St. Louis, MO - July 14

In the truest spirit of flying by the seat of our pants, we decided on an impromptu trip to St. Louis Missouri for the day.  We had the brainstorm early in the week and decided on St. Louis, mainly, because there were flights with a lot of empty seats available.  Our goal  - to see the St. Louis Arch.  We invited the neighbors Little D (newly turned 14) and his sister M (11).  We had Little D and M spend Friday night with us since we would have the leave the house at 4:00AM to catch our early morning flight.  Their mother, Mary had sent over sandwiches for lunch and money for their expenses. 

The kids were too hyped up to go to sleep but they eventually settled down.  I made them sleep in tier clothes so that we could jump right in the car in the morning.

We arrived at the airport a little after 5:00 AM and had breakfast of pop tarts and donuts and milk purchased after security ($6).  Little D snuck off with the change from the $20 I gave them for milk and treated himself to a hot breakfast but I didn't care, it was his mother's money.  We had only very light carry on (backpacks) with just enough entertainment for the plane.  We also had our cooler with sandwiches and snacks.  We brought a stroller to carry our bags throughout the day and also just in case Lil' Bit's little legs could hold out.

We easily got our our first flight using two of our buddy passes (passes that employees can get to give to friends and family).  The flight was just under two hours and was a smooth flight.  We were all able to sit together and the kids shared movies.

We arrived in St. Louis at 7:00 AM and headed straight for the Metrolink.  Tickets were $7.50 each for an all day rider pass.  The metrolink has a stop at the airport and about 12 stops later, we were at the Arch

For $10 per adult and $5 per child, you can get into one of these tiny little egg shaped tram cars and ride up to the top of the arch

The St. Louis arch is very impressive and beautiful.  I wished I could have spent a lot more time photographing it from all angles and different lights but a couple of things stood in the way of this.  First off, my good pocket camera was stolen in Disney and I didn't feel like lugging the big Cannon Rebel around all day (next time, I think I will though).  Also, I didn't want to do that tot he kids who would quickly tire of my hanging around taking pictures.  So, I was stuck with snapping off a few pictures with my cell phone.

There is a museum in the bottom of the arch and the kids had a good time looking t eh exhibits.  I am not sure if they learned anything but they had fun and that is important too.

By now, it was 9:00 AM and everyone was already hungry.  I didn't factor this into my plans but we had been up since 4AM, had breakfast at 6AM and without the time change, it was already 10:00.  I can't blame them for being hungry, I was too.

We gobbled a few granola bars and headed on foot to the Old Courthouse which was most notable for hearing the Dred Scott case. 

Bailiff's desk

The kids were really great about humoring me as I played bailiff for a moment (sorry, the picture did not turn out at all)

We then asked a few people where we should head next and the unanimous response was "City Garden".

We stopped at Hardees for sodas along the way $10 and had a nice picnic lunch.  The kids asked if they could put their feet in the fountains and I told them, "OK, but don't get wet."

Let me backtrack on the story a little bit.  I had told Mary to send the kids over with bathing suits so that, in the event that we got stuck in St. Louis, the kids could swim at the hotel pool.  When they arrived for the sleepover, I asked Little D if he had brought a swim suit and he replied "NO"  Well, he had answered the question exactly as posed.  What he should have told me was "No, I bought a pair of shorts to change into if we swim".  I noticed that his sister only had brought a small purse so I assumed that she did not have a swimsuit either.  I took my kids suits out of our bags.  Well, it turns out that M had a bikini in Little D's bag and he had his change of short so my kids were the ones unprepared for water.  They ended up swimming, getting completely drenched and having a blast.  Luckily, they dried off before boarding the plane.

City park is designed for play.  There are fountains which look like "for looking at" fountains but are actually intended for people to play in.  You can smell the chlorine as you approach.  The park is littered with statues which are also intended for play. 

After City Garden, we walked to the St. Louis Cardinals Stadium and the kids shopped in the store there. 

Everything was quite expensive and a security guard recommended that we head to Unions Station for more affordable shopping.  We jumped back on Metrolink and two stops later, we were at Union Station.

The kids were a little disappointed to discover that the really good merchandise like the stuff we saw at the stadium was the same price as the stadium but with much less to choose from.  There were a couple of discount stored which were selling Cardinals merchandise but it was of a much lower quality and wasn't the authentic gear like the stadium store.  They did manage to find a few souvenirs though.

We were getting tired so we headed back to the airport early.  It was a good thing we did because almost as soon as we were safely ensconced in the airport, the skies opened up to a rainstorm of almost biblical proportions.    Luckily, the storms cleared up in plenty of time for our flight.

carry on flies free

 We arrived home safely at 11:00 PM.  Little D and M were delivered to their parents and we were asleep within minutes.