ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

Before I get started, did y'all happen to notice that somebody from the City Museum commented on the previous trip report? I love the Internet! Maybe this post will get the mayor to comment. Lord knows I've spent hours telling the Internet about their city - it's the least they could do!

Day 3 (and our last full day) was on Sunday, December 28. We'd done everything I wanted to do pretty much so the group decided that we'd first head to the Old Courthouse which was within a block or two of our hotel.

Standing in front of the Old Courthouse w/the Arch in the background


The Old Courthouse was the site of the Dred Scott case which basically was the catalyst for the Civil War to begin. If you quizzed me on history alone, you would put me on a short bus so I enjoy visiting historical sites to help me learn. I know almost nothing about history unless I see it in person and have something tangible to help me grasp it.

A court room very similar to the one the case was tried in but not the exact one. The exact one had to be redone when a construction weakness was found so this is as close as we can get.


The park ranger guy who was working in the room opened up the ropes and let us go up to the judge's desk.


And he was such a peach, he volunteered to take a picture of all of us.


This is a picture of a picture of the tombstone


While I was learning myself about the Dred Scott case, the rest of the gang had a mock trial. Lest you wonder why I am such a silly nut, you need look no farther than my mother who told quite a wild tale during her time as a witness on the stand. Unfortunately, Blake was the judge so he declared a guilty verdict before hearing any evidence.



I loved all of the details of the courthouse so I'll just let the remainder of the courthouse pics speak for themselves.










My mom and Andy were very interested in going on a tour of Anheuser-Busch which I wouldn't have thought to do with kids but Andy had been a few times (including as a kid) and said it was good for all ages. Back in the cab we go and we arrived at the brewery.


This tour was quite possibly the best free thing I've ever done. I would have paid to do the same tour. Great tour guides, beautiful campus, learned some things and...free beer!

Pics from our tour




Inside the Clydesdales' stable. I want to live there!




Every herd of Clydesdales has two dalmations. There's one sitting in the hay here.


En route to another building (and approximately the place where I slipped and Payton caught me and kept me from falling down. Thanks Payton!).



The beer process!


Inside the buildings where the beer is made. Why does it have to be so pretty to make beer in a can?




More outside shots as we walked between buildings






And at the end of tour, we got the much anticipated free beer....two free beers each actually (we only had 1 but 2 is generous!). My mom and I were excited to see that they had some kind of pomegranate raspberry available that we'd seen on the tour. It was yummy. Almost like a sparkling juice. They also provide unlimited pop as well as pretzels to snack on. It was lovely!


I believe at this point we headed for a late lunch/early dinner and then took some time to rest at the hotel before the night. Payton and Andy had tickets to see a LUDO concert in the Delmar Loop area and my mom, Blake and I were going to go the area with them and walk around a bit as well.

There was one type of transportation we hadn't used yet that I wanted to - their subway system. My mom didn't seem keen on navigating the subway system at night but I was comfortable with it and wanted to give it a try.

Waiting for our train to arrive


En route


We got off at our stop and started walking toward The Pageant where the concert was being held. This concert was a special Christmas edition and look who was there to serve cookies to people in line...Kami the Elf!


Kami has been a huge LUDO fan for years and her step-mom is the aunt of the lead singer. After I booked the trip, she let me know about the concert so I got tickets for Payton and Andy who are fans. Then Kami decided to drive to St. Louis to be a groupie...I mean...to help out. :)

Her sister, Kristin, also drove with her.


The girls with their step-brother, Shane, as the reindeer. Shane is cousins with the lead singer.


Payton and Andy in line (hard to see Payton because she's behind somebody else)


Once they were in the building, my mom, Blake and I walked to the next building to go to Pinup Bowl which is the cutest little bowling alley I've ever seen. Just 6 lanes and they serve lots of types of martinis. I didn't have any this night but loved having the option.

My mom opted out of bowling so Blake and I got our shoes on and picked out our bowling balls. Most alleys we've been to in the past had the option to turn bumpers on for whatever bowler you programmed it for. This alley either required them up for the whole lane or down. I decided to keep them down. Then Blake decided he wouldn't roll the bowl kid-style, he would throw it with his fingers in the holes.

The excitement! The joy!



After a couple of frames, he started getting a better feel for throwing it and OMG, he got a spare!


He ended up with a final score of 35 which could have easily been doubled if he'd been able to throw a bit harder. Many of his gutter balls started off on a good path but just lost momentum. I was so proud of him but of course he declared himself the worst bowler ever.


I didn't want to push it by playing more than 1 game (Blake has meltdowns easily when he's tired and frustrated and lord knows we'd done a lot this day) so we headed out with promises of Ben and Jerry's ice cream where Blake got his favorite - lemonade sorbet! Every 7 year old boy's favorite I'm sure. :)

After some more wandering and failing to find wifi yet again, the three of us walked back toward our subway station. We froze. We walked a long time. We finally made it back to our hotel.

We had an early train to catch back to KC the next morning so we spent the remaining time packing. Payton and Andy came back before midnight and reported having a great time and even found a couple new bands they liked from hearing the opening acts.

As I got up the next morning, I took this last picture which is probably my favorite of the trip.


Our train back home was slightly different than the one coming. It had two levels and didn't have the power outlets like the previous one which meant Blake was much harder to deal with since he didn't have a DVD to watch. This ride back was also quicker because we didn't have delays. Arrived in KC, got our car, lunch at Fritz's and then finally back to my parent's house.

We had a great trip to St. Louis even though it was relatively small and short compared to others we've taken. We got to do so many new things and just have fun together for a few days. I'm so glad my mom got to go too - she's the one who instilled the love of travel in me in the first place. :)

Speaking of, we have a 4 day weekend coming up in February when the kids are out of school. Suggestions where we should go?

I had long, long, LONG been wanting to go on a train trip and wish the US had trains that ran as efficiently as Europe to make it easier to do so. Every time I had checked previously, it was going to be too expensive and take way too long so we'd never done it. As I was looking at our time off over break, I thought it might be nice to try to fit in a few days in St. Louis after Christmas. We hadn't been to St. Louis in probably 10 years which means Blake had never been. In addition, since my mom was recently laid off, she was able to go with us.

In early December, I booked the train tickets and then used Priceline.com to get a hotel for us. Plans were set!

So early on the morning of December 26, we set out for Union Station in Kansas City to catch our train.


We were moving along right on time and made our way through Union Station to get to the ticket desk.



Then we get up to the ticket counter and......the line went out the doors. Apparently there was some kind of backup - too few people working, broken down kiosks, more than normal travelers, I don't know, but the line was LONG. People were everywhere.


Luckily they let us move to the front of the line since our train was due to depart in 10 or 15 minutes.

Out on the platform ready to board the train...



Once on the train, I wasn't sure what to expect. Blake and I sat in a row together and got comfortable including setting up the GPS on his window to track our progress. He thought it was hilarious to set it on automobile mode and watch is constantly try to recalculate to get us back on roads. Ahhh....geek humor.


This is blurry but Payton had my laptop watching a DVD while Blake has his portable DVD player in his seat. The strip along the wall that had two outlets per row was SO great especially for watching DVDs.


Along the way, we took pics at each stop. Each little town's stop was charming.






Side note: I don't particularly like rural areas but they seemed much more lovely from the train. From the car, not so much.

The train seemed to kind of rock us all to sleep and Blake even took a nap mid-morning for a while. The trip did take longer than scheduled so we were on it for around 6 hours total.

Arriving in St. Louis.






Once we arrived, we went to the taxi stand to find a large enough taxi for all of us plus our luggage.

Side note: it was my goal to navigate using public transportation and not have our own car on this trip. We were staying in the downtown area plus everything we did was within a couple of miles. I think it's interesting for the kids to see different ways of getting around.

We found a minivan taxi fairly quickly and we were soon on our way to our hotel.

We arrived at our hotel, Crowne Plaza Downtown, and got our keys for our room on the 28th floor. When the front desk asked how many keys and I told them we needed 5, they said "uhhh...we aren't sure that's possible" but in fact, it was. Just easier if everybody has their own key.

The view from our room...


At this point, we were starving so we headed a couple blocks from our hotel to Caleco's for some Italian food. Apparently there is some St. Louis style food - pizza and toasted ravioli - that I wasn't previously aware of so we had to try it out.

Caleco's was yummy and St. Louis style pizza (basically thin crust) was FANTASTIC. We had good service, they had a train that circled above, an aquarium, etc.

I think we probably went back to the hotel and took a nap as we had been very tired from getting up so early. Of course, the kids had to make a contraption (a zip line) across the room for entertainment. Other fun things to do in the hotel room: make a paper airplane and sail it down 28 floors out the window and jump between beds. Grandma is pretty silly but I'm not quite sure she ever got used to the constant flurry of activity around her. I haven't either and I live it everyday!


That night, we took a cab to St. Louis' Union Station which is not where their train goes into anymore but was once the busiest train station the world.

It's a beautiful building but for all intents and purposes, it's just a mall.



Blake's ever-growing independent streak had him taking the escalator alone a couple of times to get pressed pennies.


Side note: When Payton was around 4, we started encouraging her to order for herself, ask for change at counters, just generally do things independently. Of course, because she is Ms. Independent, she did them. Blake, however, is an entirely different human and refuses to speak to anybody or do anything on his own...until this weekend in St. Louis. He went to counters and asked for change for a dollar, he ventured on the escalator....he's only 3 years behind his sister but he's getting there!

His favorite (and very affordable!) souvenir. Had to get some to add to the Pressed Penny Collection book.


Beautiful building...






As Union Station was nearing closing time, we started walking toward the exit and a strange and freaky thing happened. Blake saw the bungee cord trampoline things and said "I want to do that!!!" and then I went like this:

You may or may not know this but my kids are CHICKENS. They don't ever want to do ANYthing which has been a huge disappointment to me. Andy and I went on our honeymoon to an amusement park that has the most roller coasters in the US and love rides and then we have kids who don't.

But this day, I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough. Blake and I were both going to do the bungee trampoline thingies!








Side note (this is a whole blog posts of side notes, I know, but it's ok): The weight limit posted said 25-200 pounds. I would pay $20 to see a 25 pound person (a baby!) do the bungee trampolines. How funny would that be?

We started out jumping so high and it was so fun and I was flipping forward and backward and all around. Then I kind of started getting nauseous from all the movement (I'm getting old, people) and the sight of Blake jumping 20 feet in the air was scaring me. My BABY was jumping to the second floor. Even people walking by were commenting "omg, I can't believe how high he is." Yeah, thanks, people. I can't believe it either!

So after our turn, Payton decides she wants to go. I faint again. She's much more cautious and timid than Blake is and very much likes to sit back and observe before doing anything. She decided she'd give it a try. Blake also went again because he was determined to try to flip this time.



After this very exciting fun, we finally headed out and got a cab to take us back to our hotel. The next day had much fun in store including the arch, City Museum and a night out on the town without kids.