Jane started her day by driving over to the De Mun Kaldis with us.  Joanie had hoped to join us when she got off her shift at St. Marys, but couldn’t get off in time.  We had lattes and breakfast.  We have always liked the De Mun Kaldis for its campy look and feel that harken back to our Ann Arbor days.  I think that Jane liked it too.

After Kaldis, we left the car on De Mun and walked into the Park.  We walked through a portion of the Kennedy Forest, sidling in-between the art museum and the zoo.  Passing by the art museum, I got my first glimpse of the construction that is now well underway for its new wing.  We decided to head for the zoo.  In retrospect, this was a wise choice.

The zoo was crowded with families and field trips, that is with lots and lots of kids.  We dashed for our lives through the Living World and made it through to the other side just fine.  Our first stop was the Penguin and Puffin Coast, which had a distinctively fishy smell about it.  We watched the chimps, sea lions and river otters and then headed to the small primate house, but the star of today’s zoo visit were the big cats.  By the time we arrived at Big Cat Country, the sun had come out and the day had warmed.  The cats were all out doing their best impression of being passive solar collectors.  Afterwards we went first through the bird house and then through the 1904 bird-cage.

Then it was time for lunch.  We met Annie and Dan at the Boathouse.  Jane, Anne and I all had small salads, because we knew that we would be going to Pi for dinner.  The only news on the college scene at lunch was from UCLA, which was in the negative.  No big surprise or disappointment there.  Late Thursday night, Dan called with the good news that he had been accepted at CalArts.  Whoo Hoo!

After lunch we headed back by way of the Grand Basin and the art museum.  Because of construction only the main/north entrance to the museum is still open.  We walked back to the car and for one, I was glad that we had driven to Kaldis in the morning.  We came home and enjoyed some downtime.

So we had dinner at Pi.  Jane got caught up with her friend, Greg.  On the way there we walked over the newest star of the Saint Louis walk of fame.  The star was for the musical group, The Fifth Dimension.  This star was dedicated on Thursday morning.  Apparently, three out of the five performers were from Saint Louis.  Their two most famous songs were, Up, Up and Away and Aquarius. 

Years ago, Anne and I came upon a free music festival in the Park.  It was being held on Art Hill.  The band shell was down by the Grand Basin.  The Fifth Dimension was playing a set, so we stayed to listen.  Their appearance there always struck me as being a little bit incongruent.  Why was the Fifth Dimension playing with all of these local bands?  I didn’t know then about their Saint Louis connection.