We don’t get many of these here. It’ll be unbearably hot soon and we will all be complaining wholeheartedly.

I met up with Vanessa for coffee at Benton Park Cafe (It was supposed to be at another place that was, naturally, closed on Mondays. I ALWAYS forget that most places seem to be closed on Monday.)

Then we went for a walk around the park. It was beautiful! (and will be part of the Benton Park 5k course in June…thinking about costumes of course…)

We thought this was a funny sign. The idea of fishing in the pond seemed humorous, and especially all the regulations…and the fact that once you hit 64, it just doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

Saturday night I went to the Symphony Concert. It was “Beer and Pretzel” night, which meant, free beer and pretzels. Seemingly unlimited as you just had to ask at the bar for your free beer…and we felt one was enough. I’m not a huge Budweiser fan (by that I mean, I prefer beer that tastes better) and the choices were Bud or Bud Light. A free beer is a free beer though, and props to the company for donating! The pretzels were from Companion Bakery and were the same pretzels we got at the end of the Go Race.

I thought that beer and pretzels were VERY funny.

Cheers to the St Louis Symphony!

If you are local, I hope you were able to get outside today!  If you aren’t local, I hope you are having nice weather as well 🙂

I had a lovely run after teaching this evening too. Note: Running seems to be WAY easier when I do it several times a week.

I feel like this morning I was really turning into my mother.  I needed a day off running, but ate an obscene amount of chips and salsa the night before, so I wanted to get some sort of exercise.  But…the weather was just too pretty to go to the gym, so I decided a walk around the park was just the ticket.  And I took my phone to take pictures of how beautiful it was.

This reminds me of a moment in my adolescence where my mother was trying to get me to do something…she said, “It’s such a nice day!” and I recall my response of “Every day is a nice day here” and in my head I definitely thought that was a bad thing.

But here I am as an adult (a married lady, no less!) enjoying a string of nice days, remarking on them with everybody I know and pass, and making efforts to go and GET MY WALK IN.  And…take pictures for the blog.

I love these pink trees!  I am not a plant person, I don’t know what they are (can somebody tell me in the comments?) but they are ubiquitous in the park and very pretty.

I started thinking about how when Chris and I move I want it to still be close enough that I can do all my short runs in the park.

Not quite as spring-like in this photo.  I don’t know all the history of the park but I love all the little random (seeming) buildings.  I imagine people back in the past wearing old fashioned clothing, riding horses, or perhaps talking on really giant cell phones enjoying a day much like today.

What sort of blogger would I be without a self portrait?  Besides which, I wanted to show off my new sunglasses!  I once said that I felt every outfit needed a touch of whimsy.  Now I can wear black socks on sunny days.

Not sure why, but this tree made me think of Gondor.

This was much prettier in person.  My camera skills are not the greatest 😉  And another gate…I love the random gates—did they used to have fences that continued?  Because otherwise they really do seem like a waste.

The little castle at the side entrance of the park.

Another pink tree.

It was a lovely walk!

I passed a few people I knew, and got passed by random people—one a runner talking on the phone, another a man wearing sweatpants and a heavy coat running who yelled at me to keep my elbows up.  I passed two woman sitting on a bench, one just sitting and her friend was on her side doing leg lifts.  I see so many characters—is that because these are the sort of people who are off work on a Monday morning??

Anyway, I apologize to my readers for the maudlin-esque tone of my blog recently.  I am feeling pretty good today and look forward to the week, so you can call off the men in white coats.

I hope it will be a more positive week and I feel like today is off to an awesome start.  I’m off to rehearse the Martinu duo for this weekend’s Chamber Project St Louis concert at the Wine Press in the Central West End (tickets are $40 and include dinner), then I have just a little bit of teaching—many students are on spring break in addition to the school I teach at, so it’s a very light teaching week.

What are you up to this week?