Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Many, many thanks to Richard who send me this fantastic picture from Ho Chi Minh City.  This mansard is some type of court building.

The folks on the motorbikes make this picture especially terrific.

Washington VFW

Wow! This is quite a beautiful VFW hall in Washington Missouri. 

An aside, when I was in high school we would go to the VFW hall in Fenton and watch bands play. 

Hannibal-lin

Just a weird looking semi mansard semi modern building in Hannibal. 

Lapin blanc

Did you ever wonder how citygarden kept its white rabbits so sparkling clean? Evidently there's a guy who buffs them out.

Cradle to grave: the short life of a can of beer

As seen at Lyon Park baseball field next door to

the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis Missouri

Clowns and jokers

"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to my right, here I am" at Lafayette and Grand. 

My neighbor's mansard

Our neighbors are hard at work on their mansard and doing a kick ass job. I feel poor for them- that level of restoration is an investment!

That's a wrap! Summer 2015.

Summer of 2015 is officially over and we did a lot of new and different things this summer. Or things we haven't done in a really long time.  Given that our school do not start August 31 we had plenty of time to enjoy some destinations during the off-season. School year has been new too- new middle school building, a freshman in high school, new routines at school.  Here are some favorite memories from summer 2015:

• Pole Position with cousin Patrick.  I think he had more fun than the kids.  Good luck to him as he moves to Chicago to start college at DePaul after 4 years and numeous deployments in the USMC
• SkyZone.  Love this place.  Just wish it were closer or that we had an option like it in the City of St. Louis. 
• Grant's Farm.  Goats still terrorizing children.  Beer still free.
• Many cardinals games
• Mimi got to go to Six flags!
• Kay went to Wildwood Lodge and Audrey went to Carillon Beach in Florida with friends
• First ever Mizzou football game for kids
• Our cousins moved from Wildwood to Eureka.  Love their new pool and set up.  I swear my sister in law made her house look awesome in 2 weeks.  It's been 13 years for me and I'm still working on it.
• Two summer birthdays - Audrey whose birthday is very close to Labor Day and Mimi whose birthday is close to the 4th of July.
• Things we missed- the kids missed not being able to go to lake with grandma and grandpaTom and missed fireworks this year. Looking forward to the return of lake outings and downtown fireworks in 2016. 
• Mimi spent night at zoo. Nice polar bear photo bomb. 
  
  

Gus and John went on many hikes out at Shaw Nature Reserve, part of MIssouri Botanical Garden.  They enjoyed very much.

Any graduate of the Mizzou Journalism school knows the importance of these lions.

Loved Laumeier Sculpture Park.  Here is Audrey's girl scout troop. 

We moved rooms around in the house.  This used to be a bedroom.  Now it's John's first floor office. Otto likes it too. 

In said office John designed cups for the first annual St. Margaret of Scotland Back to School parents house party.  Five couples hosted a house party- kegs, jello shots, party punch, band, etc.  We raised a lot of money for the school! Look for us again at 2017 auction.

How many parochial schools have their own house band made up of parents?  Special thanks to RM who let us use his Soulard space for the party and to the Occasionals (because they only play occasionally).  Special guest drummer for the Occasionals was CL who was one of the top guys in my law school class!

It's another party at the Lafayette Square Bath and Tennis.  We had 8 tennis rackets - boys vs. girls.

Missouri History museum fun!

Audrey's Girl Scout troop took a trip to the Missouri history museum to check out the Compton and Dry map exhibit. It was really amazing to look at a pictorial map of St Louis from 1875. The girls enjoyed finding drawn pictures of their homes  (or a blank space where a home would soon be built).  We then checked out the history clubhouse which appealed to the little girls and big girls in our group. Finally enjoyed some time on playground at forest park. 

My house wasn't build until 1884 but my neighbors house is shown. 

A note to all you Girl Scout leaders out there. I think the history museum is a great scout destination. Our troop is been there at least four times to visit and for Girl Scout Days.  There's always something new to do or see.  The best part? It's always free. The St. Louis Zoo, science center and Missouri botanical gardens usually charge $7-$10 a girl for their Girl Scout programming.

Mom, I need a flute!

Found these mansards while trying to track down a used flute for my 14-year-old daughter.  Of all the fine arts classes she could've taken somehow she got stuck in instrumental music instead of art. Additionally, of all the instruments she could've played we're assigned the flute. 

South county behind lemay ferry road. Those are her feet sticking out of the car window. 

Full dance card

February 1940, Eastern High School, Baltimore, Maryland. 

A mansard from Florissant and the reasons I've been MIA

I am embarrassed it's July and I haven't put up any bad mansards.  Here is a photo from June taken on the way to a funeral up in Florisssant.

We've been really busy this summer but things just eased up.

Here's what we've been up to:

• Kay graduated from 8th grade at SMOS ending at 11 year career at the school.
• Had a cousin visit from Germany
• Took Audrey's girl scout troop camping.  Very wet and buggy but a lot of fun!
• Went to Philadelphia and Virginia Beach on a family trip
• Swim team.  Such a good experience but such a time commitment.  
• Went to Black River Lodge to visit some cousins
• Gus went to YMCA Camp Lakewood for a week.  He had a great time.
• Wrapped up tee-ball, baseball, spring hockey, spring/summer lacrosse.  We have a few weeks before we get underway again with school, high school, more sports.
• We're taking on a big project making some moves in the house to re-arrange our bedroom configurations.

cousin Arlene and her tour guides Kay and Audrey who took the day off school to visit the Arch.  They then walked themselves to citygarden and back to my office.

graduates

Kay and classmates.

cammping.

Swim, Mimi, swim!

nice season dragons!

swimming with our cousins

me and my boy Gus

Kass/Dames wedding.

I Can See! - Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia

Awesome Philadelphia trip

We have a dreaded routine on our family trips:  I read all the literature and tourist guides and come up with a list of things I want to do.  John and the kids groan because they hate my forced family marches around cities, through parks, on trails, into museums, etc.  I say they'll all thank me later that they don't spend their trips in a hotel room staring at instagram.  Some tidbits about our recent trip to Philadelphia.

How far we walked on the longest Saturday of our lives:  6 miles

I felt proud when:  my 12 and 14 year old went on a shopping trip alone and navigated the city on their own.

Mimi's favorite part:  the giant heart in the Franklin Institute (got into FI free with our St. Louis Science Center membership).  Gus liked the brain.

A tiny bit overrated:  the Eastern State Penitentiary but the lunch across the street at Jack's firehouse was much needed.  We had a great lunch with Coke's in glass bottles, Bloody Mary for John, and a Victory Pils for me.

Thank goodness I found:  bowtie at Macy's for Gus.  It totally made his look!

My review on the Phlash bus which will take you to all the tourist spots for $5 a day:  it's great if it shows up.   If one of them gets in a wreck, you're stuck waiting for 40 minutes in the blazing sun waiting for another to show up.

Activities that weren't on "my list" but were glad we did:  Richard Avedon exhibit at National Jewish Museum and the Morrissey Concert at the Kimmel  Center.

What else we did:  family dinner, visit LOVE statue, played in fountains, Genghis Khan exhibit, Liberty Bell, Independence Mall (sadly no time for hall), rooftop pool/pizza/beer with family, Rocky Stairs, Phillies v. Cardinals game.

I'm still in St. Louis moments:  "GO CARDS" everywhere and "Hot in Herre" by Nelly at the wedding.

Wish I had made it to:  Betsy Ross house and the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul.

And- John weary and on 5.5 miles into our city journey, recognized Rittenhouse Square from one of our favorite movies, Trading Places.

Virginia Beach

After Philadelphia we packed up the car again and went to Virginia Beach for a little beach time. Here are some bad mansards we found. 

Philadelphia Union League

We had a great trip to Philadelphia for johns nephew's wedding. We stayed near this building built in 1865 to provide support to Union and Lincoln. A nice mansard too!  It's a city club and sounds similar to our Missouri athletic club. 

Zanesville Ohio

Apache

Apache RV sales, Hazelwood.  I also have a video to go along, Apache by the Sugar Hill gang.

Morganford mania!

Double the trouble, double the fun. Two mansards for your liking at Morganford and Seibert in Lemay/Affton area, or, as I like to call that region, L'affton.