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?

On Saturday, December 27, we headed out to the Arch. The temps were unseasonably warm and we just had to walk a couple of blocks to get there.

View from the patio area at our hotel.


Walking toward the Arch



At the base of the Arch



Once inside, we got tickets to attend the movie to explain how the Arch was built and then take the tram up to the top of it.

While we waited for the movie to begin, we headed to the museum which is arranged in stages by decade. I would love to tell you what any of it meant but I didn't bother to check. A few museums interest me but this one did not. The layout was interesting though.





At this point, it was time to go watch the film about the construction of the Arch. The film was old but very interesting. They expected a dozen people to die in the construction but not one life was lost. Watching how the structure was built was terrifying though. Amazing what they overcame to construct the very unique shape.

Then it was time to ride the tram to the top of the Arch. Blake was slightly terrified and of course had to know how it was constructed and how it worked and all of that.

Waiting to get into tram #1


Each tram holds 5 people so we had 1 for all of us. It was snug in there!



An attempt at a photo of the shaft on the way up


Once at the top, the tram stops and you get out and walk up some steps to get to the very top of the Arch. There are small windows to look out (maybe 18 inches wide by 6 inches high?) and these pictures were taken through those windows.






While at the top, Blake looked like this and refused to look out the windows.


He may have had some validity to his fear since we were swaying back and forth and the employees announced that we needed to hurry back down due to a TORNADO WARNING.

O.M.G. It was a freaky few minutes as we swayed and swayed and the workers were telling people to hurry to get back. We finally got back down and decided to hang out in the base of the Arch because it's underground and safe.

The tornado warnings passed but there was still a torrential downpour of rain. We debated what to do because we wanted to get to our next stop and knew if we could just get a cab, it would be more fun to be at our next stop while it rained outside rather than hanging out doing nothing. We decided to brave it and we went out in the rain.

We intended to just find a cab as close as possible but what happened was we got so drenched, we had to head back to the hotel (wringing ourselves out before entering of course).

Payton and I in the elevator after being drenched. Hard to tell but we were soaked and dripping and our jeans were so heavy from carrying so much water. (btw, she has on multiple layers of shirts or else I wouldn't be able to post the pic.)


After changing clothes and shoes and drying our hair, we head out to look for a cab except this time we make sure it pulls under the awning at the hotel so we limit the amount of rain that can soak us.

We eventually get to our next destination - the City Museum. We've been to St. Louis a few times and done the typical kid activities like the zoo (predictably, I hated it especially because it is so huge but most people love it), Science City, etc. but this time we were trying out this other museum which was located downtown.

I thought this museum was AWESOME. Crawly spaces, slides that were 7 stories tall, interesting little nooks. You could just get lost in the place exploring all the different areas. My mom said somebody on drugs obviously created the place. I say I'd like some of those drugs thankyouverymuch.

Some pics of our afternoon at the City Museum.



Random organ player dude who played in the shaft where you climb the 7 story slide so the whole slide area could hear this music. It felt like we were in a Tim Burton movie in this area.


We climbed the 7 stories of stairs to go down the slide. The light at the bottom is organ player dude.


Blake and I sitting at the top of the slide waiting for our turn. My hair - still soaked!


The slide was so long and windy that it made me dizzy. Andy took a second to walk when he got to the bottom of the slide due to dizziness. Blake looks thrilled as usual but he did like it.


Then it was off to explore some new areas...

Swinging from a rope in the Skateless Park area


A ride on the train


Snacktime


Blake played a real song on the piano. Makes me sad he won't practice and won't get to continue piano lessons right now. :(


Payton was brave and crawled through the tunnel arch thing with Blake. I was afraid she'd get stuck in some of the windy parts.



Next stop was an artsy area where the kids weren't interested in making their own ornaments. They wanted to play with BLOCKS. At home, they ignore blocks. At the museum we paid to get into, they LOVE them. Figures.



Found another pressed penny machine!


It's hard to see in this picture but those twisty/windy/slinky looking things have my children in them climbing from the third floor to the second floor. I really thought they'd get stuck but they didn't.



The City Museum was crazy fun and I'm glad we did it.

After that, we headed back to the hotel for some downtime and then that night, the 3 adults walked to The Landing which was a few blocks away and consists of various restaurants and bars and clubs. We were trying to find a place that Andy remembered liking and when we discovered it was closed, we instead went to a dueling piano bar which is usually popular with all ages. We had fun there and then headed to a restaurant because we were starving. We ordered great food including some pulled pork nachos that I'm still craving. Yum.

Have I mentioned that I was sure I'd be able to use my wifi camera in many places and never once found a place that had open wifi to use? I had really hoped it would be available in this area and never found anything. Instead, I entertained myself electronically by texting my daughter a series of old-style messages such as:

Dearest Payton, I hope this evening finds you well. We are enjoying our evening out tonight without children and hope that your brother will be slumbering soon. Sincerely, mother.

She didn't find it funny but I did.

It had been a long day and we headed back to our hotel room to get to bed. We had a day of touring the Old Courthouse, a brewery tour, a trip via subway, a concert and packing to head home the following day ahead of us. We needed some sleep!