April 7, 2009

the Royale's fleur de lis'

me and Monet’s waterlilies!

Charity and I

This past week i went on a trip to Missouri.  My cousin, Paul lived there for a few years and his wife, Charity, is from there.  They just had a baby, sweet, little Kyan Asher Trahan, so they wanted to go visit Charity’s family and invited me along for the ride.  So.. it worked out and i couldnt pass up a road trip!  It was a lot of fun and I got to see a lot of things while there. It was a great getaway.  Dustin, Charity’s brother, and I hung out a good bit and he was a great host.  He showed me around all of St Louis pretty much.  The first evening we went to/drove around a bunch of areas in St Louis. The Loop which had  this great record store, hippy clothing store,t and resale clothing shop, among other things.  We went to some other areas as well, but i dont really remember their names… :/  Then we went and ate at this place called The Royale, and they had fleur de lis painted on the sides of the building and their name is French. This was the first time I’d ever seen the fleur de lis anywhere other than in La.  Apparently, New Orleans and St Louis are quite similar, except St Louis is a little more family friendly, little less of a  crazy/party town.  The city was founded by King Louis XIV i think, and so it has a few French names and what not.  But no French people live there anymore.. Next day the whole family went to the St Louis Art Museum, which was amazing! and it’s FREE all the time!  It was huge and had a lot of great art, and the grounds were beautiful too, but unfortunately it was raining, so I didnt get to explore outside very much.  There are these great, large, grassy parks everywhere throughout the city. They were really nice and literally there was one every time you turned around.  Then Dustin and I ate at this cool little place called the Shaved Duck.  Its located in an older building with old brick walls like the cafe i work at.  We didnt actually eat any duck, even though it was on the menu in a couple of different forms.  The chef/owner would come and bring out the plates of food to the tables! it was so weird but really cool that he would do that. He  was from Scotland and seemed really chill and cool.

The Arch

The next day we went to see the Arch.  We ran out of time and were not able to go up it.   I also got to see the Mississippi River.  Just like in New Orleans, there were  horse drawn carriages and river boat tours!  Then Dustin took me to see this  huge wall that goes on forever that is full of graffiti.

the GiANT graffiti wall

The mayor allows it and its been there for a long time now, but people just come and paint on it/tag it and it was very colorful and huge! Really neat to see.  Never seen so much graffiti in one place.  Then we to REI, great place! Too bad we dont have them in LA.  Then he had to go to work so I went out on my own and checked out the Great Harvest Bread Co. in St Louis.  It was similar to ours, but different in some ways.  I met the owner, Steve, and he was very nice and generous, as every GH owner has been that I’ve met.  Sent me off with a bunch of free deliciousness.  Then I also went to Trader Joes! Love that place and got some of my fav pineapple salsa from there   LOVE IT.

Paul and I as tree people

Next day we started off the day with breakfast at First Watch, a local breakfast place. It was very good.  Then we  went to Missouri Botanical Gardens which were huge and beautiful! So many flowers in bloom and flowering trees. Tulips and daffodils everywhere.

this patch smelled delightful!

flowering cherry blossom trees. tres lovely

It was a lovely, sunny day as well.  It is really big, so we walked around some of the place, and the Japanese Gardens, but there was a ton that we didnt see.  Then we went and ate at a little place called Mom’s Deli, a sandwich shop similar to Olde Tyme Grocery in Lafayette.  After that we had frozen custard from Ted Drewe’s. It’s a really popular place. It was also really tasty.  After that we went to my favorite place of the whole trip…. The City Museum.  The name doesnt do it justice.  It was this incredible outdoor/indoor play place for adults and kids all made out of recycled/junk materials. Old firetruck, old planes, rebar, glass bottles, etc. SSSSOOOOO amazing. and FUN! i loved it. i unfortunately did not get any pics from this because we left our cameras in the car so we could play. but there’s a website. i totally want to build one in LA and like every state! it’s that amazing. http://www.citymuseum.org/phototour.html  you really should check it out.

So that was most of the trip, in a semi nutshell.  Charity’s family is very sweet and generous and I enjoyed myself. It was a worry free trip for me and now I must return to the normal daily grind…
More photos on facebook at :http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065679&id=68602654&l=64ca4a5879

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065697&id=68602654&l=c9ca3269c9

so it’s been more than a month… April 7, 2009

naturally, a lot has happened since my last post. i will write a couple of short posts so that it is not one GIGANTIC one that everyone gets bored with. general update: i am still working at cafe des amis and really liking it. i get to meet a lot of really neat people from all over the world and there’s live music and its just a unique place.  i am also still working at great harvest bread co and loving that as well. the people and products are still wonderful.  school is winding down for the semester. have about a month left and then ill be FREE to an extent, for the summer at least. to work a lot. and hopefully get some traveling/road tripping in.

lovely petunias. the veins are my favorite part

i also recently ran a 5K with Tigers Against Trafficking, an organization recently started up at LSU to raise awareness about human trafficking. it was a beautiful day and nice run around LSU, and for a great cause. i finished in like 27.5 min or so.  running another 5K at the end of this month for Festival internationale… woo hoo cant wait.

the new flower/herb garden

i have a summer garden started! there will be a myriad of delicious veggies, hopefully at least!   i started quite a few plants from seeds in my makeshift greenhouse aka my utility room.  i started jalapenos, corn, cucumbers, basil, artichokes, sugar snap peas, garden green beans, and i think that’s all. then i bought some other hot pepper plants and tomato plants, so.. should have quite the harvest if things go well. it will be kind of nice to actually be here this summer some and be able to tend to it and enjoy the fruit. last summer i left for CO, so never really took care of or ate anything from it.  i just love spending a day in the spring sunshine tilling the soil and getting a great workout. its so refreshing and rewarding. i also made a new flower/herb bed. its right by our house and looks much better than the half dead grass that was kinda growing there. i just hope it will get enough sun once the leaves on the surrounding trees come in. guess we will have to see.

Make shift greenhouse

well. that is about it for now. i just took a trip to missouri, but i will make that a separate post.

dom bomb

triad of green beans!