continuing with our vacances

Corvallis, Oregon. My stereotype of Oregon: cool, lush and lovely.

When I think summer in Michigan, I think moustique

Mosquitos, that is. Lot of friends enjoy summers in Michigan. I've heard it's lovely and the mosquitos are huge. This bad mansard is a brown, multi-level professional building. Thanks to friend Wayne for sending the picture.

The badmansard vacation continues. Of note, I'm not vacationing but I'm featuring mansards from around the country. I did, however, go on the Meramec River float trip.

aller au magasin de vins et de spiritueux (going to the liquor store)

We floated the upper Meramec this week with John's family. It was 100 degrees but it really was a nice float. Every good float trip starts with a trip to the liquor store. We like cans of Busch and Budweiser. Here's Meramec Package Liquor in Cuba, Missouri- a bad mansard.

Some audio for you: The Urge's Open All Night, aka Going to the Liquor Store.

C'est les Vacances!

It's the month of Août; time for vacation! Let's head east to Worcester, MA. Here's a bad mansard on Millbrook Street. It's intriguing- look at the curved window brackets, porch mansardette and, omg, please rip out the square of dead, overgrown shrubbery. Thanks reader Sean for the the photo.

We'll also head north to Michigan, west to Oregon and south to Louisiana later this month.

Would love a San Francisco bad mansard. Anyone?

Mansard a Manhattan

This sad mansard is in the super cute City of St. Louis border neighborhood of Elldendale. I met my mom and her husband at Piccadilly's for lunch to pick up my older daughters. Piccadilly's is a nice little place, by the way. Service is a little slow, but it's a pleasant wait. Food is good. Beer is cold. Ellendale is the neighborhood east of McLains, the dive bar at Big Bend and Oxford.

I'm a little embarrassed that until today I did not know this little cute neighborhood was in the city. I always assumed it was Maplewood. I grew up in Brentwood and Webster Groves and drove down Big Bend 10,000 times and never, ever knew the city of St. Louis was so close.

That brings up another topic. I was talking to a city friend who explained some people she knew in the county (mostly far west county and St. Charles) refused to come to the city. I've never, ever encountered that with my Webster/Kirkwood/Glendale/Rock Hill/Brentwood/Ladue friends. I think the city and the inner portions of the county share a lot of attributes: big trees, pretty houses, neat neighbords, gridded streets and railroads.