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. 

6-17-21 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.

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

 The look of a couple who has only been out to eat once in the last 1 1/2 years!  Is that happiness, or fear?  But they're both vaccinated, as are we, so I'm feeling pretty good about the Covid situation at least for our family.   Anyway---it has been a couple years since we were in Knoxville, so we were hoping to go to one of our favorite restuarants---the Northshore Marina restaurant.    Considering it was a Wed. afternoon, I was surprised how many other people had the same idea!  We even had great seats on their open air covered patio room.

Faith and I even celebrated with a yummy libation---of pina collada form.  And, yes, the glass is leaning.

view of the river from our seats.

I got the Black and Blue salad.  It was as yummy as ever.

Heading back towards their place---more views of the river from near their house.

Like we did for the Cardinals last year, they also had cardboard busts of themselves for the Blues games.  So we picked them up from Faith's Dad while we were in St. Louis and brought them to them.  Tim has his Cardinals' one in a chair at his work.  Wonder if Blues' Tim will join it?

Ken was anxious to try out our old pin ball machine that the kids rescued from our house in Florissant.  Tim had to do a lot of work on it to get it up and running, but he got it back to as good as new.

We put many hours of fun into the machine years ago!

Nice to see it's back to creating more fun.

Clawdine even made an appearance.  So Ken petted his Grandkitty for awhile.

When it was time to eat again, Tim grilled some hotdogs and squash slices.  Faith made baked beans.

It was a nice change of pace.

Faith had read about a challenge where people were putting mustard on watermelon, so they decided to give it a try.  I don't think they were too impressed.

Faith even decked out Ken's wheelchair with new stickers.  After his chair being used while he was getting an infusion once, he's put stickers on it to distinguish it as his.  Had to have a Yetti for Layla.  And a Heart Oregon because everyone loves Oregon.  And the cat was to remind Ken that cats aren't so bad.

Faith's picture of Ken playing pin ball---maybe it would help his left side inattention?!

looking out towards the patio.  So even though we can't stay there since it's a tri-level with no beds on the lower 2 levels, we can enjoy the patio and faith's "office". 

 By 8ish, ken was getting pretty tired, so we headed to the hotel.  It was a nice day of visiting with the kids.