This trip has turned into not only visiting dear friends along the way, but also visiting and reconnecting with family. St. Louis was no exception.
This is my dear niece, Monika. She is now in her mid-forties and the last time I was her she was a wee 6 years old. Due to some uncompromising family situations, we had not been in contact with each other until she reached out to me about 4 years ago. Since then we visit regularly via phone and we've been absolutely giddy about seeing each other in person.
When we first saw each other we hugged for quite a while and then just stared at each other for about the first half hour or so. We delighted in each other's company and talked non-stop for the couple days we were there.
One evening we had an adults only dinner with Monika, her husband, Dennis, and their eldest, Gabriel.
The first day we were there, I accompanied Monika to the bus stop to pick up Jacob and Izzy, her two youngest children from school. Jacob hopped off the bus and asked if Uncle Peter was home and as soon as we said yes, he took off running to the house and rarely left Uncle Peter's side the entire time we were there.
Uncle Peter shows his shiny watch to a fascinated Jacob as Izzy looks on.
Jakob was quite excited to learn that I have two kids and gave me two of his prized Pokémon cards - "one for my boy and one for my girl".
Two affectionate and loving little souls.
Izzy is quite the seamstress and set about sewing a purse for me and a stuffed toy for Uncle Peter. She worked diligently while we were there so we could take our swag home with us.
The finished purse.
Meet Quidget. P chose the mismatched eyes and Izzy made sure his arms and legs were mismatched to...match?
His warty back protects him from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
Alas, we have no photos of all of us together nor of Izzy's older sister, Zoey.
Apologies for the lack of photos - we were so busy talking we forget to take photos of everyone!!
On our last day in St. Louis, we drove across the Mississippi into Illinois to visit the Cahokia Mounds.
This huge site was once the largest city of the Mississippian culture, a ritual center with about 20,000 inhabitants. We know very little about this once-thriving civilization since fast-spreading European diseases killed over 90% of the population before Europeans ever even visited the area.
And since the city was built mainly wood and mud brick, almost no signs of structures remain other than the huge mounds themselves, monuments to a vast amount of hand labor.
The plain in front of the mound was flattened clear out the the ridge you can see about a mile away.
The precise alignments of the mounds and the amount of work put into creating the site reveal an advanced civilization on the level of the Mayans or Aztecs.
Izzy and O climb the tallest mound.
In the distance, evidence of what we hope is a more permanent civilization.
Back in St. Louis, we had lunch by the lake in Forest Park, which is about twice as large as Central Park in New York.
We were sorry to say goodbye to Monika and her sweet family, but we hope to see them some day soon in Boise!
O. and P.
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