summer 2021

A Peek Inside the St. Louis Aquarium

At the end of the summer, Turkey and I finally got to visit the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station:

The most beautiful (in my opinion) part of the aquarium is right inside the entrance…a tank fronted with a clock face that is a replica of the original Union Station clock (which is over 125 years old!):

There are other nods to history in the aquarium, as well:

There are many different animals that call the St. Louis Aquarium home, but arguably the most famous are a trio of otters named Thatcher, Sawyer, and Finn, in honor of some of Mark Twain’s most recognizable characters:

Included among the other creatures are a blue lobster named Lord Stanley, which was a gift from a restaurant in Massachusetts following the St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup win in 2019, and other, more typical sea animals like jelly fish and sharks:

I’m very excited with what they’ve done with this property (there are other attractions like a mirror maze, a ropes course, miniature golf, and, of course, the St. Louis Wheel, plus some restaurants, including the delightfully retro Union Station Soda Fountain), and I hope it will continue to be a fun place for people of all ages to visit!

Fireworks Season

Pretty much the best thing about August is the Sunday night fireworks shows in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Here’s a look back at each of the five shows I’ve enjoyed this year. I dressed up in a different kimono (with coordinating kimono sandals) each time to really capture the Japanese festival spirit, and once I even carried a parasol, mostly because Roald was concerned that the fireworks were so bright, we’d need “fireworkscreen.” I also branched out a bit and designed a few more fireworks myself, including a pair of them to commemorate Tokyo 2020.

Now that the big, in-game summer event is over, I guess it’s time to start looking forward to fall!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

This summer was far superior to last summer…we actually went some places, and even left town for a few days! Still, I spent a good deal of my free time working on my island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, until I have it almost perfect (there are a few items from Gulliver I still want to collect and display). Once that was done, I just spent a lot of time lounging by the pool!

The Farewell to Summer Feast

Tonight, we had our “Farewell to Summer” dinner, which was also a Beast Feast, because we wanted to celebrate the awesome job David Sandusky of Beast Craft BBQ did on Food Network’s BBQ Brawl this summer!

In keeping with the St. Louis theme, I made a gooey butter cake for dessert, only I overbaked it, rendering it not gooey. It still tasted good, though, so that was something.

The 2021-22 school year begins Monday morning!

Lego Rabbits

The one thing I didn’t cover in my Nature Pop! post was the collection of Lego rabbits in the exhibition. There are about 20 of them, and I thought they deserved their own entry!

They’re located near Visitor Services in Cheekwood’s Color Garden, which is appropriate, because they are a very colorful collection of rabbits!

I like how there are both solid and patterned rabbits hiding among the plants:

Sean Kenney did an excellent job designing these creatures. He captured the look and movement of actual rabbits so well, they really look like the animals you might find hiding in a garden!

Nature Pop!

The first time we visited the Missouri Botanical Garden, it was to see the Nature Connects Lego exhibition by Sean Kenney. When I heard that he had a new Lego exhibition, Nature Pop!, being hosted by Cheekwood Estate and Gardens in Nashville, I knew we were going to have to use our reciprocal membership to see it, too.

Let’s start with my very favorite piece from the installation…the Dodo bird. Not only do I love the way he designed the bird and baby, I also love that the colors of the sunset are used as a metaphor for extinction.

There was a wide variety of wildlife represented, with most of the pieces being found in and around the Children’s Garden.

Some of the pieces really need to viewed from all sides to fully appreciate them:

This deer family was another of my favorites. I especially like the way the colors from both parents are incorporated into the design of the baby…and the colors themselves are amazing!

This was an outstanding exhibition, and I’m really glad we had the chance to see it in person! Stay tuned for a look at the Lego rabbit collection in the Color Garden!

Road Trip Wrap-Up in the Time of COVID-19

Our travels this summer might not yet be back to what they were in pre-COVID times, but we did actually go somewhere this year! Since we weren’t quite as busy as we have been on previous vacations, I’m just going to take a look at the whole trip instead of going day-by-day.

On Monday, we left for a short trip to Bowling Green, KY. Any visit to Bowling Green includes a meal from Zaxby’s. Fortunately, we have always done carryout, so that wasn’t even any different from our usual dinner.

On Tuesday morning, we drove into Nashville to visit Cheekwood Estate and Gardens and see the Nature Pop! Lego exhibition by Sean Kenney. Both the sculptures and the estate were breathtaking!

We also drove down to the Cumberland riverfront to get a look at the Nashville skyline.

We were going to get lunch at Hattie B’s, one of the locations in Nashville known for hot chicken, but the line was unbelievably long, so we went to Chaney’s Dairy Barn and had ice cream for lunch instead!

Our day ended with a beautiful double rainbow!

On Wednesday, Bunny and I went with her grandparents to tour Western Kentucky University, where she is planning on attending after she finishes at community college:

And on Thursday, we visited the Aviation Heritage Park in Bowling Green, where we saw not only an authorized replica of Marine One, but also an aircraft flown by every astronaut who walked on the moon!

We also had an early birthday celebration for Bunny that night:

We were up early on Friday morning to head home, but we did stop for donuts at the Donut Bank on the way:

It was a little challenging coming up with fun things to do outside in the summer heat, (I wanted to go to a Bowling Green Hot Rods game, but between the temperatures and the fact that I’m still a little hesitant to be in a big crowd, even outdoors, made me table that for the time being), but we found something to do every day, and it was so nice to get away for a bit!

A Golden Bunny Day

Today is Bunny’s golden birthday!!! We started the day with presents:

I think she likes her new outfit!

We spent the day watching some of her favorite movies. We just got back from a short trip, so she was happy to stay at home and just relax. She picked her favorite dinner of Stromboli and Sunchips, just like she did last year:

She asked me to make a cake that looks like Wrecker’s stuffed friend, Lula, in The Bad Batch. I think it turned out ok, although it should be more red than pink.

Happy Birthday Bunny!

Chickadee Thursday

We actually went somewhere more than 90 minutes from home!

On Tuesday, we visited Cheekwood Estate and Gardens to see the Nature Pop! Lego exhibition by Sean Kenney. We also stopped by the Riverfront Landing so we could get a good view of the Nashville skyline.

It was so nice to get away from home for a few days!