Tower Grove Park -

 Here's how you know you've lived in South St. Louis for a long time: when you not only can name all the pavilions in Tower Grove Park but you actually have a favorite (or two). For me my favorite large pavilion is the Sons of Rest and my favorite small pavilion is the little Chinese pavilion.

I love that when I'm invited to a party in TGP that I know not only the name of each pavilion but the location of the bathrooms, best parking and quickest way in and out of the park.  Each pavillion reminds me of events in my life.  The Turkish* Pavillion for Gus' first communion picnic.  The Old Victorian wading pool pavillion for kindergarten field day.  The Old Playground Shelter for the annual St. Vincent de Paul Society Easter eggs hunt. 

So imagine how excited I was that this school year our picnic was moved from the stone shelter pavilion to the Sons of Rest. Except for one thing I don't think any of us foresaw-  the foot traffic down Grand Blvd created a lot of extra "guests".  

I had no problem sharing the food and beer with the occasional hobo.  But wow- a couple of scary people crashed the party.  There was a woman who was so drunk her efforts to steal food off the vegetable tray resulted in a trail of cauliflower and carrots around the pavillion site.  

wrap up analysis:

Sons of Rest pro's:

• not near creek (kids usually get soaked playing in creek near Stone Shelter)
• beautiful, larger shelter 
• lights in shelter worked (seems like Stone never works)
• much closer to school and nearby neighborhoods so more families could walk to picnic
• closer to playground
• close to Grand (older kids walked to Tower Grove Creamery)

Son's of Rest con's:

• close to Grand, thus the random hobo party
• it was chilly; would have been nice to have a fire.  If I weren't so lazy I would have had organized the girl scouts to build a fire

*Am I the only one who thinks of Jason Statham, Transporter and Madonna when someone mentions the Turkish Pavillion?  If you're not following along, Turkish was a character in the movie Snatch played by Jason Statham, also of the excellent guilty pleasure movie series Transporter and Crank.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0208092/

Maison de Jeux avec Mansard

Playhouse with a mansard!  What lucky children in Nashville , TN to have this little playhouse.  Thank you reader Ruth for sending me the picture.

Sanders service

On Watson road near Lindbergh aka kirkwood road aka highway 61/67. 

Columbia

Here are a couple of pictures snapped in Columbia Missouri on our recent trip to Colorado. The first is in the Broadway diner.   When I was in school at Mizzou Broadway diner was at a different location on the intersection of Broadway and Providence. It has has been moved to the other side of broadway. 

The second is of a mansard we saw in Columbia but it could've been independence. Not sure. There is one mansard in Columbia which eludes me: the Columbia Tribune office is a big bad gold mansard. I need to get pictures ASAP

American legion fish fry - Soulard

The bad mansard family, who try to be good Catholics, had a nice time at the Soulard American Legion Hall fish fry. The legion put on a nice fish fry. Great fish and excellent green beans. Cheap pitchers of beer. As you can see the kids enjoyed running around on asphalt drinking soda.

I think there is another fish fry in April. The American legion fish fry is a nice alternative to some of the other fish fries in South city which do tend to get very large and crowded.  

We're also going to hit st Mary Magdalen and st agatha for more fish fries this lent