2021-June 11-18 STL and Knoxville trip

For a couple years, Ken had been looking forward to going to St. Louis for his high school reunion.  When he got the diagnosis of Glioblastoma in 2020, I didn't think this trip was going to happen.  But fortunately, he remained well enough to make the trip.  It wasn't always easy, but it was well worth it!

6-11-21 on to St. Louis

6-11-21 Drury Inn, St. Charles, Mo

6-12-21 Mercy 51 year class reunion 

6-13-21 Impromptu Family reunion

6-14-21 lunch with my Vball gals and visit with Fischers.

 6-15-21 STL-KNOX

6-15-21 Homewood suites, West Knoxville

6-16-21 Lunch at Northshore Marina and picnic dinner at the kids' house 

6-17-21 Faith's birthday!!!!

6-18-21 Knoxville - ATL

 Wish we would be able to do more trips to St. Louis, but with covid and Ken's condition, I doubt that will happen. 

6-18-21 Knoxville - ATL

 Check out day---again.  So I packed everything up and loaded it in the car.  Then we headed off to breakfast.

Good bye Homewood Suites by Hilton.

Tim and Faith joined us again---their 2nd time out in 1 week!  I've been wanting to go to First Watch and get their lemon ricotta pancakes.  So we did.  Plus we had a gift card from the kids from over a year ago---pre-cancer and pandemic!  Breakfast was as good as I remembered.

From there, the kids headed their way and Ken and I hit the highway, again.

It was a little congested on I-75 between Knoxville and Chattanooga.  That surprised me.  Usually that area traffic is flying on.

but it was another pretty day.

doesn't look congested here, but it was.  But we were almost to the I-75/I-24 split here.

past Chattanooga and heading South into Georgia now.  Glad we weren't going the other way.  Traffic was at a stand still.  We hit some of that on the way out, but not to the extent that it was today.

at least South-bound was going good

North bound stopped for miles

never did see what the tie up was.

But the tie up went on and on.

and on

But we made pretty good time.  Home in about 3 hours.  Then it was time to hit the pool!  It was up to 90 degrees again.  But I'm not complaining!

The kids asked if we wanted to go to Totopos for dinner.  We, of course, said yes!  They even had a guy singing and playing a guitar.  Layla seemed to really enjoy it---even played air piano along with him.

As we were leaving, I grabbed the teddy bear Bill gave us from the machine at Stef's.  She was tickled to get it.  She even named her Fuzzy.

Then I ran to the grocery store.  On my way home from there, I was treated to a pretty amazing sunset!

a nice welcome home!

 We were gone for a week.  I wasn't sure how this trip would go---long drive; lots of things scheduled; staying in hotels when we're use to resort condos.  But I think it turned out really well.  Got to visit with a lot of friends and family.  I didn't fall asleep while driving and crash.  Ken seemed to enjoy himself without getting too overly tired.  And I enjoyed myself.  Don't know if (we/I) will ever go back to St. Louis, so it was nice getting a little closure.

6-17-21 Faith's birthday!!!!

 If I remember correctly, this is Faith's 42nd birthday.  I'm not sure we ever really spent the day with them on her birthday before!  Hope she didn't mind us raining on her parade.  

It started with breakfast on their patio with Tim's home made strawberry biscuits and link sausage.  They were really good!  VG's has nothing on him!  Speaking of VG's, ken and I ran by there on our way over and picked up a box of birthday treats for Faith from the owner of VG's (and good friend of theirs), and we got a couple danishes for later and a couple loaves of English Muffin bread.

Ken doing his impersonation of Shrek.

And breakfast is ready!

I think Faith had a pretty good birthday.  This is a quilt her friend Octavia made for her.  She also got some earrings and stuff from a new crafters store in Old Town from Tim.  We got her an inflatable pool.  And i know some of her other friends sent her stuff. 

Ken suggested we go to Rala and see Angie's art in the display.  The kids thought that was a good idea, so we all hoped in their SUV and they drove us to the Old City.  I got to sit in the back seat and enjoy the views without having to watch the road, too.  Love the clouds again.

A couple weeks ago there was a big Dollie Festival in the Old City.  So we got to see some of the Dollie stuff that was still along the streets.

Rala still requested masks be worn.  Not too many  places are requesting that anymore, so we obliged and put some on. 

Some of the exhibit.  I was thinking maybe I should enter something next year?! 

Angie's art wasn't there.  Unbeknownst to her---they both sold already!

Then we walked to a glass shop in the area.  Liked the art on the windows along the way.  Faith wanted to buy something from the glass shop, but they were closed---even though they were suppose to be open and someone was in there working.

She also went in this butcher shop to check out their stuff.  I liked their door handle.

They also went into this shop where they bought some tamales, or some such food items, to take home for later.

Love this little street cafe seating.

more outdoor dining

More views in Old City

The Old City is really a neat area.  Knoxville has a lot to offer.  Not too big, but lots to see and do in the area.

Another view of Rala from the parking lot as we were getting back in the car

More of the city.  Tim works close to here.

I wanted to check out the Mask General Store.  I love the odd ball 5 and dime store vibe of it. 

cute little park near the Mask General Store.

more along Gar street in the city.

they even have a cute little theater.

the bustling down town area.

Interesting diner?

Along the way back to their house, we went along the river.

Faith wanted Tim to make pizzas for dinner, so he did.  They were really good, too, especially the taco pizza.  I haven't had taco pizza in years and always loved it.  After dinner, we had hand pies (from VGs) and ice cream for dessert and sang happy birthday to Faith. 

and drank champagne.

Faith making a Snap Chat video to send to Angie.

We left about 8 again.  Tried to find the park where we use to watch sunset, but didn't find it, so ended up back at the hotel.  Time to get a good night's rest for another sort of long ride the next day.