Saint Louis

Just finished our trip to Saint Louis for the NCAA Hockey Final Four. Spring is there, leaves are coming out and now they’re losing their grape blossoms to a late frost.

• We find there is nothing, nothing between Minneapolis and Saint Louis. Well, Iowa, which I’ll see much more of later this year. Looking forward to that. And about four turns to get there. Kinda refreshing.
• Saint Louis is a great town. Good restaurants, good neighborhoods, great old buildings. Nice arch, eh.
• We toured Anheuser Busch. How can you not? Half of all beer drunk in the US is Bud-style. 10% of the US rice crop goes into NASCAR bellies. They do a good tour and have a great hospitality room, even serving a few stouts and ales. And if you're sneaky you can get in there before your tour.
• Hockey was top shelf. The semi-final Boston College v. North Dakota duel was among the best I’ve seen. Unbelievable intensity. Game winning goal at 50 seconds left, and two more goals after that. 74 shots on goal. Ouch.
• I’m now a total bird geek. Cannot be denied after tracking down a few lifers, the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (a Saint Louis specialty) and the Fish Crow. Both totally normal everyday birds in many ways. But they’re new, BABY!