Pictures!

Finally, Diana and I went out and bought a card reader so that we can download the pictures off of the camera. I thought I'd catch you up a bit on that, while I wait for the photos to come from friends from the trip to Rockford (and what a trip that was!! more soon...)

Remember our trek up to Compton Towers? Well...here are a few pics from that, which will give you an idea of St. Louis.

They say that the views from Compton Tower are better than from the arch. At least there is a great view all the way downtown of the arch.

I never realized how many trees St. Louis had until I tried to take a picture of the house we're living in from the Tower, and I couldn't see it because of the trees! The church you see is just a couple of blocks over from where we live, and just a few blocks beyond that is Tower Grove Park.

Someone asked what kind of car I was driving while I was here...it's a Chevy Cobalt, bright red. Diana laughs at me because I'm always trying to make sure I park it perfectly aligned with the curb. Usually I end up jolting up onto the curb, or parking about a foot away. People here are surprised, as they think that in Europe we get much practice with parallel parking...bit difficult on the metro or the busses!

Just beyond where our car is parked is a neighborhood called Compton Heights. This week, during Shirley's visit, it's one of the neighborhoods of St. Louis that we drove around. The houses are incredible...some mansions, some simply large. The area was laid out in 1880, and the homes are of various styles (after looking up exactly what styles, I came up with Tudor, Italianate, Quasi-Richardson, Chateauesque, Romanesque, and Georgian).

Other notable areas we explored were the Lindell mansions, also built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, across the street from Forest Park, and in the Central West End. Scattered around that area are some lovely apartment buildings as well, and some great cafes and restaurants (we tried Duffs, on Euclid and McPhereson, and the food is very good...can't resist the white chocolate cheesecake!).

We also visited the Loop, in University City, named after a spot on Delmar where a streetcar looped around. This stretch of Delmar has been deemed one of the 10 best streets in the U.S. by the American Planning Association, and it also has some noteworthy restaurants (we've loved the spinach-artichoke dip at Cicero's), shops, and generally a pleasant laid back feel, as it combines apartments, businesses, restaurants and bars in an interesting cultural milieu.

Before we went to Rockford, we also got in a visit to the Samuel Cupples house, built by a St. Louis entrepreneur finished in 1890 on what is now the Saint Louis University campus. You can actually see photographs of the house at the time it was finished at http://www.slu.edu/the_arts/cupples/vintage.html, as, apparently, these rich folks liked to show off their wealth for all to see, so the photographs would have been made available publicly. Now the house has been restored and furnished with furniture from the period. It is St. Louis' most prominent Romanesque Revival home, and the ornate detail (different in every room) is impressive, along with the glimpses of genteel Victorian life in St. Louis.

So much to see and do! Shirley was reluctant to leave St. Louis...but now I DO have time to catch up with things like this blog!