Mark, Alice, Chris and Anne
I was asked why I don’t publish very many photos of myself. Well, I’m not pretty, at least not as beautiful as Anne is, IMHO, and I do take plenty of pretty pictures of her and other beautiful people and other things. Why would anyone want to look at my mug, when they could see a flower, a sweet smelling flower? Well, here I am, certainly stylized, but front and center, with my posse in tow.
It was a beautiful day today. Anne and I launched towards the park this morning, a 5K run being held there made the cross park ride seem like a marathon, but that’s not scheduled until tomorrow. Hundreds of people, especially little people, were all over the bike path. We sloughed our way through this human tide to the CWE and Mike’s Bikes. There we met Alice and Chris with their newly rented, trusty, steel steeds. We headed south towards Tower Grove Park. Our route took more than a few detours as we tried to navigate all of the construction ongoing now in the hospital district. We toured the Handlebar in the Grove, with its rather eclectic vending machine, full of bike tools, tubes, smokes, condoms and the like.
The farmers market was going great guns in Tower Grove. We noshed a bit there and then circled the park. On the way back we stopped at Olio, a new to us restaurant that had made the Post’s best restaurant list last month. I’ve ridden by it dozens of times and always wanted to check it out. In an old gas station, it was very nice, very modern and very cool. Because we were going to go out to dinner in only a few hours hence, we only had appetizers, but such appetizers they were. We all shared and everyone’s choice was excellent. I had the Post’s recommended baby octopuses, which apparently slowed the whole order. According to our waitress, “The cooks had some trouble corralling the baby octopuses, because they kept climbing out of the tank.”
Back to the CWE and Mike’s Bikes and then Anne and I hammered home. After showers and a quick turnaround, we met Alice and Chris again at the Sidney Street Café, for some more hâute cuisine. Fortunately for me the portions there were small. It was equally as enjoyable as Olio. Two wins in one day! After dinner, we bade bon voyage to our friends, saying à bientôt instead of adieu, because we have already made plans to see them again in May, for both their son’s college graduations. OBTW, oxter is Scottish and not French and we four cyclist were quite able to clear out the interior of Olio.