Day Four – Memorial Day Monday, St. Louis
Sleeping all together the last few nights, I’ve confirmed
that Chloe is indeed the earliest riser and the instigator in the ‘wake
everyone else up early’ campaign. The
girls were up fairly early yet again. They’ve
been sharing a bed, and most hotels have had a pull-out couch for Ryan, and if
not he’s got his nap mat and sleeping bag.
Our hotel was a Crowne Plaza, which I thought was awesome. I don’t get out much. It was fairly old, so it wasn’t as nice as it
had once been and thus it was very affordable.
But I loved the location – a block from the base of the arch! – and the
views and all the space in the room. All
that to say, it was too nice for free breakfast though. However, when we checked in, they gave us two
free breakfast coupons, and Coleson offered them to Ryan and I, thanks
Dearie! So Coleson took his early-rising
girls on a breakfast date. They
attempted to go to a local diner, but it was closed, so they ended up at
Starbucks. Apparently the cashier was a
sweet old lady who didn’t charge them correctly ;) and they enjoyed bagels and
bananas. After they left, I showered and
waited around on my date for a bit, before finally waking him up. I hate to wake a sleeping kid, but sometimes
it has to be done. Our breakfast was
wonderful!! Ryan had a great view of the
arch from his side of the table. And
since it was a weekday and they weren’t serving the fancy buffet breakfast, our
server let Ryan order pancakes off the menu.
I was totally happy with the small buffet – lots of fresh fruits which
are always great when travelling, a muffin, yogurt, coffee. It was really nice to spend some one-on-one
time with Ryan. We talked the whole time
and stuffed ourselves on amazing food.
When we all met back up after breakfast, I attempted to take
Abby up to see the rooftop pool since she hadn’t joined us last night. Unfortunately everything was locked and
didn’t open til later in the day.
Bummer! So we checked out of the
hotel and drove to Forest Park. It’s a
beautiful and huge city park, probably similar to Central Park in NYC. Our trolley driver had taken us through
yesterday and luckily for us had shown us the free parking spots and other
useful tips. Our first stop was the St.
Louis Science Center which Ryan has been eyeing in the guide book for
weeks. What’s great about St. Louis is
all this cool stuff is free! We just
walked right in. The science center is
across the highway from the park, so there’s this huge walk-through-inside-bridge
with lots of windows and even a couple of glass-bottom spots. We enjoyed looking straight down at cars
going under us and using the radars to clock the cars speeding by. The walkway also features all of the space
displays, my favorite part of course.
Lots of NASA and shuttle and moon-walking stuff. Once inside the actual museum part, the first
area was full of interactive, kid-friendly things, and the kids built an arch
from foam blocks. Ryan loved the museum;
I tried, but science and museums just aren’t me! But we did it all and spent about three hours
there. Ryan programmed a Mars rover,
mastered the Tower of Hanoi in no time [I love watching his brain work – he
just gets this stuff and it amazes me!], and picked out a t-shirt from the gift
shop. And Mommy got the whole family
into a photo booth for a picture :)
We drove just outside of Forest Park for lunch at Jack in
the Box. It’s a burger chain, but since
we’ve never been, it counts as unique and different, right? It rained just a little while we were inside,
but fortunately it passed as quick as it came.
Bellies full, we headed back into Forest Park. We first explored the turtle park playground,
which was a collection of cool turtle sculptures that were built for climbing
all over. They had hollow mouths to hide
in, slides on their shells, that sort of thing.
We then went into the St. Louis Zoo; did I mention how cool it is that
everything’s free?! We saw Abby’s favorite
monkeys, Chloe liked the polar bear and giraffes, and Ryan found an 18 foot
anaconda. Yikes! Abby picked out her souvenir for the trip, a
stuffed monkey that we named Louie, only fitting since he’s from St.
Louis.
Before heading out of town, we hit up one more spot from the
guidebook, Ted Drewes frozen custard on old Route 66. It was a cool, older place. The place was packed. We walked up to the window to order. Their specialty is a concrete – custard
that’s so thick they turn the cup over as they hand it to you. Chloe had plain vanilla, Ryan had mint oreo,
Abby mint chocolate chip, and Coleson had heath bar. I went rogue and had a root beer float. As we sat on a curb eating, the dark clouds
were thundering, and it started drizzling as we loaded the car. By the time I pulled out of the parking lot,
it was an all-out thunder storm, we got out just in time! It was a horrible five minutes or so of
driving before we emerged on the other side.
We made a four hour drive to a Super 8 in Carthage, MO. We stopped for Jimmy John’s halfway
through. Sometimes you just need a light
and fresh sandwich! Abby and Chloe both
fell asleep in the car, and Ryan read a book.
It’s been a great trip so far! Off to find buffalo in Oklahoma
tomorrow!!
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