Let us love and sing and wonder*

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? We had lovely weather here in flyover country. Daughter #1 had a TV thing on Friday afternoon here in town, so she stayed over and on Saturday we went adventuring to St. Genevieve, Missouri, a town neither of us had ever been.

Ste. Genevieve was established in the 1750s by French colonists, when the territory west of the Mississippi River was part of French Louisiana. It became the principle civic center of the region, and continued to be so when the area passed into Spanish control with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The original site of Ste. Genevieve, about 3 miles south of the present city, was severely damaged by major flooding in 1785. The city was relocated to its present site on higher ground over the next ten years. 

Ste. Genevieve is home to one of the highest concentrations of French colonial architecture known as poteaux en terre, or post in ground, and Poteaux-sur-sol, or post on sill. Both of these styles involve construction of walls consisting of vertical logs.

We visited the Felix Valle State Historic Site…

…and several interesting new museums…

…where we learned about dinosaurs in the region (!) and the Revolutionary War battle of Fort San Carlos in St. Louis, a battle about which I knew nothing. (The Spanish Militia and some local Frenchmen marched the 50 miles up to St. Louis to fight off the mercenary Indians. It was really not much of a battle.) The fort was right about where Busch Stadium is now.

We checked out the DAR marker…

…and the Mighty Mississippi…

…before heading over to the Chaumette Vineyards and Winery for lunch.

It was beautiful and the lunch was delicious! This dog came and sat with us. We didn’t mind.

We also enjoyed the musical stylings of Brian Tobin whom we had heard at our other favorite winery–Wild Sun. He provided the seventies playlist that we love.

All in all we spent a lovely day and we were reminded once again that Missouri is a very beautiful state. Why would anyone want to live anywhere else?

Os Guinness, who was in town for a conference, was supposed to preach on Sunday, but he didn’t feel well so some Covenant Seminary professor pinch hit. It was disappointing, but the large congregation shook the building with their singing.

Speaking of pinch-hitting, Albert Pujols hit his 699th and 700th homerun in Friday’s game, becoming the fourth player in MLB history to reach that mark. Pujols hit his first career home run in April of 2001 as a Cardinal rookie. I am not much of a baseball fan anymore, but I am happy and proud for Albert.

And high fives to the Chick-fil-A employee who foiled a carjacking at a restaurant in Florida. As John Crist says, “Chick-fil-A employees are next level…the Lord has their back.”

Have a blessed day! Happy fall!

*#172, John Newton