Explore Cherokee: Celebrate Cinco de Mayo and see some art (May 3)

Ever since we moved to St. Louis seven years ago, Cherokee Street has fascinated me. There’s the eastern half, with the antique shops and modern art galleries and a handful of eateries, separated by the great Jefferson Avenue divide from the western half, where the flavor becomes more deliciously Mexican and Central American. Then there’s the far-western fringe with interesting ideas for art galleries, shops and theaters percolating.

What’s great about all the sections of Cherokee, even the dicier ones, is the pervasive sense that soon things will improve, that some unknown tipping point has almost been reached, that everyone is finally working together. You’ll get a good sense of that this Saturday (May 3) at the Cinco de Mayo street festival between Nebraska and Iowa (west of Jefferson). In past years it’s had ups and downs — one year was freezing cold, another there was internal wrangling that scrapped the whole thing — but for the past two years both Mother Nature and the organizers have been on the same page, and some good ideas have blossomed. My hopes are high for this year’s festival, which combines the best from 2006 (lots of mariachi music) with the best from 2007 (getting rid of the ridiculous fenced-off area for the bands and alcohol sales).

The music lineup runs the entire day, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and alternates between authentic Mexican and rock-funk-jazz groups (see the schedule here). We’re having trouble deciding when to go; Javier Mendoza is one of my favorite local artists; Boogie Chyld is one of my husband’s, and the mariachis are just plain fun — they get the whole crowd salsa dancing (and if you’re up for it, you’ll have no shortage of partners, because this is the kind of festival where strangers embrace each other in the best sense of the term). My enthusiasm for the food — authentic seafood ceviche, corn on the cob with mayo and shredded cheese, open-face savory tacos and smooth, cool horchata — runs a close second to my enthusiasm for the music.

The festival is a great introduction to Cherokee, and while you’re in the neighborhood you should definitely explore a little further to the east. My pick for this weekend (and yes, I’m a bit biased about it, because it involves my kids!) is an art show, Only Connect, at Boots Contemporary Art Space, 2307 Cherokee, featuring the work of students from the Soulard School. M.’s preschool class will have a display, a “found object” sculpture based on the work of Sarah Tse, but the bulk of the exhibit is work by older students, some of whom were mentored over the winter by local artist Cbabi Bayoc. The exhibit runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday (May 3).

After visiting those two events, you’ll have your bearings — and you might just be lured back the following weekend for two more new gallery exhibits. One is across from Boots, at PDH Gallery, where there’s a fun-looking show involving Hello Kitty! and miniature copies of masterpiece paintings by Leslie Holt. It opens next Saturday (May 10) in the evening. The other is on the western fringe, at the Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts, 3151 Cherokee. That new exhibit — described as a peaceful yet powerful montage featuring sculpture by Wesley Fordyce and paintings by Jenna Bauer — opens Friday evening (May 9).

Then you’ll be hooked! And you’ll be hauling your friends along to Cherokee later this spring, when The Stable, one of Missouri’s newest distilleries, opens its restaurant/bar on the site of the old Lemp Brewery stables, near the very eastern end of Cherokee.

Two twilight series: one music, one movies (Apr. 29 and May 2)

It’s back to lousy weather today, but I’m undeterred — I’m still going to post about two outdoor events. And if we’re all wearing parkas, oh well!

The first is the weekly Twilight Tuesdays concert series on the front lawn of the Missouri History Museum. The spring half of the season (it skips the hottest summer months) commences tomorrow (Apr. 29), with smooth jazz from the Bosman Twins from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Over the coming weeks the music will range from classic rock to disco/funk/soul to Motown to classic jazz. The spring finale on June 10 with The Smash Band will have a party feel — and by then the weather will be nice and warm, so hundreds of groups will be scattered around the lawn. Tomorrow’s show may be a little sparser, what with the daytime high predicted in the 50s — but that’s good for you and the kids, because you won’t have to arrive quite so early to find a primo spot. (In case of rain, the concert will be rescheduled; keep tabs by calling 314.746.4599 or by listening to the sponsor radio station, KEZK 102.5.)

In some ways it surprises me that so many people come to a venue where the sightlines to the stage are better from the back, but I think people come as much for the picnic and the Forest Park ambiance as for the music, as great as that music is. And although there’s food for sale from Patty Long Catering, people really do tend more toward picnics — some organizing very elaborate potluck affairs complete with wine and candles, others throwing together brown-bag sandwiches. (That’s my realm, although I usually do find a bottle of wine to bring too!)

At this week’s other outdoor sure-bet series, on Friday night (May 2), there’ll be plenty of music but no band in sight; it’s the Union Station Twilight Under the Train Shed movie series featuring a Grease sing-a-long. You might have already heard about this one — Grease is the second movie — but if not, you’ll definitely want to mark the first Friday of the month on your calendar to see some of the other well-chosen movies (The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Independence Day, Singing in the Rain). There’s a recommended age cutoff of six years, which makes sense since showtime is 8:45 p.m. And I don’t know that I’d bring the young’uns to Rocky Horror anyway! For details, visit the homepage.

Now for one final note: If you read Saturday’s post you’ll know about our crazy daisy experiment. It didn’t go so well! The flowers sucked up some of the food-colored water, but veeeeery slowly and unevenly. They made more progress once we dumped in about 20 drops more food coloring to the half cup of water in the glasses, but it’s been four days now and I think we’ve got all the tinting we’re going to get. Still, it has made for a good lesson in how flowers pull water through their veins, especially in the daisies where we slit the stems and put them into two colors of water.

Happy Songkran (Thai New Year) (Apr. 20)

Earlier this week you might have seen news images of tourists hoisting SuperSoakers in Thailand, where the traditional new year was celebrated April 13 to 15 with much throwing of water to symbolize ritual bathing. I hope those tourists also participated in some of the customs that are less about public spectacle, like giving alms in monasteries. Here in St. Louis I didn’t see any water being thrown, but there is a Songkran festival on Sunday (Apr. 20) where the public is invited to celebrate in the Buddhist monastery in Florissant. The Wat Phrasriratanaram is at 890 Lindsay Road; for details call 314.839.3115.

There’s a schedule of events at the temple’s Web site, starting with prayers and ritual chants in the morning. Lunch is at noon (authentic Thai food for sale — yummy!) followed by a Klong yow (long drum) parade. After some speeches by dignitaries, the shows get underway. The first, with traditional dancers in costume accompanied by instruments like the marimba and flute, will probably be the highlight for kids, unless they’re girls who’re into princesses, in which case they might get a big kick out of the day’s final event, the Miss Songkran Beauty Pageant.

สวัสดีปีใหม, or in phoenetic spelling, sa-wat-di pi mai! Happy New Year!

Still not enough eggs? (Mar. 29)

You’d think that three egg hunts would be enough for one kid, but no — after extensive hunting in the cold and the snow, M. is primed for more. Luckily, the Artists’ Guild egg hunt was postponed due to the lousy weather last weekend. It’ll take place this Saturday (Mar. 29) from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Oak Knoll Park. The age range for the hunt, the petting zoo and the crafts is 1 to 8 (there are separate hunts for various ages). There is a $6 charge to attend ($5 for Clayton residents), but that’s a small price to pay for one last egg hunt. At least, that’s what M. tells me.

To reserve a spot, call the Welcome Center at 314.290.8500; for general information, call 314.290.8508 or visit the Guild’s web site.

The seeds are in the ground (anytime)

M. and I couldn’t wait any longer — we planted our lettuce, spinach, radishes, peas and chard last week on the only nice day when it was warm enough and dry enough to sow something without getting too caked in cold, wet dirt. I felt a little guilty about letting S. sleep through the whole thing, but he’ll be more excited about planting the seedlings later on anyway.

If you’re planting a garden with your kids this year, good for you! This is definitely the right time to begin in St. Louis. (Tomorrow’s the first day of spring — yay!) And if you’re just starting out, there are a zillion online resources. Lots of them are aimed at schools or students, but here is one that’s for families, with honest information about what to do (and what to skip) and whether to make the garden a chore for the whole family, a chore for the mom, or something in between.

In our house, the garden is a chore for the mom. The dad hates yardwork (although, to his credit, he does mow the lawn … but I still maintain that he destroyed the edger on purpose so he could skip that chore all last summer). We have three and a half raised beds, which is about the right size for our family of four. We also have a huge herb garden that came with the house, stocked with a few beautiful perennial herbs and many, many more annuals that mysteriously make their way onto my flats each spring at the garden store. M. is a real sucker for that place!

No matter if you’re doing pots on the patio, installing raised beds or signing up for a community garden plot in your neighborhood, you’ll want to pay attention to a couple of factors when buying seeds or seedlings: when to plant (usually it’ll be either as soon as the ground is thawed in the spring, or after the danger of frost has passed); how much room the mature plant will need and whether it requires staking (for tomatoes, beans, peas and other plants that may not be able to support their own weight); the number of days until it bears produce; and its tolerance for heat (some plants simply die in the heat, others bolt, go to seed and get really bitter).

The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Kemper Center for Home Gardening is a great resource — their volunteers helped me identify all the unfamiliar herbs in my yard the summer we first moved in — but it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the huge amount of info they can provide. Online, I find the gardening tips calendar and the problem/pest calendar most helpful.

Garden centers tend to be overworked and not hugely helpful in terms of answering questions during the peak planting weeks, especially in late April and May, so it’s not a bad idea to visit now and ask some questions of the staff. Some of our favorites include Rolling Ridge Nursery in Webster Groves, Bayer Garden Shop on Hampton in St. Louis and also out in Imperial, and Garden Heights Nursery in Richmond Heights. Once the weather warms up, check out the selection of herbs and veggies at the Kirkwood Farmers’ Market stall run by Summit Farms — I’m always surprised by the unique varieties I find there.

On a completely unrelated note, tomorrow (Mar. 20) is Wear a Sweater Day in honor of what would have been Mr. Roger’s 80th birthday. Check out this promo video by the actor who played Mr. McFeely.

More eggs, more candy (Mar. 22)

I have word of two more Easter egg hunts on Saturday — just in case your kids haven’t loaded up on enough chocolate bunnies, jellybeans and Peeps already!

One is in the park and playground area just south of Soulard Farmers’ Market on Saturday (Mar. 22) at 1 p.m.  Unfortunately there’s no Web site about it, and the posters plastered around the neighborhood stick pretty much to the basics of date and time … the only detail of note is that participants must be under age 10.  As always, bring your own basket.

The other is at the St. Charles County Youth Activity Park on Saturday (Mar. 22) from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.  The 25-acre skateboarding/rock climbing/trail hiking complex provides some challenging terrain for the older kids (age groups cap out at 12 on this one) — and one of the special draws is an “extreme” egg hunt for skateboarders and rollerbladers. However, each hunt has a limited number of slots, so you’d best reserve a spot by calling 636.561.4964 between noon and 8 p.m. For specific times and rules, check out this online news brief or visit the park district’s Web site.

And, if you missed out on the adults-only egg hunt down at Jefferson Barracks, here’s another strategy for recapturing the magic of childhood egg hunts: the beer hunt.  The idea comes from my extended family in Oregon, where it’s a long-standing tradition.  On Easter morning when the whole clan congregates for brunch, the adults organize an egg hunt for the kids, who then reciprocate by hiding cans of beer all over the yard for the adults to find and consume.  Decorating the cans beforehand is optional.

Calling all ‘little people’ (Mar. 17)

Although St. Patrick’s Day is technically a Catholic holiday, most of us simply use it as a day to indulge in all things Irish — food, beer, leprechauns … .  I’m not sure leprechauns and the other little people who inhabit Irish folk tales and legends inhabit my not-very-Irish yard in St. Louis, but I kind of like the thought of it.  That’s why I’m intrigued by the class “Feeding the Fey on St. Patrick’s Day” at Pathways 11419 Concord Village Avenue in South County on Monday (Mar. 17).  The description reads, “Join us as we help the Deva Kingdom prepare for Spring!  Learn the traditions of feeding the Fairies, the Fey Folk.  Learn what to look for and how to communicate with these beings.  Create an outdoor Fey altar and a Wishing Branch.  Learn how to invite the Fey to grace our space.” 

The Deva Kingdom is sometimes referred to as an angelic realm; it’s a common part of eastern religions and Christianity (although the word” deva” itself isn’t used in Christian stories; it’s the Sanskrit word for god or deity).  Because M. is the type of child who sets out Tic-Tacs for butterflies to eat, I know he will get into the idea of feeding fairies in our yard.  The class starts at 7 p.m. in the center’s rear parking lot, and participants are encouraged to wear bright clothes and shiny jewelry.  (If you don’t feel you have anything appropriate, you might want to stop into La Belle Histoire in Soulard, which is having a going-out-of-business sale — I’ll miss my local gypsy boutique!)

Admission to “Feeding the Fey” is $5; children 12 and under are free with an adult.  For details, call 314.842.0047 or visit the center’s Web site.

No blarney here (Mar. 15)

Add our household to the list of casualties of that nasty bug going around. With all of us coughing and wheezing all night long, it sounds like an infirmary. I’d heard that it knocked sufferers out so completely that they didn’t have energy for anything — and I can attest that’s true. I didn’t even have the finger-strength to blog.

But I’m better today and looking forward to the weekend, in particular the St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown on Saturday (Mar. 15). I’m somewhat chagrined to admit that I have never attended this parade before — scandalous, isn’t it! — and the only reason I can give is that I’m usually still worn out from Mardi Gras. But with the early start of Lent this year, I’m recovered enough to be up for more floats, plus the balloons and bands and clowns that make this event distinct.

Parades downtown are typically not that well attended (at Labor Day, for example, M. cleaned up on goodies as he was one of the few kids along his section of the route) but organizers are expecting 250,000 for this one. Given the loooong winter and the unfortunate timing of the Dogtown St. Patrick’s Day parade during Holy Week, I’m pretty sure the organizers can bump up their estimate by a few thousand.

The nice thing about downtown parades is that there’s tons of parking on the weekends (paid, of course) both north and south of the route from Union Station to Kiener Plaza along Market Street. However, some streets and interstate exits will be blocked off, so check out the Web site to find out how that will affect your plans.

In conjunction with the noontime parade, there’s an Irish Village at Kiener Plaza from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with food, drinks, bands, and family entertainment. At the other end of the route there’s a party too. The post-St. Patty’s Day run shindig at Aloe Plaza has been extended to go until 4 p.m. with live music and food.

It looks like a great time, and I can’t believe we’ve never gone down for it! See you there — I’ll be the one in the green wig.

Signs of spring (Mar. 17)

In a normal year, signs of spring would be everywhere by now. Yet our daffodils are just finally sending up a few inches of leaves, our tulips are still barely jutting up, and our hyacinths don’t seem to want to do more than break the surface of the mulch. I know all this because we are out there in the yard literally every day, rain or snow, checking on our flowers.

If you don’t have your own backyard science experiment going on, check out the nature hike at the Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center, 11715 Cragswold Road in Kirkwood on March 17. Ages 3 to 6 are invited to start out in the classroom at 10 a.m., then tackle the Hickory Ridge Trail through the 112-acre forest to look for mosses, wildflowers and other plants during the “It’s Easy Finding Green” hike. And hopefully by St. Patty’s Day it will be easy to find emerald-hued evidence of spring! To reserve a spot for the free hike, call 314.301.1500.

Older kids ages 7 to 12 have their chance to spot signs of spring at a similar hike later in the month: March 29 from 10:30 a.m. to noon or 2 to 3:30 p.m. The hike is likewise free; reservations can be made after March 13 at the same phone number.

Egg hunts ain’t no bunny hop (Mar. 8)

The first time I took M. to an Easter egg hunt, I was extremely excited.  Unfortunately, I didn’t go about preparing him all that well for the craziness that lay ahead.  And it didn’t help that the day was frigid, and he was only 2 1/2, and I was so pregnant that carrying him around the whole time was out of the question.  Happily, just when I was thinking we’d have to leave before the actual hunt even started, we ran into one of his friends from daycare, a street-smart little 4-year-old who shepherded him around the rest of the day, even grabbing eggs for him when he was too intimidated to venture into the kids-only grassy field where the eggs were hidden.  She saved the day.

Now I’m two years wiser and a veteran egg-hunter — the only negative that may be repeated is the weather.  But notice that I added a SPRING category for this post in the hopes that something will give before Saturday, March 8!  That’s the day of the Hare in the Air Easter Egg Hunt at Logan College of Chiropractic in Chesterfield.  The name comes from the bunny’s mode of transporation:  a helicopter ride courtesy of KMOV Channel 4.  The hunt has a few things going for it, especially the fact that the hunters are broken apart by age category.  This might get dicey if you’re solo and have a couple of kids to watch over, but it sure beats watching 6-year-olds elbow out your 2-year-old.  There are also activities to help pass the time between the 10:30 a.m. opening of the registration tables (it’s free, but you have to sign up) and the 11:30 arrival of the Hare.

We haven’t been to this hunt ourselves — it was canceled for the past two years due to construction — but it sounds like an excellent way to introduce S. to this rite of springtime. The college is at 1851 Shoettler Road in Chesterfield, and one of its staffers is organizing the event.  For details, call 636.227.2100 or visit the school’s homepage, where you can download a registration form (and send it in ahead of time to skip waiting in line on the 8th).