A is for Arch, B is for Budweiser

I woke up on Thursday morning at 2 am and couldn't get back to sleep, so was still a bit jet-lagged all day. We drove into town to meet some of the others at the Arch. To get to the top we sit in tiny little carriages, 5 per compartment, and ascend - then get out at the top and look through little windows at views over downtown St Louis on one side and the Mississippi River on the other. Sharon doesn't like heights, so was very brave in coming with us: we sang loudly all the way up, and held hands. Coming down was faster and not so scarey.

Then we went to the Museum of Western Exploration. I was fascinated by the layout: it was an arc of a circle, with the earliest time at the centre and then going out by decades, 1800, 1810 and so on; and on different radii, different themes: explorers, settlement, Native Americans. There was a lot of information about the Lewis and Clark expedition which set out from St Louis to find a way to the Pacific.

After that we hung about until it was time to go down to the river for our cruise: too cold to wait about outside. We reckoned the Museum should have had a coffee shop, it would have made a lot of money from us!

There weren't many people on the cruise so we had a great seat all together at the front. We saw several historic bridges, and a tugboat pushing about 15 big barges all linked together. The Mississippi is still used for commercial transport of goods.

Then it was off to a French area (Soulard) for lunch: we ended up at a Welsh pub called Llewellyns. Pubs are definitely the place to eat: good cheap food, and cold beer, and friendly service. We're paying for our hosts' meals, so had to do complicated calculations of cost plus tip divided by how many of us.

Here's a drink recipe that someone told us about over lunch:

Hungarian Rhapsody: "good for coughs, colds and sore ars%^&&**((" - take equal parts rye whiskey, bourbon and gin and add some rock candy. Let it sit until the candy dissolves - about a week. Drink it.

Sharon took us to find a discount clothing shop called the Scholars Shop. She had to phone her daughter for directions, and we got a bit lost (with me navigating from a not very detailed map) and just as we'd given up and were heading to rehearsal we found it! It has lots of donated clothes, and the money goes to a scholarship fund for university students. I was too tired to shop properly but picked up a red wool jacket (anticipating even colder weather as we head north after Convention). They also had real mink coats, full length - for $1000.

We were a bit late at rehearsal, at the church where the River Blenders rehearse, and went straight into warmups. I'm afraid after a week off, and with jet lag, we werent' sounding our best: Vicki looked dismayed, but we did our best, and the church acoustics helped. Then in the foyer all the River Blenders were lined up and sang us the Lord's Prayer: very moving, and I cried. On the other side of the foyer was a long corridor with a long table loaded with food, and we filed past filling our plates with home cooking. The rehearsal room had round tables set up and we sat with our hosts to eat. Here's my favorite dish from Kitty:

Toss baby spinach, sliced strawberries, candied nuts, dried cranberries and cubed provolone cheese. Before serving add a sweet viniagrette (sweet vinegar and oil). If you like, you can add poppy seeds to the dressing. To die for!

After dinner there was a presentation from the Blenders to Di and Vicki, and they gave us all a RiverBlenders bag (oops, I forgot to pick mine up). Then we all ran through the second half of the show with Ann Keller's help (she's stage manager, and wonderfully efficient). We couldn't hear the pitch pipe for Lazy Days, and got off to a bad start (Vicki looked horrified). But we got through, and will do better next time. River Blenders joined us on the risers for Let the River Run and it was wonderful to be part of that bigger sound, but a bit squishy trying to do choreo while standing hip to hip.

We ended by all singing How We Sang Today, holding hands, and I cried again. Then Sharon took us home. She has digital radio, and when you press a button the name of the artist and the name of the song is displayed, so we played "Guess the Artist" to stay awake. She won, but Betty was pretty good too. There are so many channels on digital radio: an Elvis channel, and several Country channels, and separate 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's channels.

I slept for 8.5 hours last night without waking and I woke up feeling great. Sharon cooked biscuits and gravy for breakfast and was stunned when we all said we'd never tasted it. Biscuits are scones, and gravy is not what you'd think, it's a white sauce with chopped pork sausage in it. It's delicious, but fattening - puts on a lining on your stomach, David says.

David picked fresh field mushrooms and was surprised when I ate one raw.

Okay, off today for more shopping and sight seeing before our tech rehearsal .

C is for sight seeing?