how it would look to ask one hotel employee to get me a ride to one of their competitors. I told him that we didn't have a choice of hotels - that is where the party was taking place. He said, "I like parties!" I told him to come on over when he was done as we were taking over the whole hotel.

Hotel Savoy Kansas City, MO

When we got to the Hotel Savoy the lady at the front desk greeted us by saying, "You don't want to check into your room, do you?" I don't know - we just came in the front door with our luggage in tow, what do you think??? I explained that we had just gotten in on the train and came directly to the hotel. I guess it was about 1:45 by this time. She checked her records, stated that we must be living under a lucky star, and handed us a key to a room on the 5th floor.

I should point out that this hotel was built in 1888 and is believed to be the longest continuously operated hotel west of the Mississippi. The current owner is only the third owner of the property. It has had its ups and downs, but he has been renovating rooms and turned it into a bed and breakfast of sorts. Only 21 rooms are currently available for use, we were told. The main floor has beautiful tile floors, more stained glass than I could count and beautiful wood surfaces. Our group was taking over the main floor banquet areas for the night.

We took the elevator (which was hot) to the 5th floor, but we were later excited to see that the central staircase in the hotel had not been enclosed or destroyed. We took the stairs after that. As we rounded the corner to our room I thought the whole area looked like a scene from a movie. I turned to Jim and croaked out, "Redrum" in a reference to the line from the movie The Shining. Redrum is murder spelled backwards. I would later learn that I wasn't too far off. But I am getting ahead of myself...All of the hallways were really hot as well, so I was concerned about the room. I needn't have worried as the air conditioner was working fine. When we got to the room I unlocked the door with the brass key we had been given. Before I stepped in the room Jim asked if I wanted to take pictures. God love him, he knows that I like to take my photos before we clutter up the room with luggage so that I can place them on Tripadvisor.com when I do my reviews. So I dug my camera out of my suitcase and snapped some pictures. We then drug our stuff in the room. Our room was obviously not one of the recently remodeled ones, but it was quite charming anyway. Our bed had an interesting look to it, reminding me somewhat of a church complete with stained glass. The old claw foot tub added ambiance to the bathroom, but is pretty impractical for someone vertically challenged like myself.

We heard some children running up and down the hallway, which I thought was weird because we understood that all the rooms were taken by attendees of the party and none of them were bringing children. When it was time to leave for the pre-party on the 4th floor, we could not find the room key. Neither one of us remembers removing it from the lock. We took everything out of our suitcases, my purse, checked pants pockets - nothing. Had it fallen in the hallway and the kids picked it up? Or was something else going on? I called down to the front desk and they had a second key for the room so he said we could just shut the door and it would lock behind us.

First we went to the 3rd floor to get my sister-in-law Jenean. She had a beautiful suite with a small kitchen area and a fireplace. Her bed was so high off the floor, she did not know how she would get into it that night. We said we would come and give her a boost if needed. Then we went to the 4th floor. One of JoEllen's hearing aid patients is a photographer, and he volunteered to come and take pictures at the party. So he was busy snapping away as we all got acquainted in Bruce's suite, which was also very nice and spacious. (Bruce is JoEllen's fiance.) As the hotel allows dogs, JoEllen brought her two King Charles spaniels along. More on them later.

table arrangements

At 6:00 we went downstairs for the party. All of the tables and chairs in the lobby were covered with linens and a pretty floral bouquet was at each table. Jim and I had been asked to sit at a table to hand our name tags, get folks to sign a guest book and ask them to fill out a sheet for the "Roast" portion of the evening. We could not find any of the things we needed for our job, so we just walked around introducing ourselves to people. We did not know anyone who was coming except the immediate family. A small buffet was available, offering fruit, cheese, vegetables with dip, scallops and stuffed mushrooms. Later some beef tips in gravy and some salmon were brought out. For dessert there was a gluten free cake, which was surprisingly good, cookies made by a friend, and lemon bars and brownies made by my mother-in-law, who was unable to attend. Beer, wine, iced tea and lemonade were available as well. Someone showed up with name tags and a marker and took them to each person, so I found the guest book and sent it around to the different tables. Jenean passed out the "roast" sheets. While we were eating an older gentleman gave a presentation on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, complete with animal hides.

Bruce and a couple of friends played some music in the adjoining room, but to be honest it was so loud that I could not sit in there very long. The music was good, but my poor ears just couldn't take the volume. Around 10:00 the toast/roast began. One of Bruce's friends m.c.ed this portion of the evening. He pulled each completed sheet out of a box where he read the name of the person completing the form, how long they had known JoEllen and whether they were going to toast or roast her. Jim's name was called first, and mine was called second. Unreal. It was fun to hear what everyone had to say. JoEllen is universally loved and respected by the people who attended the party. I went up to the room around 11 and Jim followed around 12:30. I understand the post-party carried on until 2:30. I am amazed that we didn't hear anyone in the halls.

Savoy Grill

The next morning we went down to breakfast at 9:00. They provide you with a sheet listing all the menu choices and you are allowed to choose 4 or 5 items from the menu and indicate what time you want your meal to be ready. The offerings were interesting in that you could get eggs, pancakes and assorted breakfast meats like normal. Or you could get pork, fish, veal or beef cooked a variety of ways. Juice, coffee, tea and cinnamon rolls were also provided. Jenean joined us and the staff showed us to a table in a small dining room. A large table of people from the party was already seated. JoEllen came in later and told us that we were supposed to be in the Savoy Grill, which they had opened just for JoEllen's party guests. She also told us that she was awakened at 6:00 a.m. to the sights and sounds of her two dogs vomiting and having diarrhea all over the room and on the bed. She woke Bruce up in his room and had him take the dogs back to their house. The hotel may ban dogs after this experience.

JoEllen's college friend Laurie asked if we had heard that the hotel was supposedly haunted. I said no, we hadn't heard that. She proceeded to tell us what she had read online about a woman dying in a bathtub (room 505 - we were in room 542) who liked to walk the hallways. It seems she also likes to turn the water on and off and open and shut the shower curtain in room 505. Others had seen a man on the 4th floor who had been a resident at the hotel when they rented out apartments. When we talked to the wait staff, they concurred that ghosts are in the hotel.

Jim and I went back to our room after breakfast to pack up and grab the camera so we could take some pictures of the hotel. As we opened our door to come out we heard a boy coming down the hallway. It sounded as if he was speaking in tongues as you couldn't understand a word he was muttering. When he saw us he gave us a furtive glance and stopped speaking. He proceeded down the hall in a robotic fashion, resumed his strange mutterings and turned the corner into the part of the floor being rehabbed. We hurried down the hall after him to see him disappear around another corner. He was banging on a door and we could here a little girl yelling, "No one is here!" and "You have the wrong room!" A man appeared out of a door at the end of that hallway wearing nothing more than boxers. At that point we scurried back to the staircase. Redrum...In retrospect, we think that members of the staff live in the hotel and that is why we heard the children because we saw others before we finally left that day.

Following checkout we hauled all of JoEllen's gifts and flowers to various cars and went over to the house where she and Bruce live. We got to see her open her gifts, and she had prepared a late lunch for anyone who was still around. I think there were 11 of us there. Bruce then took us to the Lee's Summit train station, which cut about an hour off our trip because it eliminated two stops for us. It was closer to their house than Union Station, so that worked out well. Our train ride home was not as pleasant as the way over. First of all, the little girl sitting in front of us (around 8 years old?) did not shut her mouth even to take a breath. Yak, yak, yak! I put on my head phones and listened to music on my iPad. Jim didn't bring anything along and he finally got so desperate that he borrowed my iPod. I'm sure he truly enjoyed listening to Barry Manilow and Barbra Streisand! After a few more stops the train thinned out a bit so we made a mad dash to the back of the car. Then a guy got on and sat across from us yakking on his cell phone. And then he began to make all kinds of disgusting noises with his nose and throat. It was making me sick to my stomach. So we moved a few more rows back. Is there a website called PeopleofAmtrak.com like the one PeopleofWalmart.com? There should be. Nevertheless we arrived back in Kirkwood right on time at 10:00 and headed for home. What a fast-paced two days!

Oh...and by the way? The first key never turned up. So was it the boy in the hall? Or the lady from room 505? Redrum!

Rox & Dan

This past weekend we went up to Minneapolis to attend the wedding of the daughter of our good friends, Kathy and Paul. Kathy and I went to high school together, then on to Iowa State. Paul and Jim were fraternity brothers at Iowa State. Kathy and Paul sang at our wedding, and went with us on a cruise when we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. we have traveled together multiple times in the four years since then. They are the first of our friends to have a child get married, and considering our connection it was great fun to be there for their daughter's wedding. We did not know anyone else at the wedding, so that was a little strange but we met some interesting people at our table and had fun dancing at the reception.

the wedding cake

The wedding cake was amazing. Rox and Dan both enjoy outdoor activities, so the cake was designed to represent the things that they like to do. Absolutely everything you see in the picture (poor quality but I did not bring my good camera up to Minneapolis unfortunately) is edible, including the baseball. The cake decorator must have had a ball, pardon the pun, designing this cake.

The next morning Kathy and Paul had their family members and the out of town guests over to their house to watch the "kids" open their presents. We actually had a little more time to talk to the two of them at that point, so I am glad we went. We also met another couple who live in Iowa and graduated from Iowa State. Interestingly the husband graduated with a degree in horticulture, so he and Jim got to chatting about that and landscape architecture. The wife said that she started out in one major but changed her sophomore year. So did I. She graduated with a degree in Family Environment. So did I. 1978? Yep. Her area of concentration was Family Services. So was mine. We had to have taken a class or two together somewhere along the line. What a small world! I wish we had sat with them Saturday night so that we could have talked more.

All the driving for this particular wedding left a bit to be desired though. We left St. Louis on Friday and stopped in Charles City to spend the night with Jim's mom and dad. They had agreed to keep the dog for us. I think they were more excited about having Kirby stay with them than seeing us! Not really, but they do enjoy him. Saturday morning we headed back up the interstate for an additional three hour drive. We were able to check into our room early, which was nice so that we could freshen up before the wedding. On Sunday we headed back to Charles City and stayed the night again there. Then Monday morning it was back on the road to St. Louis.

Wickiup Hills wetlands area

On the way home we stopped at Wickiup Hill Outdoor Learning Center, which was a good spot to walk the dog. They have multiple trails you can walk on, but it was pretty hot so we took the path to the wetlands. It has a really cool wooden plank walkway out over what normally is the wetland area. It should be renamed Drylands as there was not a drop of water to be found. It made me wonder what happened to all the wildlife that normally lives in the area. So sad. Unfortunately we all picked up a few ticks in the park. Yuck!

This has been a pretty busy summer for us, and there is no end in sight. Three of the four weekends in July we have full schedules. So far only one weekend in August is taken, so that is kind of a relief.

Amtrak coming into the Kirkwood Station

We had company over the weekend again. Jim's sister and her fiance took the train from Kansas City to St. Louis on Saturday. We picked them up at the station in Kirkwood, which is great for us since it is so close. Fun fact is that this station was going to be closed by Amtrak, so the city of Kirkwood purchased the station in order to keep it open. It is run entirely by volunteers! Anyway, the train was right on time and we decided to go ahead and have a late lunch in Kirkwood. We walked over to Kirkwood Ice and Fuel, and then did a little shopping in Kirkwood. With the free parking and good location, it is so much more convenient using the Kirkwood Station instead of going downtown.

Saturday evening we packed up our chairs and headed over to the Streetfest in Webster Groves. They close down Gore Avenue, and a band was playing Beatles music. The temperature was pleasant, so for supper we went to the new Mexican restaurant in town - La Cantina. We grabbed a table outside where we could still enjoy the music as well as the trains that pass by there. The food was great and we will definitely go back there.

Sunday morning we made a nice breakfast and then sat around talking for a bit. We decided on the Boathouse in Forest Park for lunch, and as usual there was a wait. I am not a fan of this place, but for some reason everyone always wants to go there. I think the food is mediocre and the service is always slow. And we roasted sitting outside. I also knew that eating this late was going to throw off supper plans since we had tickets to the Chinese Lantern Festival that night. Anyway, following the mediocre lunch we went to the Civil War exhibit at the Missouri History Museum. It is very well done. We got back to our house a little after 5:00, and wanted to leave for the garden by 6:15 or so. As predicted, we did not have time to eat supper.

Performer from the Szechuan region of China

Performers from the Szechuan region of China While there is a lot to photograph during the daylight hours, it is after the sun goes down that the the garden really shine. Whoever came up with the tagline "Art by day, magic by night" deserves a bonus. It truly describes the transition from ooooh to WOW! when you view the lanterns at night.  The lantern festival is truly remarkable and I hope people take advantage of the unique opportunity to see it. It is only the second time the festival has been shown outside of China, and the first time in the United States. I am looking forward to our second photography class this Thursday night. (Other than the fact that it is supposed to be well over 100 degrees that day!)

Recently I have begun to think about getting a new car. It is interesting how your family members all weigh in as if it is a car that they will be driving. Ha! Even the dog is not going in this car if I decide to get one. Jim and I first went out an looked at six or seven cars at the megacarplex in St. Louis County. It is handy to be able to view so many makes all in one location. When we entered the beemer shop not one person greeted us. Apparently we did not pull up in the appropriate vehicle. Or perhaps I forgot to wear my Prada that day. At any rate, while we sat in all the different cars I did not test drive any. I wanted to first be able to wean my list down.

While Andy and Megan were here they went with us to test drive the four vehicles I wanted to take a closer look at. Upon entering same beemer dealer, we were again all ignored. It was definitely a Pretty Woman moment - I had money to spend but they didn't want to help me spend it. That dealership is out should I decide to purchase that kind of car! The two other cars that we took out at the other dealerships were both very nice vehicles. Andy, Megan and I took out a hybrid from a third manufacturer, and while it had a surprisingly decent drive, it does not come with a sunroof or backup camera, so it is off the list.

Jim and I then drive a beemer from a different dealership and yet another make of car. I have the list down to my three favorites, and even completed a spreadsheet of their features because I cannot make up my mind which one I want to get. The spreadsheet did not help, but my mechanic concurred that I had made three excellent choices and proceeded to tell me how he would rank them. That was helpful.

Last Thursday my workout buddy wanted to go test drive an SUV made by the company currently #1 on my list, so we decided to go together so that I could take my possible choice out for a second drive. I also thought it would be fun to get the input of my friend on the car. I had contacted my salesman to let him know that we were coming, and he said he would be available. He had my car ready for us to take out, and confirmed what my friend was looking for so that he would have it ready when we came back from the first test drive.

When I got into the car I immediately noticed that there was a hump coming from the center console into the driver's side, and that it was rubbing up against my right leg. What the heck?!? How had I missed this the last time I took the car out? I was driving the version with reduced horsepower this time, so maybe that was the difference? I really didn't like the feel. Besides that, the drive was as wonderful as I remembered. Following that we took out the SUV, also a nice ride, and then for fun tried out the SUV Hybrid. $67,000!!! It was loaded, as you might imagine. It was a wonderful car, but not worth the price in my opinion.

I had noticed that we did not have the salesman's full attention, which I thought was odd as I had brought him another potential customer. Then my friend made the comment that she wondered if we would be getting the same treatment if our spouses were with us. Sadly, I think she is right. And all my original warm, fuzzy feelings for this salesman disappeared. Why do women continue to be treated this way? After all, both of us were looking at cars for ourselves. Not our families and certainly not our spouses. And for that matter, why do you rarely see female car salespeople? I will probably take a trip to the other dealership in town that also sells this car just to see what the treatment is there. And you can bet that I will be blogging about it.

Yesterday I exercised one of my constitutional rights - I went to vote. I "knew" that there was only one issue on the ballot, and that was whether or not we should approve a bond issue for the Metropolitan Sewer District. That way they can stick it to me now at a lower rate as opposed to sticking it to me later at a much higher rate. I figured voter turnout would be light due to the lack of other issues on the ballot. Frankly I think it is ridiculous that anyone is allowed to call for a special vote when there is nothing else on the ballot, but no one asked my opinion. As usual.

When I walked into my polling place I did the usual and customary photo i.d. check and signed my name in the book. Then I was handed a sheet of paper containing ten questions, a pen and a piece of cardboard in the shape of a t-shirt. Huh? The man walked me over to the voting booth and explained that I was to fill in the ovals indicating my vote beneath each question. It reminded me of the standardized tests we had to take in school, only we were not allowed to use pens. No. 2 pencils only, thank you very much. I felt like I was cheating as I used the ballpoint pen to fill in the ovals.

As I looked at the first question, one thing became clear...er...blurry. With the low light inside the school there was no way I would be able to read the questions without my reading glasses, which of course I did not have with me. "Do you need me to read the questions out loud for you honey?" asked the elderly woman behind the table. To say I was embarrassed would be an understatement. Then one of the officials remembered that they had a magnifying glass, which they quickly retrieved for me. It did not look this 
picture at all. Instead it was about 8" long, made out of acrylic and was two sided sort of making an inverted V. I could not even find a picture of one on the web to show what it looked like. Anyway, it was difficult to use, but I eventually got the hang of it. In the meantime my new BFF wannabe reader was blathering on about how the questions are stupid, no one is going to be able to understand what is being asked, people are going to be mad, blah, blah, blah. Even though I knew what the first question was talking about, it was hard to concentrate with her telling me how terrible the whole ballot was. By the time I got to the second question, I began to understand what she was going on about. I really didn't know the implications of what voting Yes versus No would be. Ditto with the remaining eight questions.

Suffice it to say that I spent longer in the ballot box on this "one" issue than I have in some presidential elections. So my bad for not downloading a sample ballot to review before I went to the polling place like I do with most elections. But I also feel like no one made it clear to voters that there was going to be more than one Yes or No decision to be made. As for the cardboard shirt I was handed? I though it was just to make it easier to fill in the ovals with a pen. Wrong again. I was supposed to slip my ballot in between the pieces of cardboard before I walked it over to the ballot box. Then I had to place the cardboard so that the "neck" faced me and slide it into the box, where the paper ballot was then sucked into the metal box. I guess no one wanted to pay for high tech voting machines for the pitiful election. Or was that just at my polling place?

Our family has a lot of big events occurring in 2012. Jim's mom and dad celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary early this year, his older sister turns 60 later this year, his younger sister turns 50, and Katie turns 21. Add to that the fact that Katie graduated from college and Megan just received her master's degree, and you have plenty of reasons to party. (Jim also has received an amazing accolade, but we are not allowed to talk about it until the national announcement is made, so more on that later.) Since we are all spread out, we decided to have one big celebration over Memorial Day weekend.

My in-laws including Jim's sister and her husband drove down on Friday, and Katie flew in Friday night. Andy and Megan flew in on Saturday afternoon as Megan had her last class Saturday morning. Jim's younger sister and her fiance come over from Kansas City on Sunday morning as they had a wedding to attend on Saturday. We had a barbeque in our backyard Sunday afternoon, which of course had to be the hottest day of the year so far. Thank goodness it was breezy and fairly low humidity, as we were able to sit outside most of the day.

We hired Jim's motorcycle buddy, Jim Diaz, to take some photos before the party began. Jim is a professional photographer, and it has been many years since we had Wolterman family portraits taken. There are too many "exes" in that group shot to warrant keeping the old photo on the wall. Hopefully we will get a group shot where everyone has a decent expression on their face and their eyes open. We shall see.

The party was a great success, and it was wonderful to have Jim's whole family together. Frankly I don't know when my children will be together at the same time with their grandparents in the future. Jim's folks had not been here since Katie graduated from high school in 2009. So this weekend was all the more special because of that. The pictures will help us keep the memories alive.