Over the next few weeks, I am moving from a city which, at
the Winter Solstice, sees less than 8 hours of daylight and received approximately
110 inches of snow this winter (to date – a blizzard is forecast for tonight)
to a city where it is conceivable to have shorts weather in January, and snow
shoes are a quaint notion roughly resembling gigantic tennis rackets.
Being from the Midwest originally, I am looking forward to
sweltering summers, home shaking thunderstorms, and lakes that are warm enough
to swim in for hours. I guess I’m going
to have to get used to people calling snow machines “snow mobiles”, but I’ll
deal with that if it means that I can get some real BBQ.
Did I mention road trips?
Where I am right now, since I own neither a boat nor an airplane, I can
go exactly two directions out of town – North and South. It is kind of difficult to get lost on a
Saturday afternoon when there is only one road to take. And more roads mean more antique stores, diners,
and local eccentricities to explore. I
can’t wait to take off for a weekend drive.
But, while I am moving home to the Midwest, the home that I
am moving to is not yet mine. St. Louis
is a new adventure for me. Within my
memory, I have been to St. Louis exactly once – for a job interview. While I had a day to explore what, at that
point, was my potential new hometown – exactly how much exploring can you
really do?
We wandered by a half a dozen apartment complexes, had a
very nice realtor show us several different neighborhoods, and checked out a
local grocery store (the unfortunately named Schnucks – which had beautiful
produce). We confirmed that, like any
other city in the Midwest, there is a plethora of shopping options – including everything
from Wal-Mart to Nordstrom. But there is
so much to explore – the Arch, Forest Park and the Zoo, the local Jazz scene,
the botanical gardens; I might even surprise myself and become a Cardinals
fan.
Join me on my journey, as I wander around St. Louis and
beyond.
The Turtle Playground is just off of I64 on the other side
of the highway from the Zoo. It features sculptures
of all of the species of turtle native to Missouri.
