So……a relatively quiet day in St. Louis yesterday largely devoted to family, and ending with dinner with first cousins all around. Here is our delightful dinner group, without my cousin Donna and me, who were too intent in our conversation to join in.

We did take a break from family for a few hours to show Joan the arch from up close. It is still here,

but I am sometimes a bit slow. I should have taken a picture with her in it. You know: Joan of Arch.

The rest of the day?

Lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in University City. The pho was apparently good, but everything else, food and service, well under par. It’s called Pho Long. I would suggest staying away.

On the better news side, a bump in the road had dislodged something under our car, which we dragged along for 800 miles, or so. Dumb, I know. But it was not mechanical and was plastic, and I was worrried about a long delay to get it fixed. It turns out the Prius has a plastic undercoating to protect the car from water damage and the like. It got pretty messed up, but the magicians at the Firestone auto center were indeed able to perform magic by putting it back in place with a bunch of zip ties and telling me it should be okay until we get home. I hope. What was extraordinary was the charge for about 45 minutes of hard work. $22. If only the Vietnamese restaurant was as cheap.

Finally, the lemon meringue pie we brought to Donna’s last night. We had gone off I-70 at Highland IL because of a beckoning billboard advertising mile high (or maybe foot high) pies at the Blue Spring Cafe.

We had no idea how

it would be. It turned out to be the absolute best lemon meringue pie ever baked. No question about it.

We are overscheduled for today. Probably not the best idea. But we try to cram in what we can.