End of Summer

After our trip to the Northeast, we went back and stayed with my mom in Southern Illinois till Labor Day.  During that time, we played some more golf, visited some more with relatives and did a couple of day trips.  With the pandemic still in full force in Southern Illinois, we had a couple of small get togethers with relatives too.

One of the other enjoyable things we did was go to Vin De Set in downtown St Louis for a Sunday brunch.  The food was tasty and generous portions - I think that brunch provided me with 3 additional meals as leftovers!  They have a roof top deck that is quite large and much of it is covered so we had an enjoyable outdoor dining experience.  Due to Covid 19, they have tweaked their brunch and that is part of the reason I had sooo much food from a single meal.  Each table starts with breakfast food baskets.  We had scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage balls in one basket and then another with breakfast pastries.  We also had a complimentary mimosa - yum.  We had to be careful because that was enough food to fill us up and we had 2 more courses coming.  The second course was of your choosing - I had ham, broccolini, and potatoes; my mom had prime rib and potatoes, and Jeff had chicken and waffles.  We had requested and received a box for our leftover breakfast goodies and then we all had boxes with our leftover main course.  The final course was dessert.  They brought out a tray with 3 small desserts - mini crème brulee, mini cheesecake, and a mini chocolate mouse.  We could have had seconds if we wanted.  In addition to good food, the setting is nice.  It is well thought out and you have a view of the arch from up there.

When we had gotten back from our trip, my mom had mentioned that an aunt had suggested the two of them go for a ride in the convertible with the top down.  The only problem was we took the convertible.  So a day trip with the convertible top down it was.  Scenic drive near us- hmm. Jeff suggested Lake Carlyle so off we went one afternoon.  It is about a 1-hour drive there.  Amazingly, Jeff, the navigator sent me to the sail boat dock/marina there - think someone wanted to check out the sail boats.  Lake Carlyle is a large lake in Southern Illinois that is a State Park.  My and my mother's impression is that it is a park that has never really taken off.  We have both heard stories of how it is a dangerous lake when the wind comes from certain directions so maybe that is why.  Regardless when we were there we only saw 1 boat out on the lake.  We did wander the marina a little bit and saw a couple of people around their boats, but all in all, it was pretty quiet.  I learned some family history on the ride too.  Lake Carlyle was made by damming the Kaskaskia River and it seems that my great grandfather had a clubhouse up around what is now the lake.  My mom had stories about a couple of the small towns we went through to get there.

Our other day trip we went to the western side of St. Louis to the Long Row Lavender Farm in Wrightsville.  Summer isn't really the time to go to a lavender farm, but the write up said they had sunflowers and zinnia blooming so off we went.  We expected to have the farm to ourselves, but boy were we wrong.  The parking lot was almost full.  We wandered the rows of lavender and other flowers for a few minutes and I recognized a couple of different types of lavender.  Then we decided that it was lunchtime and they had a café and some tables outside so lets eat!  It was a great decision.  The setting was quite pretty and the food was delicious.

One of our small get togethers was the day after our drive to the lavender farm.  The next day was the Kentucky Derby.  We invited one of my aunts over for mint juleps, quiche, and dessert.  I had to do something for the derby.  If you remember I had a virtual cocktail party for the virtual derby in the spring so I needed to do something for the real derby, but the whole covid thing meant no party (oh, and yeah I am a guest at someone else's house!).  The mint juleps were good, but maybe a little strong.  We all picked a horse and my aunt chose Authentic who won which was nice since her birthday was coming up.  Our dessert was a Mrs. Hullings split lemon cake we had bought the day before specifically for my aunt.  She had asked us about the locations of the stores that still carry that cake so we knew she would enjoy it - we did too.

We had another aunt over for labor day pizza and apple pie.  Apples had started to come in locally and let's be truthful - fresh local apples don't happen along the Alabama coast.  Apple crumb pie it was and it turned out well.  Finished up our visit the next day with one more aunt - her house this time.  My Aunt Marilyn is a very good cook so she made us a very nice send off dinner.  Yep, Wednesday morning we drove off for Alabama happily imagining beach walks and playing in the ocean.