Yesterday we took it easy. We needed to. Despite the fact that a couple of factors combined to make the Stagger Inn show a LOT easier than we’d expected, Friday night and Saturday morning were absolutely exhausting. Heather slept till nearly 2.30 in the afternoon and I don’t know that I beat her to consciousness by much.
The Stagger show couldn’t start till after the Cardinals baseball game, which delayed the start till nearly 11pm, carving an hour off the gig – and they paid us really swiftly, which carved off nearly an hour on the tail end of the night. We were out of the bar by 2.20am and headed back to Susan’s place through the mists of Western Illinois, happily tuckeredout. I’d furthered my string exploration by breaking another two strings and deciding that DRs really, really, really suck and we’d eaten plenty of fried things and then worked them off again.
I stayed up even later chatting with Sue, but eventually bed called too seductively and we retreated to somnolence.
Saturday afternoon was recovery. We slept. We snacked. We restrung. I’m on the last set of DRs and I’m not teerrrrrribly excited about them because a) as above, DRs appear to suck and b) I have tried these strings before – Black Beauties – coated strings with a black sheath ostensibly because it looks cool but presumably because it hides the fact that these strings too are no doubt corroded.
They held though. We played the Focal Point show and had a great time. Justin McMahon has once again joined us and it’s actually just a pleasure to play shows with him. I was sort of hoping that he and Heather would do a couple of tunes together because they’re voices match up pretty well – bur it wasn’t in the cards for last night.
Today we didn’t take it so easy. City Museum. Nuff said. In deference to Kristen not being QUITE as climbing / jumping / crawling – oriented as myself and Susan’s being even LESS climbing / jumping / crawling – oriented up until the very last second I was sort of entertaining the idea that maybe we three would wander the Saint Louis Zoo or something less strenuous that Kristen had never been to – but I’m glad we returned once again to the City Museum.
Just an incredibly beautiful day. The place was overrun with children, but I only stepped on one of them and I hear their heads are soft so I’m sure he recovered. The place is impossibly to describe to people who haven’t been there, so I’m not going to bother – I’ve tried a couple of times in the past of course, but I think I’m going to leave you with the obligatory billion photos and let attempt to give you an impression of how amazing the place is.
I never plan to have children, but I recognize that this is built with them (and the child-at-heart) in mind. Still – let it be known that I hope some of my friends’ kids hit the right age for this place before I’m too old to wander it freely! Brennan? Tori? George? Del? Sharif? Joanna? Get those kids willin’ and able! And let’s go to Saint Louis!!!
Helping Justin out of another hole… actually I guess this is probably one of the first holes we ended up in… one of the most enjoyable things about the City Museum is that eventually everyone sort of has their “own” secret passages. Looking up the 10 stories to the top of the shoe shoots. Yeah, climbing will make you dizzy – and not just cause you get out of breath.
And looking back down those 10 stories before going down one of the longest spiral slides I’ve ever heard of. Just a giant praying mantis on the roof. Oh, and the ferris wheel’s up and running! Since Bob Cassilly was killed, I’ve long been afraid that the City Museum would stagnate and cease to evolve, but the place continues to grow spectacularly.Â
I Love this sequence. “This is a GREAT IDEA!!!” “I think?” Justin’s pants didn’t survive the 10 story slide, but burning the seat out of his pants didn’t stop Justin from at least INVESTIGATING other slides… Kristen usually took the stairs but she got daring every once in a while. She climbed down a toooob through sharks and sea turtles in the Aquarium portion of the City Museum. This portion gives me the uber-water-willies and I emerged from it shaking. But I’ve got issues. Heather passing through the parrot gauntlet. She was wise to fear. Justin was under aerial assault from another macaw that kept stripping bark of its stand and spitting it at him. This was just before he realized he was standing right underneath yet ANOTHER bird… Justin sort of had a rough day at the City Museum in Saint Louis, MO.
I know that there is a passage beneath the jaw of the giant whale that leads down into the dragon-filled caverns. Now – I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I don’t look before I leap and I ended up stepping on a child’s head (gently) before leading my little intrepid band into a tiny tunnel that smelled of feet, but it was a good introduction to Justin as to just how wonderful the place was to explore… Kristen spent a lot of time looking at me through cracks and crevices and explaining that “no, I will NOT climb in that hole”.
Yet another example of City Museum growth – this place wasn’t lit up during our last visit, just bare concrete and freshly-finished mosaics. Oh…. the pants. Justin McMahon is good for nothing by the end of the day but blood sacrifice. Shame: we’ve still got a gig to play!
