Meet Me (Back) In St. Louis

Lunch at Crown Candy Kitchen

Prior to last summer, I had never set foot in St. Louis.  But the junior tennis world is small and we were back there over the weekend for yet another tennis tournament.

I have to tell you that  St. Louis is a lovely city.  It was much easier to appreciate it this time around.  For one, when we were there over the summer it was over 100 degrees and humid.  This time the weather was lovely.  In fact, it was much nicer there (low 60's and blue skies) than it was in Pittsburgh (40's and wintry mix).

Kate enjoying her chocolate milkshake.

 Another thing that made it nicer was that we actually had a chance to get out and have some fun.  Over the summer it was all tennis all the time.  While the main purpose of this visit was for Kate to play in a big tournament, we had the opportunity to go out the lunch Saturday between matches as well as make a stop to see the St. Louis Arch.  Sunday we had time to visit Washington University, a school Kate is thinking she may be interested in attending.

Kate at the Arch

The Arch is really quite impressive.  It's huge and is a real feat of engineering.  There's a lovely park there as well and there were a lot of people out there enjoying the nice weather and the Cardinals World Series victory.

We had lunch at a place we found during the summer, Crown Candy Kitchen.  This place is wild.  Not only do they have sandwiches and such, they have really delicious ice cream sundaes and milk shakes.  Kate had a chocolate milkshake that could have fed a family of four.  This is just one benefit of playing a sport.  The kid can eat like no other.

And at Wash U.

Wash U is very beautiful.  We had a nice walk around that of course included a stop at the tennis courts and the campus bookstore for the requisite t-shirt.  I remember when Charlie was looking at colleges he got basketball shorts at every school we visited.  Kate's all about the t-shirts and the sweatpants (obtained over the summer).

We returned tonight to my under construction kitchen.  I am hoping that the painting begins early this week so that I can get back to normal.  Until then, it's takeout for us.