St. Louis Traditionals

Flying to Patagonia, Dad in the cockpit, Carrie-Bri and myself as passengers, in a little white Cesna using Highway 141 as a runway. Success. I think Carrie yelled at Dad for ascending too quickly through some stratus that sparkled, glitter-crusted.

Anyway. Reality. Big House.

Francis was sprawled on the couch before leaving for work. He had saved one “sparkler bomb” to light in early Independence celebration with Puck. The recipe was typed out on a sheet in the living room. Maybe he needs to think up a different name for this concoction. The resulting boom was so-so. He shrugged his shoulders, probably already thinking up ways to tweak it. For a kid who loves loud explosions, he still holds his ears every time.

Soulard Market.

Established 1779; I love how old things can be around here. Puck, who loves pointing out how wrong people can be about things – we’re in that phase now – insisted that the current 85 year-old Italian-inspired brick building couldn’t possibly be that old.

Wednesdays are slow at Soulard, so they didn’t have what Carrie was looking for. But there was one guy selling homegrown things, including cloth fish stuffed with catnip. Puck saw the baseball-fabric version and absolutely had to get it for me. With Mom’s money.

So, lunch: Gus’ Pretzels.

“Come on, Puck. I want to get your picture by the Gus’ Pretzels sign,” Irish told him.

“Aw, again? Every time I have to get my picture taken by the sign!”

He immediately began hamming it up for the camera. And then again for a second shot, thumbs up.

We all ordered something different, learned a little something new. “Twist” is out-of-town; “stick” is St. Louis. So I guess that’s why I prefer the stick version. And a little cheddar cheese dip to go with it.

Caught the game with the girls on our hardly-ever-HD-quality laptop broadcast. Made some final plans for K.C. Carrie rolled up pans of chicken and croissants while Puck played with the neighbor kids down the street.

While Puck went to bed in the warm evening, Crackers attacked her catnip fish with relish. One happy cat.