Five States…

Two Parents…

Two Teenagers…

And 14 days of good ol’ fashioned family fun!

We have prepped, planned, scheduled and booked. We are ready to start our next adventure! We’ve recorded oh so many videos for Charlotte Stewart who is watching the garden, chickens and pool for us. Sampson is at Abbott’s Groom and Board, and we are ready to go.

Day One started early… like up before 6am, out the door by 6:30am and at the airport by 7am early. But sandwiching vacation between Michael’s camp (last week) and Leo’s camp (the week we get back), means we have to maximize every single day – including today. We had to get going early to have a whole day first day to tour St Louis… and we did 😉

When you wake up before 6am, travel 500 miles to Philadelphia by 9:15am, and have a 2-hour layover your eating schedule does get slightly off kilter. Smashburgers at 10:15am – yep, makes sense.

Back in the air, a couple of hours and a rough landing later, we are in St Louis, Missouri – state number 34!

Rental car, check! and off we go. Initially our room wasn’t quite ready so after a change of clothes in the car, we were ready to explore St Louis. After a bit of a hiccup with an Uber, we were able to get in our room… seems like they were happy to have a moment to be still.

Since we were flying today, we were a little afraid to book anything definite, so we had a whole afternoon/evening to explore. We have tickets for the Arch tomorrow, and today decided to explore Union Station. St. Louis was known as the Gateway to the West, and that was evidenced by the first train to pull into Union Station in 1894. It was one of the largest and busiest terminal in the world for a while, seeing more than 100,000 passengers per day. Remember the photo of President Truman holding the paper that said “Dewey defeats Truman” – that was Union Station.

The last train departed in 1978, and within 7 years the Grand Hall and Midway were transformed into mixed use facilities. Union Station is now a hotel, and is absolutely breathtaking!

Where the trains came and went, there is now an aquarium, carousel, the Giant Wheel of St Louis, and mini golf, as well as food trucks, restaurants, ice cream parlor and lagoon with fire and water show. And we tried them all (except the aquarium… if I’m going to pay $35 per person to see fish, I need Shamu to be there.)

Dinner was Landry’s Seafood House – fantastic food and service. We loved our hostess who summed up the world’s problems: “90% of the population is stuck on stupid.” So far, Missourians seem like our kind of people.

Bellies very full and eyes very heavy, we decided to turn in early. Boys walked down to the pool but decided they were just too tired to swim. (For them to admit that means they are truly wiped out).

Tomorrow we visit The Arch and begin exploring Missouri