My elbow is bleeding and I need a shower… but that just means I’ve come from The City Museum! To catch you up, last night Jen and D got into town and met Mary, Beth, Angela & I up at Kobe Japanese Steak House. We were also met by my friends John and Milena, their seven month old Alexander and Milena’s mother Bessie (pronounced Vessie) from Bulgaria.

John is one of my oldest friends. We met when I first moved to St. Louis in 1984 so I think that puts us at twenty one years. Milena was a friend of mine in college who John met when he came to visit me after he got out of the Navy in the winter of 1994. It was literally love at first sight for them. She followed him to Georgia and they got married in the fall of 1998. Milena had a host family before college in Columbia Missouri so they visited them for the Fourth of July and then were here for a bit on their way back to Atlanta. I am trying to convince them to move here and I’ve at least given them something to think about.

So last night the nine of us had shrimp thrown at us by a man skilled in making volcanoes out of onions. Afterwards the couple with child retired and the rest of us had a round at The Fox and The Hound in the Cheshire Lodge with Jen & D. I spent today at The Arch with J & M. When friends do the tourist thing I don’t usually go up, but I hadn’t in years so we did today. I have to say, this is really one of those things that is not worth doing. It took the whole day. I actually enjoyed it, but I can’t see myself ever going up in the Arch again. When you come to visit, you’re on your own for that one. I like the museum under the Arch. I like the movies. The trip to the top is hot in temperature only.

Bessie has really been helping with the Alexander child care and she wanted to go up, so we all consented to the several hours waiting for the ten minute pay off. Actually we got our tickets for much later in the afternoon and then had a long lunch with a child nap at The Morgan Street Brewery on The Landing, which is a lot like Beale Street in Memphis.

I had to work a bit in the evening, but after my non-disclosure contract restricted activities I met J & M back at their hotel for a drink. A few drinks in, with Bessie watching the sleeping Alexander, it was child’s play to drag my guests off to The City Museum. They loved it and they both climbed almost everything inside and out. Milena was impressive in her daring. Some of the crawl spaces outside were a little too high for her, but she was game for 90% of it at least.

So anyway, now I need a shower and some antiseptic for my jungle gym wounds. The City Museum is essentially a jungle gym made by adults for adults. There are often kids there, but it was really made for us (or at least “adults” take it over every night). Ok kids – sleep tight.