Tag Archives: Travel

Travel Guide

Travel Guide: St. Louis, MO

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“Meet me in St. Louis, Louis, meet me at the fair . . .”

Reference? Get it? Get it? Yes? No? Look it up.

Teehee.

Last weekend, my friend Lucas and I visited Ally, another friend, in St. Louis, Missouri. Ally has lived in St. Louis since we started college many moons ago, and now that we’ve been out of college for a few years, we decided that it was high time to visit her. Lucas lives in California now and I’m moving to Malaysia in August, so it was a “now or never” kind of trip. Ally was an excellent tour guide for the four days that we were there. She took us to fun places and great restaurants and introduced us to her life in the Midwest. There’s a LOT to do there and I would definitely go back.

I wasn’t entirely responsible with taking pictures when we were away; Lucas took on most of that responsibility. Here’s a little taste, though:

Thursday night Cardinals game
Thursday night Cardinals game
St. Louis Arch
St. Louis Arch
Did you know it's as wide as it is tall?
Did you know it’s as wide as it is tall?
Delicious, refreshing, summery beverages
Delicious, refreshing, summery beverages
The outdoor area of the City Museum, a magical place where people of all ages can run, jump, climb, and exlplore
The outdoor area of the City Museum, a magical place where people of all ages can run, jump, climb, and explore
One last hurrah
One last hurrah

If you’re intrigued, here’s a list of places we went (in the order that we went to them):

  • Cardinals Game
  • Kemper Gallery at Washington University
  • Washington University
  • St. Louis Arch
  • Missouri Botanical Gardens
  • Climb So Ill (this is the climbing gym where Ally belongs – LOVED THIS)
  • City Museum

And for those inclined in the food direction, here’s where we ate and drank (in the order that we tried them):

  • Broadway Oyster Bar
  • Hartford Coffee Company
  • Cafe Osage
  • The Royale
  • Pi Pizzeria
  • Rise Coffee
  • Sassy Jack’s
  • Cafe Mochi
  • HandleBar
  • Oceano Bistro
On My Mind

Phone Call

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Yesterday I got a text from my sister asking if I were free to chat. We played phone tag a couple weeks ago and the game faded before we actually connected. I called my sister immediately after receiving her message and she picked up the phone, laughing. “You didn’t need to call right away,” she said.

Actually, I did. I love my sister to death, but she doesn’t know that because her communication with our family has been so erratic since she started college, we have an unspoken policy of dropping everything to talk to her when she decides it’s a good time. My mother, who normally goes to bed by 11:30, has been on the phone with my sister well past midnight if that’s when my sister calls. My father, who normally rushes around from meeting to meeting, will postpone everything related to work to call her back. So even though I’d just walked into the house and was halfway upstairs to say hi to my roommate who was working from home, I paused my hello, went back down the stairs, and called my sister.

We had a long, lovely chat and I was glad that we did. It was good to catch up with her, and to learn that she’ll be home for a week at the beginning of June. She’s preparing to spend a year in Spain and I’m preparing to spend two in Malaysia, so we commiserated about the difficulties of getting paperwork in order and applying for visas. Now that she’s done with college, we also talked about her studying for the GREs, summer research with a professor, and her first date with someone outside her peer group. Life really does start to happen in a totally different way after college, and it was refreshing to talk about that with my sister. I do enjoy living vicariously through her tales of concerts, parties, and get-togethers (she is a much cooler, bolder, more exciting person that I ever was) but interacting with her as an adult is a nice change. We’re both getting ready for adventures abroad and I’m glad to share that experience with her.

As they say, “I smile because you’re my sister and I laugh because there’s nothing you can do about it.”

On My Mind

When the Boyfriend Met the Family

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The title makes the content of this post pretty obvious, but there is a little bit of back story, so bear with me. My boyfriend, MJ, and I have been together for five and a half years, if you don’t count the break that we took for much of 2012. My dad’s family lives in Toronto, and with the exception of my grandparents, they don’t visit us in Rochester. This is because of hurt feelings as a result of various behaviors when my parents separated back in 2001. They got back together in 2002, but the bad taste has remained in everyone’s mouths. Therefore, my mum has no contact with my dad’s sister and brother and their families, and vice versa. Consequently, this weekend was the first time MJ got a chance to meet them.

The reason we drove up to Toronto was to celebrate my aunt’s 50th birthday. I’ve had a bit of a begrudging relationship with my dad’s family because of what my 11-year-old self overhead and understood, or misunderstood, when my parents were separated, but that has improved significantly over the past few years. My grandparents, who have met and love MJ, urged me to bring him along to meet the rest of the family; a party would be the perfect opportunity. As it happened, my great aunt (Grandma’s sister), her son (second cousin), and his younger daughter (third cousin) were all in town, too!

Having grown up away from my extended family (Mum’s family is in Montreal), getting together has always been an occasion. It’s always a special event and a flurry of activity; I’ve forever envied friends whose grandparents pick them up from school, who babysit their little cousins, and who have dinner with aunts and uncles once a week. MJ’s entire family lives here, too, so I’ve spent a good deal of time with them over the years. It was so great to introduce MJ into my family in the same way.

The details of what we did are unimportant and probably quite boring, but the moral of the story is that my family loves MJ and they love him. I am so glad they were all finally introduced because now MJ has faces to put to names and my family knows the man I love. It’s such a basic concept, but took so long to come to life. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that I can’t pick my family, but that shouldn’t stop me from having a relationship with them and from bringing important people in my life to meet them. There was a long period of time when I refused to go to Toronto, but thanks to social media, email, and the perseverance of all parties, I do have connections with my extended family, and I am proud of that. I was proud to introduce them to MJ, and proud to introduce MJ to them. Even though we’ve never lived in the same city, my cousins and I are friends and have fun and share gossip, hopes, and dreams. Regardless of what came to pass between them, my parents, aunts, and uncles have always tried to bring all the cousins together. After this weekend, I can certainly say that they have succeeded.

To conclude, my boyfriend knows my family and my family knows my boyfriend, and I am so thrilled and honored to know and love all of them.