STL DBP ON THE ROAD - SOMETHING TO SEE

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A few species of Pacific sea turtles come to a handful of beaches in northwest Costa Rica to lay and hatch their eggs at this time of year. They only do it at night. How they find their way back from far out in the ocean is a bit of a mystery.

You can search for them with a local guide. After a bone-jarring drive town Costa Rican back roads we came to a beach where they are sometimes found. (No guarantees.) The guides have to use red flashlights because the turtles cannot see that wavelength. After two hours of searching, we came across this hatchling making its way back to the sea. Video taken by daughter Emily on a new iPhone 11.

FISH IN TRAINING

Ellie is in heaven. Our little Midwesterner loves water and has learned how to snorkel. It's hard to get her out of the pool unless it's to go to the beach.

Lots of activities starting today. We're going to the town farmers market this morning. Tonight we are doing something special. At this season, certain species of sea turtles waddle onto beaches at night, dig holes in the sand with their flippers and lay their eggs. You can only go with a naturalist. Red flashlights are required because the turtles can't see that wavelength and they remain undisturbed.    

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

Back again in Playa Langosta, Tamarindo, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica. Mrs. C figured out from the guest book that this is our tenth year here and probably 13th or 14th time in the country overall. Nos gusta mucho Costa Rica. I get to practice my crummy Spanish. Ellie is in heaven and wants to go to the beach to make sand castles. Lots of excursions planned for the week.  

Playa Langosta means Lobster Beach, although I've never seen the creatures around here. The caption, by the way, is from the late philosopher and New York Yankees catcher, Yogi Berra (a St. Louisan). He also noted that when you reach a fork in the road, you should take it, and that you can observe a lot just by watching.     

DOESN'T THAT ITCH?

A charming sculpture outside the main branch of the St. Louis Public Library. If that's what reading will do to your brain, lay on the volumes.

My time is spread so thin that I mostly listen to audiobooks in the car. Just finished Salman Rushdie's latest novel, Quichotte. Another virtuoso performance, with the real and the imaginary blended like milk and coffee. Now to decide on the next one.

The family is traveling tonight. A stopover in Miami and then, on Thursday, on to what's become our winter home from home. So maybe no post that day unless I find the baggage carousel particularly fascinating tonight.            

CANDY

My children were born in 1976 and 1980. Being responsible, modern parents, Mrs C and I were careful about their diets, particularly sugar. But the whole thing got blown to hell when we visited my father's house in New Jersey. (My mother had died some time before.)

My father spent almost all of his career in the industrial sugar business. The company for which he was sales manager were middlemen between sugar refiners and bulk users. Back in the day he sold Pepsi all its sugar. For most of that time he literally worked on Wall Street, but in commodities, not securities. Nice picture of his beautiful old office building here. 

Anyway, he doted on his grandchildren. He modified a big bookcase in his home to fill two long shelves with glass candy candy jars. We'd come in and he'd call out "Candy store's open!" to our kids. We were powerless. If we put up a peep of objection he always replied "Sugar is only 14 calories per teaspoon!"

And they seem okay today. This photo is of a former candy wholesaler on Locust Street in Midtown.

      

IN CASE YOU CARE

The National Hockey League All Star game is here next weekend. Looks like my relationship to it is that I drive a Honda. This the second time a city has hosted the All Star game (planned years in advance) after winning the championship (apparently Edmonton did it in the 80s). Strong graphics, anyway.

By the time the game is in progress, the principal use of ice in our location will be in cocktails with small paper umbrellas.      

 

LOGICAL ERROR

The side of a bar next to the baseball stadium. Sure, the team, the Cardinals, was locally hatched. But how can the city of St. Louis have been made by the city of St. Louis? It's sort of an X = X proposition, as if - poof! - we arose sua sponte on the banks of the Mississippi.

I am certain that no one but me worries about this.