riverside park with katherine

Last Thursday afternoon Katherine (practically a celeb here on b. honey due to the frequency in which she crops up in posts) and I headed downtown at happy hour with the intention of grabbing half price martinis at the Starlite Lounge, a fifties-style cocktail lounge. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived the Starlite was at capacity and we were turned away because we would apparently be fire hazards.

Unwilling to admit defeat and head home, we popped across the street to The Pearl, a historic La Crosse ice cream parlor. Wanting to get something different from my usual chocolate peanut butter ice cream cone, I went with a strawberry float made with one of the Pearl's homemade phosphates (carbonated soda water + flavored syrup + phosphoric acid). The word "phosphate" doesn't exactly sound edible to me, but it was delicious.

Post-Pearl, we wandered through Riverside Park, which hugs the Mississippi.  I've included plenty of photos of Riverside on this blog before, though I may not have referred to it by name.

Katherine was a willing model for my frequent picture requests. As we soaked in the mid-eighties temps--a blissful departure from the heat wave--we chatted and I photographed the random slices of beauty that Riverside Park had to offer us.

Love that smile.

We meandered through a small garden tucked back off of Riverside Park. Taking in the flowers and obvious care that had been put into this space was refreshing. You have to remember, I live in college housing. Flowers don't exist in my neck of the woods, and decoratively speaking, bits of broken beer bottles that glint off the pavement are the only embellishment...