St. Louis Trip and our 14th Anniversary

As I mentioned in the previous post, Nate's parents, Kerry and Brenda, have been up helping his brother with house plans and us with our house, specifically our master bathroom.  Nate had a business trip to St. Louis last week (February 18-21) and our anniversary was on the 22nd.  Kerry and Brenda had plans to be in St. Louis on the 22nd to visit with some friends who were to be sealed in the St. Louis Temple that day.

They, specifically Brenda, was so very kind to offer to homeschool my kids while I went with Nate on his business trip.  I can again say that I feel I could never express my gratitude enough that she and Kerry gave us this opportunity - and on top of me taking four days off to do whatever I wanted while Nate was working, Kerry worked on our bathroom while we were gone!  So when we got home, our children were still on task to finish at our goal date, the bathroom and bedroom were well along the way to completion, other random finishing touches were added to things like our posts on our half-wall entering the kitchen, and last night I found 2 quarts of chicken broth, a pint of the ever coveted and absolutely delicious Brenda Beyeler enchilada sauce, and an entire pan of her delicious enchiladas!   They were beyond wonderful and so very kind!

I'll warn you, I kind of started rambling a little so this is a lot of reading, but you can scroll through to the pictures.

While in St. Louis, while Nate was working, I mostly walked around downtown.  We ate out for dinner, but I found a downtown grocery store for my breakfasts and lunches (Nate was given those at his conference).

When I was in the hotel, I mostly exercised, took naps, read, and watched TV.   It was a nice to not have any responsibilities for a bit. 

I did get my hair cut and fixed which proved to be useful because like most beauty parlors or barber shops, I gleaned lots of info on good places to eat and fun places to visit.

On the list of things to do were:

• Visit the Cahokia Mounds (Elise actually recently studied about these in Social Studies, so we wanted to wait until the children were there to go with them). 
• Go to the top of the Gateway Arch (for some reason, I don't think I've ever been.  I only remember going to the visitors center under it - twice). 
• Visit the City Museum (an old shoe factory where the slides are old chutes - very dizzying)
• Antique Row
• There were other things mentioned but they mostly had to do with bars and such, so these three are the ones I thought sounded the most interesting.

On the list of places to eat:

• Pi Pizzeria
•  Rooster Crepe Sandwich Cafe
• Bailey's Range (burgers and shakes)
• Takaya New Asian
• Snarf's

Tuesday - We drove to St. Louis and checked in to the hotel.  Nate had to be at work by 1:00pm.  We did get there in time to eat lunch together at Snarf's because Nate had eaten then on previous trips and it was in between our hotel and his work. .  Then I headed back to the hotel to unpack and relax.  :-)  When Nate was finished with work, we ate at Pi.  It was some good pizza! 

 Wednesday - I walked around to different little shops, one with imports from India that was really interesting.  In it I found fun re-purposed things like an old gas tank from a motor bike that was turned into a duck.  My kind of store!
 We ate at Takaya - the best fish I've had when not on a coast and the best sushi except for once in San Fransisco!

Thursday - This is when I visited the hair salon so it was nice to learn about more shops close enough for me to walk to.  I also learned about Antique Row, a place I'd have to drive to, but it was fun to visit a line of antique stores specializing in different things like vintage clothing or furniture.  We ate at Bailey's Range for supper but I unfortunately drank my shake before my dinner and it proved to be too much for my stomach.  Luckily we had to walk home so I could walk off my achy tummy! 

(no picture)

Friday - I checked us out of the hotel while Nate was at work and then walked around until he was done (I did a lot of walking).  Nate was able finished with work by 1:00.  We enjoyed crepes at Rooster Crepe Cafe (which almost rivaled my dad's crepes)
Nate enjoyed rutabaga soup.  I thought they were kidding when they said that was the soup of the day, but it was DELICIOUS which I still have a hard time believeing. I guess I'd never had a rutabaga before; it just sounds so...funny!

Rutabaga Soup!

*drool*

After we ate, we walked to the Gateway Arch and decided to go up into it.   There was a lady in our group who was closterphobic and scared of heights.  It was pretty admirable for her to brave the ride up but it was helpful that on the way up, the intercom kept saying: "just 3 minutes, mam in number 4, we're almost there, you can do this!" Haha!  It was great!!  And such a beautiful view when we go to the top! 

In the egg-shaped "elevator" on the way up the arch.

Egg-shaped "elevator from the outside - it is pretty tiny!

Then we headed over toward the temple so we could check into our hotel there.  We took naps while we waited for the arrival of Kerry, Brenda, Max and Elise.

With them we went out to eat with them at Bandana's BBQ.  Another delicious place to eat!

We asked for baked beans and they brought out this gigantic can - apparently it was to put our tray of food on, but initially it was pretty surprising!

Some very tasty root beer!

Saturday - We drove to Cahokia, Illinois to visit the Cahokia Mounds.

I couldn't get a picture where they both had their eyes open - like father, like son.

It was really bright!

We loved Bailey's Range so much, we took the kids there for lunch;  
Then back to the City Museum in St. Louis.

Then drove home.

It was a wonderful impromptu anniversary trip/family trip!!