Other Cakers

Happy Fall!  I'm completely consumed with yardwork (what oh what shall I do when it's too cold outside?) that my brain can't seem to compose a blog.  You do know that these posts hit my brain a couple of days or hours before I actually sit down to the computer?

Anyhow, someone posted a blog post of another caker.  She has cakes I haven't reached yet, but soon I will get there.  So far I am at 109.  That's rather impressive yet nowhere near what I thought I would have at this point in the year.

http://tempestinapot.blogspot.com/2014/09/my-summer-caking.html

Caking - May 13

May 13th was another night time cruise through downtown. 

I jumped out of the car across the street from a police officer to get the one at the corner in front of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

 

Then we cruised to mid-town.  This was at the Sheldon Theater, an awesome little stage with great acoustics. 

 

 

Around the corner, but sharing the same lot, is the Fabulous Fox Theater.  This is where all of the big theater productions play.  I've seen Mama Mia and Jersey Boys here.  It is so gorgeous inside I could spend all day admiring architecture and design without ever watching a single play.

 

It was sheer accident that I saw this cake, I believe it's Big Brothers/Big Sisters.  It is at the other end of the block from the Fox Theater. 

 Then we managed to get back downtown.  Seriously, this was the most meandering drive ever.  There is a street between Busch Stadium and the new Ballpark Village.  I was so dazzled by he lights at Ballpark Village that I barely noticed the cake in front of the stadium.  Not that it really mattered because all of my shots are small and grainy and never really captured the cake.  My mom got a much better shot of my brother next to it a few weeks ago.  That's what happens when you actually get out of your car for the picture instead of looking like a stalker.

The next drive-by cake is in the Grove neighborhood, south of downtown.  It is the LGBT cake in front of the LGBT Center that evidently has since lost its lease or something so it is now considered a traveling cake?  It did make an appearance at the Pride parade earlier this summer.  By the way, this is not the only cake that has been featured in a parade and I am learning that others "migrate".

Back to downtown and the cake at the City Library.  This building is by far my most favorite to visit.  It is as glorious and beautiful as your imagination can take you for an old library.  It has grand stair cases and wood-carved features and the best old-book library smell.

Finally, the Peabody Auditorium.  This used to be the Kiel Opera House and stood unused for many years.   I have never been inside this building but it sounds as if it has a lot of the old architectural features I seem to like.  To get this picture I pulled up in a no-parking zone behind several taxis whose drivers watched me closely from parking, departing my car, running up the stairs, taking a picture, back down the stairs, into my car, and drive off.  Not everyone is aware of the cake phenomena around town and certainly not the weirdos stopping at random places to get a picture of said cakes.  Oh well.

Riot in Ferguson

Last night as I watched the evening news a story started to unfold that I watched until 2am.  On Saturday a black teen was killed by a Ferguson police officer.  Yesterday's protest and then prayer vigil deteriorated as the group started to disperse.  It was a horrid mob scene as local businesses were looted, the worst of which was a QuikTrip that caught fire.

I have lived in this area for most of my life.  The Walmart they are showing is the one where I get my prescriptions and routinely shop.  Many of the stores are in areas that I drive by, if not visit, multiple times a month.  This doesn't hit close to home, it IS home.

Was this a racial issue?  Of course Al Sharpton and the media are spinning that, but my God, how simplistic.  As a young teen I recognized that the powers-that-be would spout off about race but I could see so clearly that it was more a divide between the haves and have-nots.  Granted most in the "haves" are white and the "have nots" are black, but neither group is 100%.  So when a police officer drove through a particular apartment complex known for criminal activity (I lived behind that complex 25 years ago and it was seedy back then) and saw three kids, regardless of their race, he suspected trouble.  What transpired after that is up for debate.  He said one of the kids lunged into his car, the kid's friends say the cop pulled him in through the window.  There isn't video to say which is true.

The investigation is already under way.  Regardless, a young man is dead and his family is grieving.  The community has rallied together to express their frustration over police brutality and to pray.  What transpired afterwards is not related to Mike Brown's death.  The looters did come from the crowd at the prayer vigil but they were not praying for Mike's family or his memory.  They jumped on an opportunity to express indignation, they wanted to make noise.

And then all hell broke loose.  Local businesses were hit and they were hit hard.  Windows were broken and shelves ransacked.  The man who owned the shop selling rims says he probably lost over $100,000.  Of course the entire world saw pictures of the QuikTrip that burned to the ground (I believe from some idiot shooting off fireworks indoors).  Crowds then trolled north, closer to my home.  More businesses hit, more damage.

This is just so devastating.  North St. Louis County has had its share of problems.  As homeowners aged, their working class houses sold at lower prices than elsewhere in the county.  This has paved the way for poorer people to move into nice, quiet neighborhoods.  I mean, come on, who doesn't want to live some place where you can raise your children in peace, where they can play on the street without worrying about driveby shootings and roving gangs?  Isn't living in a little two bedroom bungalow an improvement over a third floor apartment? 

Oh my God, they were black.

And then as people my parents' age reached retirement they started looking to "downsize" and sought condos twenty miles away, usually across the river in St. Charles County.  We have all called it "white flight".  It sounds racist, but why not?  They are the ones who talk in not-so-veiled phrases such as "the neighborhoods have changed".  Of course they did, but was that a bad thing?  Was integration so evil?  I've gotta say, last year when I returned to North County I came into a fully integrated neighborhood and it is glorious.  I love it here.  I have neighbors of various races (not just two) and everyone is friendly.  We all spend inordinate hours tending our yards and caring for our homes.  We are the same and have the same concerns.  We are also in similar economic situations.  These are the people, sorry WE are the people, who will keep our communities alive and vibrant.

I don't live in Ferguson but I have in the past.  It is a fabulous century old community with tree-lined streets.  Many years ago there was a revitalization effort to keep the old time charm while attracting new businesses.  My older son owns a shop in downtown (not where the rioting took place last night).  Ferguson has been one of the many communities working hard to make North County a desirable place to live, shop, visit.

All of that said, all of the beauty and efforts to make these areas desirable, there is a poverty issue.  There is plenty of section 8 housing, lots of foreclosures, rental homes.  Even the duplexes where I once lived many moons ago are cheaper housing than a full-fledged house.  This brings an "undesirable" element, and I don't mean black.  New residents don't have an invested interest in upkeep of their properties or the development of their community.  They are temporary and transient.  With them comes crime and chaos. 

The police are put in a precarious position.  They are residents who DO have a vested interest in the improvement of their communities.  They face crime and stupidity on a daily basis.  They know this is dangerous to other residents but also deteriorates the value of their own homes.  How nice it would be if the hardest part of their jobs was just to issue traffic tickets?   But that is not their reality.

So three teenagers are walking down the street in an apartment complex where crime is routine.  My guess is the cop gave a command and the boys talked back, probably in defense that they were on their way home.  He decided to take no shit and things escalated from there.  I would also guess the cop focused on the biggest kid in the group, aren't they always the leader?  Having spent a lot of time with the "big guys", um no.  They tend to be gentle giants, frequently targeted by smaller guys trying to prove a point.  Now there is a death and the community is upset.  Was this police brutality?  Was this yet another set of thugs spreading crime?  As people wrestle over these questions and a desire to bring light to known problems, idiot thugs took the opportunity to fill their cars and their pockets.

Knowing human nature last night's hostilities were not over.  I stayed home from work and kept my son home from school.  Sure enough, a ten a.m. demonstration got out of hand.  My other son lives just blocks from that area so his family spent the day with me.  Tonight he went to his father's house.

More violence is erupting tonight in front of the burnt QT.  Another bumpy night is ahead.  Hopefully the vandalism will quickly cease so we can engage in the more important conversation.  How do we address the economic disparity in our communities?  How do we keep all of our citizens safe?  How do we control crime without slaughtering innocent people?

Caking April 19

Back in April I posted about the birthday cakes popping up around St. Louis.  The city is celebrating 250 years - woot!  Just a couple weeks ago they finally got all 250 cakes out and it turns out unofficial cakes are rolling out as well.  In my regular geeky fashion I have a spreadsheet of all of the locations as well as the unofficial ones.  So far I have visited 80 cakes.

I figured I would take you on my journey in chronological order in my next few posts.  Back in April I posted the first few cakes I found so I will pick up where I left off....

Ted Drewes, the iconic frozen custard stand.  It is mandatory that all visitors to St. Louis visit the Arch and Ted Drewes.  I just found out that mom has NEVER been to Ted Drewes.  We will be fixing that in the coming weeks.

The Shrewsbury Metrolink station.  This one is ridiculous that it wasn't the first cake I captured.  I work literally less than a block away from it.

Why My Daughter Would Kill Me

Yesterday I went on a little jaunt around town that had my daughter been in the car, she would have reached from the backseat and put her hands around my neck and ended my mortal suffering.  She has been on similar journeys, ones where taking the scenic route interfered with the destination, leaving her fuming and me giggling with "oops" guess that was a wrong turn....

Hubby and I started our day off to join some friends as they said farewell to a musician that passed away last week from cancer.  I didn't know the man, but my friend Donna had worked with his wife for many years.  We drove to Soulard, a beautiful old French part of town filled with corner bars, a great century old farmers market and hosts our annual Mardi Gras celebrations.  The 1860's Saloon was crammed with people and no place decent for Mr. Bad Knees to sit down.  We greeted our friends, passed condolences to the widow, had a beer, listened to two songs, and had to leave.  It was too much standing in too little of a space.  Clearly Jimmy Lee Kennett was adored by many many people and I hope such a public outpouring of support warmed Heidi's heart.  By the way FUCK CANCER!

Thus begins the roadtrip of many miles.

I suggested that since we were just down the road, let's see if we can find the Lafayette cake (STL 250 celebration).  That was easy enough!  Hubby said with the afternoon wide open, let's go to Illinois and check out Lottawatta Lodge (they reportedly have his most favorite food in the world, chicken fried steak).  I google the location, it's only 12 miles away.  I cruise down Tucker, head south and at the light to turn onto the highway I spot another cake right in front of me.  It's the Soulard Restoration location.  Woot!  As we scoot across the intersection I make the discovery that Tucker turns into Gravois.  This is news to me for all of the years I worked downtown and lived in south county, I had no clue.  It will also be key to this story much later on.

Pictures taken, chat with a couple of girls also grabbing the same photo op, then hop on the highway!  This is uneventful despite the many highways all converging across the same bridge.  Three miles into Illinois I see a sign for the Jackie Joyner Kersey Center.  HEY!  They have a cake there too!  Mind you, this is THE WORST EVER PART OF ST. LOUIS.  This is EAST ST. LOUIS.  There is no reason for anyone to be there ever.  But it's daylight and my husband is with me, so we take the dive and get off the highway.

Again, this goes without a hitch.  I get my picture and return to the highway.  We pull into the lot at Lottawatta and there are a ton of cars and a line out the door.  I ask the lady at the end and she was told it was an hour to an hour and a half wait! 

Uh no

We decide to go home and grab some coupons for Olive Garden.  I suggest the "scenic" route up RT 159 which the sign says goes through Collinsville, home of the Giant Ketchup Bottle, host to another cake.  Hubby agrees.  We find Collinsville and the giant ketchup bottle with no problem.  As I start to pull out of the lot (yes there is a parking lot for all of the gawkers) Hubby suggests that instead we go to the chicken place I pointed out on one of our midnight tours of the city a couple weeks ago.  We frequently drive around places and now that I'm hunting cakes we do so with a little bit of a mission and a whole lot of meandering.

Hodak's.  I have never been to Hodak's but since working many many years ago at the Riverfront Times I have heard how fabulous the chicken is at Hodak's.  I knew it was in South St. Louis, but never exactly sure where.  When I saw it one night as we cruised down Gravois I pointed it out and suggested that we go there sometime since Hubby is a HUGE fan of fried chicken.

Gravois (by the way, in St. Louis it is NOT "grav- wa" as the French would say, nooooo this is "Grav-OYs") is a loooong north south road, which remember I just discovered begins where Tucker Avenue ends.  It is the old Route 66 until it meets with Chippewa, but the road continues well south beyond that... into Jefferson County where it turns into Hwy 30.

But anyway, I ponder the best way to reach Hodak's since I discovered its location in the dark.  I was certain it was past the Bevo Mill, even beyond Bates Avenue.  I could take Gravois but that would be a lot of stop lights.  Why don't I just cut all of that down and take 55 to Morganford?

As we drive down the highway we pass the exit for Bates but never see one for Morganford.  I jump off at the River Des Peres, the southern most point where this restaurant could possibly be located.  We start north on Gravois and drive.  We pass Bates Avenue.  We pass the Bevo Mill.  Still no Hodak's.  I pull over finally and look up the address, 2100 Gravois.  We were at 4300.  I had a sinking feeling that taking the highway was the wrong decision.

At last we find Hodak's.  After a 20 minute wait in line we are seated and proceed to enjoy the "best" fried chicken in St. Louis.  It was a good meal and definitely reasonably priced.

When we headed home I continued driving north on Gravois.  I literally drove two blocks and was smack dab at the Soulard Restoration where Tucker turns into Gravois!  Uh yeah, I took the long way to find the restaurant.  It also happens to be at the intersection of Geyer, which hours earlier we were sitting in the 1860's Saloon a few blocks away at 9th and Geyer.  I COULD HAVE WALKED FROM THE SALOON TO HODAK'S!  It was maybe five blocks apart.

Shit like this drives my daughter insane.

58 Cakes

Last week Hubby and I struck out to drive around St. Louis.  At night.  Out of boredom.

We squandered over a 1/4 tank of gas meandering through the streets of downtown and the surrounding area.  I think it would be impossible to retrace our course as we zig zagged hither and yonder and back again.  It was nearly 1am by the time we rolled into our driveway.  We had successfully visited 17 cakes in the area, none of the pictures I have downloaded yet.

The following evening we met with friends several miles outside of town.  It was my hope being mere blocks away from Six Flags that I could visit the cake.  Unfortunately the gates are closed by midnight... BUMMER!

It seems the common thread to my cake hunt is that most of it happens at night, typically very late at night.  In keeping with that tendency we struck out again last night, this time with my teenager in tow.  We had visited Lone Elk park earlier in the day with a stop at our favorite pizzaria.  It gave our young driver more highway time behind the wheel and he did very well.  We managed to snap pictures at Lone Elk as well as the Wild Bird Sanctuary across the street.  I also included Manchester City Hall in my count, although we failed to get a picture, it was too difficult to get to the parking lot from the wildly busy Manchester Road, but we saw it.

We left the house at 8pm and arrived home just before midnight.  We made yet another jaunt to downtown St. Louis.  We tried to take the teenager to the newly opened Ballpark Village, but the street was blocked off.  We drove him down Washington Avenue past the barely existent nightlife that was busting at the seams just last week.  There were stops at the fun and ever-changing City Museum, Soldier's Memorial and Christ Church Cathedral and a surprise at finding the Broadway Oyster Bar.  Meandering past Soulard in hopes of find the one in front of the Lemp Mansion we drove through narrow streets with tall buildings.  I'm very sure I drove right past it, hidden in the dark, next to other tall houses.

Somehow we came out on Gravois Avenue and knew he had to head south to the Bevo Mill, an old German restaurant with a windmill.  We drove through other familiar neighborhoods but didn't find any more cakes.  In all we found 8 cakes on that last journey.

There are a few trips that will require daytime excursions.  Cakes have been tucked away in rather iffy, if not downright dangerous, parts of town and I will be hard pressed to get my husband to venture through East St. Louis for the five cakes hidden there.

Cakeway

St. Louis is 250 years old!!!

To celebrate some mysterious committee has organized special events but the thing that has stuck my fancy are the birthday cakes popping up all over town... and beyond.  Several people have scratched their heads over some of the placements many many many miles outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area.

We started looking for the cakes back in March.  Sadly all 250 not still not out.  I think they have 233 (despite their webpage saying 234).

It has been fun driving around trying to spot the cakes.  So far I have seen 30.  I do click a picture each time.  I'll spare you the fuzzy, off center shots.

Coming to St. Louis and want to look for a cake or two?  http://www.stl250.org/cake-leaderboard.aspx

I'll keep you updated as I find more.

Sunday In My City - Snow in Forest Park

Finally, the last of my pictures taken in Forest Park back in December.

I love how snow accents this iconic statue of Saint Louis in front of the Art Museum

 

The Muny, our outdoor theater.

I don't know what building this is.  I stopped because I saw some sledders.

 Here I am back in front of the Art Museum at the top of the hill that goes down to the lake.  The lake is one of the few relics left in tact from the 1904 World's Fair.  This is also THE choice sledding hill in all of St. Louis, the news always does coverage out here on snow days.  For those of you who get real amounts of snow may notice that we really have only a dusting, but we don't get many days of snow around here just lots and lots of cold, so any opportunity to break out the sleds is taken.

At the bottom of Art Hill looking up...

I haven't heard of anyone flying into the lake, although I'm sure it's happened.  I believe the parks department puts bails of hay at the bottom to stop sledders from making an icy plunge.

Finally I had to leave and drove my favorite part of Forest Park, another relic from the World's Fair, the birdhouse at the zoo.

Sunday In My City - Statues at the Park

These were taken outside of the Jewel Box just a few feet away

Don't you love how the birds on the branches look like somebody with their head in the ground and their feet kicking up?

I didn't even know there was a Korean War memorial here!

Sunday In My City - The Jewel Box

I've never been to the Jewel Box which is stupid because it's free and we all know how much I like FREE.  It's an indoor garden in Forest Park with tropical plants, including tall palm trees - it's quite a tall building.

I really could not have chosen a more beautiful time to visit with a fresh coat of snow.  There are a ton more pictures to post so you'll see them over the next few weeks.

Sunday in my City - Round Buildings

I'm not really a fan of 50's and 60's architecture, but these round buildings have always captured my interest.

This beauty is called a spaceship.  Many years ago it housed Naugles which was later bought out by Del Taco.  Two years ago Del Taco pulled out of town, very much to my dismay I LOVED THAT PLACE, and left a controversy in their wake.  What would happen to the spaceship building on Grand Avenue?

 Property owners decided not to raze the structure and ended up renovating it.  Now it houses a Starbucks.

Not too far away down Lindell Boulevard is a AAA office.  At one time it was headquarters, but those facilities have since moved out to west county  Now it is simply another AAA office in a really cool building.