Home Again

David and I shared this decadent dessert

at Montana Jacks in Moline, Illinois

One could say the wheelchair worked so well at the Mud Hens game I just kept going. We went to the Hens game on Friday, May 28. We’d been throwing around ideas of where we were going and when we were leaving for our spring vacation.

A David and Nani vacation during baseball season takes some preplanning. The weather has to be right for photographing trains and there are baseball schedules to gather! The weather forecasts were telling us that the trip to see the steam train in St. Louis was probably going to be the direction we went, planni0ng to hit Iowa on the way. I had the schedules for 11 minor league teams. I put which teams are going to be home and game time for each day we’ll be gone and then we can reference the list on nights that we want to go to a game. We ended up seeing a Lumber Kings double header on a cloudy day in Clinton, Iowa and an evening Gateway Grizzlies game in Sauget, Illinois.

UP Steam Special

Since we were planning to be in Missouri for the steam train, I just had to let Kelly know to see if she could drive up from Sikeston to spend some time. I sent her a message saying that we were going to a Cardinals game on June 2. “Should I buy an extra ticket?” I got an enthusiastic, “yes!”

We met up with Kelly for lunch after chasing the steam train coming in to town in the morning. It was the seventeenth year for the seventeen-year cicadas. Their song was LOUD and there were cicadas everywhere! If you are easily rattled by bugs, this is not the time to go to St. Louis! Now, I’d already awakened to a huge spider in the sink my very first morning in Moline, IL, where we stayed while shooting trains in the Quad Cities area, so really, I welcomed the cicadas!

Kelly, Me and David at Busch Stadium

On Thursday night we went to the Cardinals game with seats on the Club Level which gave us access to the air-conditioned concession area where you can get some of the better selections, including a variety of salads, Mongolian barbecue and the Pretzel Dogs and Bratzels that called Kelly and me. David and I stopped at the Ben and Jerry’s cart. I got a small Cherry Garcia. Yeah, Nani and the black forest. I have to say that the new Busch Stadium is fantastic! It’s a beautiful stadium with a beautiful view and great amenities. I’ll also give a tip of the hat to the stadium graphics, great job! I photographed a bunch of them for scrapbook inspiration! The Giants won the game we saw, which was of course, as a Reds fan, fine by me.

"Edible Lunch Art" at Bravo Cuccina
Fenton, MO

For the most part my eating was a tour of the many ways you can make a grilled chicken salad with fish three times, once outdoors on the Mississippi River and I have totally discovered the dippin’ veggies at Denny’s. Denny’s does Dippin’ Veggies with carrots, celery sticks and cucumbers and a bowl of ranch dressing. I don’t use the ranch dressing, but I love being able to get a double order to go so I can have my crunchy veggies in the car!

It was a fun and relaxing vacation. At times it was on the very chilly side, especially in St. Louis. I was wrapping up in my coat in the car and with an extra blanket at night. It was highs in the 90s and that means the dreaded high power air-conditioning. David prefers it much colder than me. But when we were outside it was nice to even hot some times. That’s Nani friendly weather!

Stay tuned for some new mugs!!