More of our Vacation: Days 2 & 3

On the second day of our vacation (which was a month ago now!) we did two major things: the St. Louis Cathedral and the St. Louis Zoo. The cathedral is the reason that we went to St. Louis instead of some other place like Branson or something. Matt's book is sort of set in St. Louis, or at least a based-on-St. Louis location, so we had to go to the basilica (this is also why much of our vacation is tax-deductible). The most important part of that trip was seeing the mosaics in this cathedral. They are simply amazing.

This is the world's largest collection of mosaics, designed by 20 different artists, covering 83000 square feet, including about 41.5 million individual pieces (called tesserae), 7000 colors (I didn't know there WERE 7000 colors). It took 76 years to complete.

If you go to the link above, you can take a virtual tour of the cathedral and see many of the mosaics. Even the children were enthralled, and we actually had to go back another day to see things we didn't get the first time. I think you could spend months in there and not absorb all the detail.

Then we went to the St. Louis Zoo. The St. Louis Zoo is free, and you can have a completely wonderful time and not spend any money there. We, however, at at the cafe, and then we bought passes to the extra things that do cost some money. It was worth it--the passes got us into the Children's Zoo, the train, the carousel, the Sea Lion show, and the 3-D dinosaur exhibit. All of which we did, sometimes more than once (we were hot and tired enough at the end that we rode the train through a couple of times before we got off at our stop).

It was the only really hot day of our trip, but even then it wasn't really hot. Not the usual Missouri-in-August hot that it could have been. It was nice to see the Sea Lions, because they splash cool water on you. I think that was David's favorite part; all day he was, "Can we go see the Sea Lions? Can we go see the Sea Lions? When are we going to see the Sea Lions?" It was pretty cute. I think my favorite part was the carousel and the train--yay for sitting down!

The kids were extremely good and amazingly non-whiney that day. Actually, they were very good and non-whiney for most of the trip. It was nice.

The next day, Monday, we stayed at our condo. We sat through a time-share presentation so that we could get tickets for a free dinner at the Tiger Rescue place--not a problem, since we KNOW we have no money to buy a time-share. Matt and I tried to get some writing done, but then I had a migraine and Matt took the kids out to the town of Farmington, went to WalMart and wasted time so I could lie down. When they came back, I took them to the condo pool for a while. We didn't go anywhere; it was really relaxing and nice. We ate in the condo, and didn't spend much money at all.

9/11

It's hard even to know how to remember this day. We didn't do anything formal here, no community services or anything, but we did talk about it. The kids don't remember--David wasn't even born and the girls were 3 and 4. Matt and I read this earlier this evening, though, and I thought it was worth thinking about:

"... the only reason 'a box-cutter can bring down a tower' is because on September 11 our defenses against such a threat were exclusively the province of the state. If nineteen punks with box-cutters had tried to pull some stunt in the parking lot of a sports bar, they'd have been beaten to a pulp. The airline cabin, however, is the most advanced model of the modern social-democratic state, the sky-high version of the wildest dreams of big government; it's Massachusetts in cloud-cuckoo land. So on September 11 on those first three flights the cabin crews followed all those Federal Aviation Administration guidelines from the seventies.

By the time the fourth plane got into trouble, the passengers knew the government wasn't up there with them. And, within ninety minutes of the first flight hitting the tower, the heroes of Flight 93 had figured out what was going on and came up with a way to stop it...On the fourth plane, they didn't follow the seventies hijack rituals. On Flight 93, they used their cell phones, discovered that FAA regulations weren't going to save them, and then acted as free men, rising up against the terrorists and, at the cost of their own lives, preventing that flight from carrying on to its target in Washington. On a morning when big government failed, the only good news came from private individuals.

For thirty years, passengers surrendered more and more rights for the illusion of security, and, as a result, thousands died. On the fourth plane, Todd Beamer and others reclaimed those rights and demonstrated that they could exercise them more efficiently than government. The Cult of Regulation failed, but the great American virtues of self-reliance and innovation saved the lives of thousands: 'Let's roll!' as Mr. Beamer told his fellow passengers.


That's been my basic rule of thumb since September 11: anything that shifts power from the individual judgment of free citizens to government is a bad thing, not just for the war on terror, but for the national character in a more general sense."

--Mark Steyn, America Alone



I hope it never happens again, but fear it will. The state, federal, and volunteer emergency management people assume it will; it's just a matter of time. God have mercy on us, and God bless the USA.

Thought for Sunday

One should never despair too soon.

--Frederick the Great

My Sweetie's Birthday!

My sweetie's birthday was on Thursday, the 3rd. Actually, it probably wasn't the world's best birthday--though he always says, "This was the best birthday ever!"

I made him breakfast Thursday morning (which most of you know I never do--he usually makes it for me, actually). Then before he had to go into work, we went for an early lunch at Taco Bell, brought our tacos home, and watched an episode of The Office on the computer (The Golden Ticket!).

Then he had to go to work...and Thursday is his longest day of the week. So, he left before noon and didn't get back until after 10 (long past his bedtime). But I let the kids stay up and wait for him, and we gave him his presents. He got some clothes, a book, and his big present--the new DVD/VCR...with a working remote!

So, for two days, he's been playing with the remote...fast-forwarding things and frame-by-framing things just for fun. He watched a bunch of episodes that we couldn't watch before when the old remote didn't work--it's been like having a whole new DVD collection.

Anyway, I coooked dinner last night (Friday, because he wasn't home Thursday). I made Philly Cheese Steak pizza--it was really yummy, if I do say so. I stole the recipe out of a magazine at the doctor's office when we went to see if AJ's hand was broken (it's not). Sabra made him a cake, and David took him to the Mt. Vernon football game.

I guess it wasn't so bad, for a grown-up birthday.

Anyway, Mom and Dad, I just want to thank you for raising him to be so great. He's the best; I love him so much.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie! I love you!