Buffalo Soldiers

There was a group of Buffalo Soldier Reinactors at the park today.  Considering how hot it has been, the rain made the wool uniforms the people work a lot less uncomfortable. I was not in the mood to do a lot of photography but it was interesting.

Beaumont Hotel

We stopped at Beaumont to eat at the hotel on the way home from Branson last week. We were riding with Leroy and Jackie and they had not been there before.  People fly in to Beaumont to eat.  They land on a grass strip on the east side of town and drive up the street and park across the street.  The food is good and the view is interesting.

Five Wineries and A Brewery

Hermann was settled by Germans.  They came here because it reminded them of the Rhine River in Germany.  The area along the Missouri river is beautiful.  There are numerous wineries in the area, but five of them have formed a wine tour.  You visit each winery, get your passport stamped and you can get little wine related gifts.  I didn't get all six wineries, but I did get my wine.  Wine is such big business in Missouri now that the University of Missouri offers classes in Oenology.  We tasted out way through the countryside, met wine makers and talked to them about what they do.  The small wineries are amazing, the owners are doing what they love and it shows.  We have a fair number of different wines to savor in the next few months.
On Saturday night, we went to the vintage restaurant at Stone Hill Winery for dinner.  The restaurant specializes in German food and we thought it was great.  I had sweet and sour red cabbage for the first time and really liked it.  The next day we got a local polish ham sausage, cheese and a baguette for lunch at Hermanhoff Winery.  We ate in the wine garden.  Sadly, we didn't get to enjoy a bottle of wine, we had to drive on to St. Louis.  Hermann is a great place for a couples weekend, there are fun places to eat and the wineries are great.

Meyers Hilltop Farm

We went to Hermann Missouri on our way to St. Louis for my training for my new job.  There was actually a detour to Bentonville for a funeral the day before, but the stop in Hermann had been planned for a while.  Ray and I stayed at Meyer's Hilltop Farm B & B.  Hermann is interesting in so many ways, one of which is that there is one motel and over sixty B&Bs.  I like B&Bs better anyway. 
Meyers is on the other side of the river from Hermann above the Katy Trail.  They get a lot of business from people on the trail who stop to spend the night.  Since it is up a long hill, I can only imagine the exertion bikers would feel after a day on the trail and then that climb.
The farm house is over a hundred years old and very well decorated.  Some B&B's go into overkill with antiques, that that is not the case here.

Our room included a bath which isn't always the case and a very comfortable bed.  The Meyers were a friendly and gracious couple with a great deal to share about places to go and things to do in the area. Best of all, we were able to kick back, read and watch all the hummingbirds on the front porch. 

August flowers in our garden

The weather has been so hot here that I have been overlooking that fact that flowers are blooming in spite of the heat.  I imagine that as August marches on, the flowers will have a harder time fighting the scorching days.  Ray has been doing an exceptional job of keeping everything watered, and if we get some rain and a break in the high temperatures we may have color a bit longer.

The Old Man

I was out by the koi pond this afternoon when our old cat Gabriel came out and joined me.  He is fifteen years old now.  When he joined the  family he was the kitten to two older cats.  Now he is the only one left and in true cat fashion considers himself in charge.  For thee most part he is a healthy old man.  A check of his person today before his bath revealed a flareup of a problem with the tip of his tail again that first happened last year.  The tail was  good all winter and why it is acting up again is a mystery.  Either way a trip to the vet is in his future.  That will make him look even crankier.  Gabe is actually Nicole's cat, he was supposed to have moved out when she did, but the reality of cats is that they stay where they start out so here he is.  A little older, tattier and thinner, but a good cat all the same.