St. Louis, Part 1

We left on Friday, Bruce had a half day and we were able to be on the road by noon. We arrived at our hotel shortly before 4. Lucy slept most of the way, but Griffin started asking "Are we there yet?" before we even hit IN.
First on the agenda, the hotel pool. We had promised Griffin we would get some swimming in. It felt so good to relax in the water. It was Lucy's first time swimming and she was not very into it. In fact, she clung to me like a silent terrified monkey baby. At least she wasn't crying. A few more trips to the pool and I am sure she would start to enjoy herself. Afterwards, we all got showers (no bathtub in our room !?!?!!? is this a new thing?) and we headed out to dinner.
We ate at a place called Lewis and Clark's in the incredibly quaint little burrow of St. Charles, a suburb of St. Louis. An adorable, historical riverfront area with cobblestone streets, it provided the perfect setting for a get-away. If we make another trip to that area (child-free perhaps), we would probably try to stay in St. Charles as it has block after block of restaurants, shops and pubs.

On Saturday, we got up with the kids and got dressed and went right down for breakfast (by 7:30, sigh). Our kids are best those first few hours of the day so we wanted to make the most of it. We got to the S.L. Zoo by 9:00 am when it opened. By getting there so early we saved $11.00 for parking because we were able to find free street parking nearby (Bruce's favorite part). The zoo was awesome. We spent nearly 5 hours there and saw everything from penguins,

to alligators (Griffin's favorite part as he is super into alligators right now), to this strange guy. There is such a thing...so if you hear me telling Griffin not to be such a Wild Ass, you know I'm not just cursing at him! :)

We road the little train (Lucy's favorite part),

visited the insectarium (my favorite part)

**There are hundreds of ants crawling across those bamboo poles and up and down the rope that has the apple on the bottom. There is one stick in each of two aquariums that connects into the grid. Supposedly, the ants stay on the grid and don't escape into the rest of the room. So amazing to see for a science dork like me.****

and the children's zoo. We even made friends - the people sitting next to us at lunch had a 4 year old boy named Griffin too. We ended up talking to them for a long while - cool people.
Next we hiked up a small hill to find the St. Louis Art Museum. Not the most child friendly place in the world, but we braved it! It was a great place with some really amazing pieces. Griffin LOVED checking out the suits of armour and medieval swords. I could have spent many more hours there but I really enjoyed the two hours I got.
After that long day, I stayed in the room while Lucy snuck in a little nap and Bruce and Griffin took a swim. We were all so exhausted we just had a casual dinner at the little Mexican place by the hotel. We knew Sunday would be another big day!Baby's First Apple.