Fieldtrip Friday...a little early.

The tea party was a great success (many thanks to all who commented!) and I love visiting all the other blogs (I'm still in the middle of the list if you can believe it...there are so many!).

I'll be posting the winner of the giveaway on July 1st. I suddenly wish I had 116 of them so I could give one to everyone! I'll have to do a few more giveaways soon!

Sunday the heatwave broke and we treated ourselves to Joe's Crab Shack for lunch. We'd been meaning to go for months now for my birthday, but never got around to it, so really we celebrated three birthdays and father's day all in one meal. lol Mmm, snowcrab legs! They were wonderful.

Then we stopped by St. Charles for some tea and other things. St. Charles is a great place to visit if you are ever in Missouri. The historic mainstreet is FULL of fun stores to visit.

They have crafty things, quilting shops, embroidery shops, gift shops, tea and spice shops, ice cream parlors, popcorn stores, etc. etc. etc.! The streets are cobblestone and the sidewalks are always crowded with people eating ice cream cones and juggling lots of bags. There's usually a horse drawn carriage and people bring their dogs and just enjoy walking up and down the streets to see the sights. They have fun events like Tartan Days, Festival of the Little Hills, quilts festivals, art festivals, etc.

My mother bought tea (peach, raspberry and strawberry) as we were running low and a whole batch of spices. I love it when you enter a store and you are immediately welcomed with the smell of all those fruity teas and exotic spices - mmmm, the smell is worth the trip alone. But I didn't go to any of the stores this trip - sadly my back makes it impossible to stand or walk more than a few minutes at a time so I stayed in the car and watched people walk by with their dogs and dripping ice cream cones. My dad was kind enough to offer to take some pictures, though, so here's a little eye candy!

The buildings and stores are all very cute and old fashioned (though sadly not wheelchair accessible or I'd have rolled into one, darn it). It is an absolute MUST for a shope to have a cute old fasthioned sign. I love the sheep sign above and the rockinghorse.

The printer has a printing press on the sign - oh so cute!

And the quilt shop. The Patches etc. sign with the quilting on it is cute, but you can also see on the left a little sign with a big button on it! That's even cuter. Sadly, men do not find button signs cute or my father might've taken a better picture of it. ;)

And there are all sorts of old buildings and historical points of interest. It's an important part of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

Shops are always going in and out of business on the main street, but the best addition in my opinion is Alice's Tea Room. What a coincidence - Saturday I have a tea party on my blog and Sunday I see the Tea Room sign. LOL

And the addition next door, Through the Looking Glass which has miniatures on display and gifts, etc. I walked through it once while it was still under construction and I guess it is now finished, but I'll have to wait to visit it myself.

Which brings me to the bit of news I mentioned a few posts ago. I found out on Thursday that my operation has been moved up from November 2nd to August 17th. Yikes - I knew it could be moved up, but that's even sooner than I'd hoped/dreaded/feared. I'm happy to get the operation over with, but a little nervous about it being so soon and now I have to rush about to rearrange and schedule dr. appt.s, etc. and my family is rearranging all their schedules to fit it, too. I have to ask family and friends to donate blood for my operation (last time I went through quite a bit) so I feel really weird asking members of my family for their blood and a few of my mother's coworkers, too. lol I feel like a vampire all of a sudden.

The surgery is not minor, they will be really working on the spine itself and adding bone chips, etc. to straighten and fix it into place and lots more metal rods and screws and bolts, etc. being fixed and added. It's quite an ordeal I'm facing and I'm trying not to freak out. I got through this once before when I was 12. Surely at 30 I'll be able to handle it even better, right?

Anyway, it is a big thing on my mind these days so I'm trying to distract myself with blog posts and crafty things. We're also redoing a bathroom on the main floor of our house right now since I'll be needing it when I come home from the hospital. So there is no floor in that bathroom now, no sink and no shower or tub. Lots of debris and gaping holes and lots of work to be done in the next month or two. Just so much going on... So please forgive me if I miss someone's post or comment or seem distracted. It's just a lot on my plate.

And to all you lovely blog friends out there - keep posting your lovely pictures and stories - I love visiting your blogs and getting away from my own RL for a few minutes. Gee - this blog went from cheerful to depressing really fast, didn't it?? Sorry!