Our St. Louis trip (and reasons to go there)

Helllooooo September!  I am so excited it’s September!  It’s my favorite month of the year and not because it’s my birthday month, but because fall starts in a few weeks and fall is my very favorite season.  I basically consider September 1st the first day of fall in my mind.  I already had my first pumpkin spice latte last week.  🙂

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend.  We had some painting done in the house, did some yard work, went to an 80th birthday celebration, and just relaxed.  It was a pretty low key weekend for us, before we hit the road again on Wednesday.  This time to Phoenix!

I wanted to share a bit about our trip to St. Louis a week and a half ago.  I mentioned before that Huebie was there for 2 weeks, so Little A and I decided to take a long weekend and go visit him.  I have some friends there and they really love it, but I had never heard many great things about St. Louis so I was skeptical, but was still looking forward to the visit.

Well let me tell ya, I was pleasantly surprised!  Besides the fact that we went on the hottest weekend of the year (figures…it was 100+ degrees and 90% humidity….gross), it was a much more scenic area than I had imagined.  And there is a lot to do, especially if you have kids.

Sis and I left on Thursday mid day to head over.  She was really excited and did pretty well before we got on the plane.  Although there was a bit of an issue going through security.  She had to put her puppy and blanket on the conveyor, so she was not happy.  She was screaming so loud and clinging to my leg; everyone was watching us.  But once we got through and she had her puppy again she was happy.

I told you last week that we had a bit of an issue on the plane.  Oh my word.  I have never, in her almost 3 years, seen her like she was.  She lost. her. mind.  Screaming like a rabid dog, trying to get out of her seat. Hitting and kicking like crazy. And then she learned how to unbuckle the belt, so I was literally holding it shut as she wiggled and screamed and hit me and the sweet lady next to us who was helping me.  All because she wanted to sit on my lap and not in her own seat.  The flight attendants tried everything to get her to calm down, but nothing.  I seriously thought we were going to get booted off the plane.

And then she peed her pants.

That shut her up pretty quick.  And to top it all off I didn’t have a change of pants for her.  So she rode the whole flight in a pull up and t-shirt.  After that first 45 minutes and my nerves were shot.  Everyone around us was so nice, saying everyone’s been there.  That’s when I lost it. Couldn’t hold the tears back.  Thank goodness the flight attendants gave me and the sweet lady next to us free drinks.  They said I needed it.  🙂

I had never been so nervous an entire plane ride in my life.  But once we got there all was good.

WHAT WE DID

We had a pretty packed weekend and a list of things we wanted to do while we were there.

Friday we went to the Magic House, the St. Louis Children’s Museum.  It was awesome!  The Phoenix Children’s Museum is pretty awesome, but St. Louis outdid themselves.  They had hundreds of activities for kids and 4 or 5 stories I think.

They also had a special area for kids 1-6 only, which was really great.

Little A loves shopping in the grocery store.  She even checked out her items at the cash registers.

And we had to drag her out of the water area.  Definitely the best children’s museum we’ve ever been to.

Have I told you guys Little A still sleeps in her crib?  No?  Well she does.  Knock on wood she has yet to try to climb out.  If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.  But this does mean that when we’re on vacation she has a tough time sleeping because she’s in a big bed and wants to get out all the time.  So she never naps.  Unless we’re in the car.

So that’s where she napped every day we were there.  Which gave Huebie and I a lot of time to just drive around and explore.

We drove to see the arch.

Unfortunately they are doing a lot of construction down by the river so we couldn’t figure out how to get across to the park to see it better, but we got a good view.  It’s much larger than I expected.

We also drove around some of the really nice suburbs.  I was absolutely amazed at the houses.  I didn’t expect that in the St. Louis area I guess.  This house was in this fancy pants neighborhood in Clayton.  They were mansions.  And that wasn’t even the nicest area.  Supposedly where all the athletes live is even better.

We went to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery.

The campus is huge and all the buildings are brick.  We were amazed at the amount of brick there.

And we of course had to get a beer.

And that’s where Little A met Curly the Clydesdale.  He knows we’re horse people.  See him posing for the camera?  Good boy Curly!

We wanted to do the tour but all tours were closed for maintenance. Boo!  But probably for the best since it was 104 degrees that day.  And have I mentioned the humidity?!  I mean it literally felt like we were breathing in water vapor.  Really, really hot water vapor.

Anyways, on Saturday one of Huebie’s old co-workers invited us to their country club to go swimming. They had a really great pool and sis loved swimming with their 2 boys.  We pretty much spent the whole day there.

We spent a lot of time swimming that weekend in general.  Our hotel had a really great pool too so we swam there every evening before bed to wear girlfriend out.  Unfortunately for us it didn’t really work and sleep was difficult each night.

We of course couldn’t go to St. Louis without visiting the zoo.

Did you know the Saint Louis Zoo is free?!  FREE!!  And it was amazing!  It’s huge and has so many animals that we don’t have at either zoo in the Seattle area (there are 2 zoos up here).  No wonder it’s like the 3rd best zoo in the country.  First time I’d ever seen a rhino.  They are much larger than I thought.  He was a bit intimidating.

And my first time seeing a hippo (although we do have one of those up here in Seattle, this is my first time seeing one).  Actually there were 4 of them.  And they were all crowded in this little corner of the pond.  And there were hundreds of fish eating their dead skin off, which was a little gross actually.  And they were kissing, which was pretty sweet.  Really big animals too.

They had so many animals it was awesome.  But it was also 1000 degrees outside, so we didn’t see everything.  And we walked pretty darn fast through there.  Thank GOD they had these fan things that you could walk in front of and they blew mist on you.  Saved our lives.

After about an hour and a half of sweating our behinds off we left.  Poor Little A was pretty miserable at that point.  We had to go back to the hotel to shower we were so gross.

WHERE WE ATE

We ate at a lot of places, but there are just a few I want to highlight.

If you like barbecue, then you have to visit Pappy’s Smokehouse.

I’m not a barbecue expert by any means, but this place was pretty darn good.  Definitely top 2 in St. Louis I’ve been told.  And the line proved that to be true.

Supposedly frozen custard is a big St. Louis thing?  We were told that Ted Drewes was the best frozen custard around.  I was a little unsure of this frozen custard thing, but it’s really just like ice cream.  And it was pretty darn good.  They have some pretty unique flavors and the line proved once again that this was another best of St. Louis.

 

We met my old co-worker and his family at this place called Katie’s Pizza & Pasta for brunch that Sunday.
Holy cow.  That french toast was BOMB.  Like seriously the most perfect french toast I’ve ever had.  I had the pear, prosciutto and fontina crespelle (fancy word for crepe) and it was amazing!  Their food is all so good I’ve heard.
Side note: The girl, Katie, who opened the restaurant got funded through a Kickstarter campaign she did.  Pretty awesome what that company has done for people.  

Seriously, best crepe’s I’ve ever had

We also at at the Trailhead Brewing Company in old town St. Charles, which was really good.  Main Street in St. Charles was so cute!  A bunch of little shops and a cobblestone street made it a very quaint area.  We didn’t spend much time here but if we ever go back we definitely will.  Super cute little town.

And then sis and I left Huebie at the airport and came home Monday night.  Neither of us wanted to leave.  Me because I was terrified of the plane ride and really missed having my husband at home.  Little A because she wanted to swim more I think.  And she had been missing daddy too I suppose.

Luckily the plane ride home was uneventful!  She was really good and sweet and stayed in her seat the whole time.  Very proud of her.

And that’s my very quick recap of our 5 days in St. Louis!  Honestly, if we ever ended up there it wouldn’t be so bad.  I was definitely surprisingly impressed.  Once you get out of the city there is a lot to see and do.  I’ve heard there isn’t much of a nightlife downtown, so if that’s what you’re looking for I don’t recommend it.  But if you have kids, or are planning to, it’s a really great place to visit.  Or even live.  Besides the God awful humidity and lack of nearby lakes and mountains, I’d definitely consider it a pretty nice area.

Question of the day: Have you ever been to St. Louis?  Like or dislike?  If you like what’s our favorite thing to do?

Have a great day friends!