I played hooky from work once before. Then I did it with one of my law partners, so I'm not sure if it counts. A couple of Wednesdays ago, I played hooky again. This time, I spent part of the day doing someone else's work (kind of). So I'm not sure if that counts either. Anyway, here's the rundown of what turned out to be a spectacular day.
We started out with a stop at Gelateria Tavolini downtown. I needed a caffeine fix and they have some pretty delicious chai. I got the "spicy" blend because I thought it would taste more like mom's, and I was right! (No, I did not get gelato.)
Our next stop was the old Kiel Opera House and Municipal Theater (a postcard of the full building before it was partially demolished is available here), now being rebranded as the Peabody Opera House. The building is undergoing some fairly extensive rehab right now. It was mothballed in 1991, and very few people have been inside it since. It's set to reopen this fall as a performance space.
Why we got to go is a little bit irrelevant, but it has something to do with T's work. The point is, though, that we got to. For reasons I haven't quite figured out, I love art deco. Too much of it can be a bit overwhelming, but in the right amounts and proportions, it's fantastic. The building was built in the 1930s, so as you can probably guess, lots of deco! We got a tour of the place from the general contractor heading the project, and the guy who's checking up on the GC and reporting to T's office about progress. I forget what his job title is, but we'll call him the overseer guy.
The super cool art deco light fixtures in the main hall, which is actually the floor (or the two floors) above the entry hall and ticket windows
What a similar light fixture looks like without any glass in it!
The floor of the main hall
Outside the main hall doors, on a long but narrow two-story balcony
Welcome to the Peabody Opera House
The old ticket windows are still there, they're just adding some new wiring
In the entry/ticket hall. What's cool about these light fixtures is this: see the grating that runs around it? Those are actually the original vents for the HVAC. And they still work! I wasn't tall enough to do it, but overseer guy stuck his hand up there and said he could feel the cold air coming out.
So overseer guy said there are something like 250 people working there every day, though exactly who they are has varied as the restoration has progressed. He took us all over the building - we got to see the four (four!) little auditoriums that flank the main theater (although one of them is being turned into a VIP lounge...but three doesn't sound as good), the main lobby and ticket area, the big auditorium (we got to go on the stage and see all the prop gear, and even up above the stage, which was super cool!), and lots of the behind-the-scenes stuff too.
Looking back at the balcony from near the stage
The stage, under construction. Just a little behind where the fence is, there's a break in the floor, and the front portion, which is on hydraulic lifts, drops down to floor level to become the orchestra pit. At the top right of the picture (sorry it's so grainy, it was a big, dark room) you can see the front of the fire curtain - more on that later.
Detail on the wall to either side of the stage
One of the little auditoriums (auditoria?)
This is the room that will become the VIP lounge. They've finished detailing the ceiling, which is the same pattern as the other three little rooms, but has been painted vibrant colors. They're working on padding the walls for the quilted effect (or to keep the crazies safe).
Some more vintage art deco.
It doesn't look like much now, but this will be the big bar. There will be a bar in the VIP lounge, and this bar will serve the rest of the crowd.
Looking down what will be the escalator at the 14th street VIP entrance. The VIP lounge is on the floor above where we're standing, so it'll be an easy ride up.
The general contractor, the big daddy project supervisor, joined us for our back-/above-stage tour, which was super cool. So here we are, standing on the stage, looking up at the back of the fire curtain. They're not sure if it's original - apparently no one keeps records of such things - but it is definitely the one that was there when they shut the building down 20 years ago. They had to reinforce it with new panels on the back, and they put new gears up above to raise and lower it; if the fire alarm goes off, it drops to within 10 feet of the floor in about 15 seconds, then creeps down the rest of the way to give everyone a chance to get out of the way.
Looking up toward the ceiling. You can see the fire curtain in the bottom left. All those ropes and cables on the right are used to raise and lower props - more later. And straight overhead, you can see the slotted floor that we would be standing on (or actually near) in a few minutes.
All those cables! There are 75 hanger bars that can hold props - enough for three shows to be run at the same time. On the back side of each cable is a rope counterweight; all the bars are raised and lowered manually.
Now we're way up above the stage. So, the cables run up the wall, over the I-beams, and drop down...
...through the slotted floor...
...to the hanger bars, which are currently empty...
...but will hide behind the fire curtain even when they're fully loaded.
See that ladder down there? That's no 8-footer. Probably at least 12. We were really high up.
And, on a hot summer day like today, perhaps the most important thing of all: air conditioning: You can get a little bit of a sense of the scale of these ducts from the fire extinguisher. Seriously, they were huge. I could have stood nearly upright inside one of them.
Lookin' good after a power wash
I looked quite stylish in my yellow vest and jauntily-tilted hard hat. Oh yeah, and the dress mentioned in the title of this post is there somewhere too. You may not be able to see it if you're blinded by the yellow and the reflector strips (which, incidentally, make those auto-turn-on faucets on bathroom sinks super-sensitive, we discovered!).
It just so happened - though I'm sure it was not a coincidence - that across the street from Kiel/Peabody was the hot dog guy, so that's where we got our lunch. For those of you who are east coasters or frequently visit there, some random dude selling hot dogs from his little cart on the corner doesn't seem strange. But around here, that's strange. People just don't do that. But we all ate hot dogs (there were four of us on the tour: T, two other people he worked with who had a semi-legitimate reason for being there, and me), and as far as I can tell, we all survived unscathed. Maybe hot dog vending is making a comeback here in the Midwest.
We followed that up with what was supposed to be a quick stop at the Cardinals team store at Busch Stadium to get me some gear. Can you believe that I'm a native St. Louisan, I've been going to Cards games my whole life, and I don't have a single piece of gear in my immense clothing collection? Well, I didn't. Now I do. After many trips around the stadium looking for parking and much debate over which t-shirt was the perfect combination of cute and classic, I finally settled on one that met my criteria. What does it look like? You'll just have to take me to a Cards game to find out.
Because shopping at one place just makes me want to shop at another, we went to MacroSun, a fair trade clothing/decorative home goods store, mostly carrying stuff from India. I found a great pair of dangly silver and blue earrings - I'm loving long earrings lately - and a toe ring. Nothing says summer like a toe ring.
Our next stop was the London Tea Room, which I've been wanting to go to for a looooong time. But they have very limited hours and I'm so infrequently downtown during the day that I just haven't had a chance. T knew how badly I wanted to go, so he made sure it happened. And it was everything I had hoped for! We each got the Cream Tea Service. I had an orange cranberry scone and the wild berry black tea; T had a blueberry scone and the Monk's Blend tea. The scones came with a dish of strawberry jam and - wait for it - a heaping ramekin of clotted cream! It was delicious, and I ate way more of it than was necessary. But since I don't get there very often, I'm telling myself that it was okay.
Your selection of teas...
...and tables, although there are also six or eight more in the front window that didn't make it into this photo.
A great map of old London on the wall. I want a map just like this, except way bigger, to put in my house some day. When I get one.
Tea time!
We headed to my house after that and spent the afternoon hangin' out at the pool. I had a mojito, which says summer like nothing else, and thumbed through some magazines until I was good and toasty.
People. This. Is. Amazing. How is it that I live in St. Louis and I didn't know about the Puzzle Warehouse? How is that possible? It's only two tenths of a mile from the entrance to Grant's Trail where K and I sometimes ride bikes. And what's more, you can see it from the highway! Craziness! Anyway, T discovered this place, and took me there as a surprise. I got three new puzzles, and I'm going to take over the dining room table to put them together.
Dinner was a burger at Carl's Drive In - another place I had never been. Again: can I call myself a St. Louisan? Well, I probably can now, but not before dinner at Carl's. It's an old-school drive-in/diner. They call themselves a drive-in, but really you're going to want to park your car and sit at one of the counters inside where you can see the years of grease, er, flavor, which have accumulated on the grill. And you're going to want to order a chocolate shake. Because they're delicious.
A quick stop off to refresh my stock of Pimm's made for quite a full day, and totally worth playing hooky for!
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