St. Louis - Day 4

Sunday came too soon. We fell in love with St. Louis, and didn't want to leave. We got up, packed up, checked out, and went back to the West end to enjoy the cute street one last time. We decided to trade our daily Starbucks for a coffee from what looked like a cute local coffee shop on this street. The night before this coffee shop looked very popular and cute. It was very quaint on the outside, but the minute we stepped inside, the whole image was ruined. It smelled like a smoky gas station. Plus it was more expensive than Starbucks (imagine that!) So we decided that we didn't want to ruin our wonderful vacation with a yucky coffee shop, so we walked a few feet down the street to our trusty Starbucks. It was delicious!!! the rest of the morning we spent looking at and taking pictures of the beautiful buildings of St. Louis. All the beautiful churches, especially the steeples, and then we stopped to go through the Scott Joplin museum. After that it was time to head home. We made one more stop for gas, and lunch, and then started the 5.5 hour trek home. Goodbye beautiful St. Louis! We enjoyed our stay.

St. Louis - Day 3

Saturday came bright and early as did the day before but we were anxious to get started. Our first stop was the Cathedral Basilica. Words cannot describe the beauty of the church! The detail was amazing. We were blown away just by looking at the outside. When we got inside, our jaws dropped, and dropped even more when we saw the whole sactuary. the whole thing was either marble, or stone, and mosaic. It took 81 years to complete everything. Pictures don't even come close to portraying the splendor of it all. The sad part was that it was a Catholic church. From there we went to the Botanical gardens. This was beautiful, but different than what we expected. First of all there was some special thing going on, so they had extra strange statues everywhere, and then there wasn't much in bloom. But we made the most of it, and took some funny pictures, and enjoyed the pretty scenery. By this time we had worked up a pretty good appitite, so we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe!!! We had never been and it was at the Union Station where we wanted to go anyway. That was fun! Expensive, but fun. We even witnessed a robbery! Someone left here purchase in the gift shop, and when they came back for it, Joel overhear the cashier saying under her breath that she would have to go get it out of her car. But she never told the lady that she had it. we were shocked. Joel even told the manager, but he even blew it off! Union station has been turned it a mall, so we just wondered around, got some souvenirs and enjoyed some more starbucks. Tonight was going to be our Fancy night, so before heading back to the hotel to spruse up a bit, we drove around and saw Scott Joplin's home. I didn't know that it was a museum, so when I saw that it was, and that it was closed and wasn't supposed to be opened the next day, I was dissapointed, and it had only closed a few min. before we got there too! I went around the back to take some pictures and I saw that someone was still in the office. This is where I pulled a "mother" For those of you who know my mom, you will understand. I ran around to the front, and asked Joel to knock on the door, and tell them a that we were from Oklahom and that we were leaving town, and ask if we could just look around! Well, being the sweet thing he is, he did it! The guy said no, but through that we found out that it was opened the next day. It was time to head back to the hotel, and figure out where we were going to spend our last evening. Joel found this Italian place, so we dressed up, and headed over there. It was on the West end, and was this adorable classy strip full of cool restaurants, and coffee shops, and little shops. It was so fun. And it was surrounded by adorable homes too! Everything just flowed together somewhat, and thing stuck out like a sore thumb. We had a beautiful evening! After pretending to be rich, we head to Ted Drew's Custard. This place was packed! And it was good. We then went home, snuggled up, and watched Myth Busters till we fell asleep.

St. Louis - Day 2

Friday Morning, and so much to do! We headed down stairs for a hot continental breakfast, and then headed out for our big day. As we arrived in Forest part where History museum, Art museum, Science center, and Zoo were, we were amazed at how beautiful everything was. We spent the morning at the History, and Art museum, where we saw all sorts of stuff, including information on the 1904 World's Fair. That was so excited because we were right where it all happened! We then took a little tour through the Jewel box (a green house) and then ate lunch at the park cafe.
The Afternoon we spent at the zoo. I haven't been to too many zoo's but this one was the prettiest one I have been to. After a long day full of walking, we felt it necessary to find a Starbucks. So once we found one near the park and we had finished taking pictures of the beautiful structure around us, we left. Upon arriving at the starbucks, we realized that we have found a really cool part of town. I would compare it to our Brook Town here in Tulsa. We decided that this would be the winning pick for dinner tonight. So after we had rested our feet we decided to drive around and look at all the cute homes, and then we were going to go home, change, and head back for dinner. Well, in the process of looking at the homes, we got lost. So we gave up the idea of going home, and headed back to The Loop (that is what the strip was called) for some delicious mexican food. It was a lovely night. We sat outside, enjoying our dinner listening to the saxiphone accross the street, and the guitarist, and drummer down the street, and watched all the interresting people go by. What a perfect ending to a perfect day!

St. Louis - Day 1

St. Louis Here we come! Joel and I started out Thursday morning for St. Louis! I was so excited to be able to spend 4 solid days with just Joel. No jobs, no computers, no phones, just me and Joel! We arrived at our hotel early that afternoon, checked in, and headed to our first destination. The Arch!! The arch was amazing, and we enjoyed getting lots of pictures. We also enjoyed just walking around the beautiful park that surrounded it. There are so many beautiful parks and classy, fun areas in St. Louis. After we got our fill of arch pictures, we headed to the Old Court house. Again we were amazed at the architecture of the place and the history that filled it. After looking inside the Old Cathedral as well, we headed back to the Arch, and this time we went to the top! We then enjoyed strolling along the Mississippi, enjoying the gorgeous weather, and taking pictures of the "Bridge to the West". Although we had had a very enjoyable afternoon, we had done a lot of walking, and our feet were quite tired, so we headed to The Hill, and went to a restaurant that served Italian, and Spanish food. It was a perfect ending to the first perfect day of our vacation.