St. Louis

Schedules and agendas have always felt a bit like a trap to me. I don’t like to plan things and when I do, I’m usually late. It’s a curse, I tell you. Doing things spur of the moment is more of a fit for me. Andrew is pretty much the opposite. He likes to know when things are going to happen, for how long and what he needs to do in order to prepare. I guess you could say it’s the macho military man inside of him that needs a plan of the day to follow. I’d much rather be floating around like the wind from here to there, moving along whenever I feel the time is right. Which, I guess you could say is the gypsy inside of me and the part of me that makes the military lifestyle so appealing to me (and the macho military man).

Usually he is pretty open minded when I come up with some of my crazy ideas. It was no shock to him that when we landed in the St. Louis airport from a week long trip to Minneapolis I told him I wasn’t ready to head back to my folks yet. He disagreed. If you’ve ever seen my eyes, you know they’re as blue as the mid-summer sky. After batting these baby blues in his direction a few times and saying pretty, pretty please; he relented and agreed that we could stay in St. Louis.

My Great Aunt & Uncle live in St. Louis so that was a city we frequented as children. Of course St. Louis is the home to the beautiful Arch by the Mississippi River. I’ve been to the Arch many times as a youngen, but sad to say that this Missouri girl has never, ever been to the top. I figured now, with my adventurous 4 year old in tow, was as good of a time as ever.

If you’re ever planning on visiting the arch, going to the top isn’t the only thing to do there. Underneath the arch is the Museum of Westward Expansion.

This museum was super snazzy for this old west nerd. I enjoyed taking my time to look around and read about the old west.

We wanted to make the museum a fun experience for Aliana and keep it educational so we got a Junior Ranger Activity Book for her to do throughout the museum.

While Andrew and Leila toured the museum, she and I completed her activity book. Once she was done, she received her Junior Ranger badge.

Now if you’re wondering how exactly one gets to the top, you’re looking at the mode of transportation; a tram. It takes 4 minutes to get to the top, and three and half minutes to get back down. Once you’re up to the top, the views are a-mazing.

Aliana just couldn’t get enough of the view.

One of the many benefits to traveling during the winter months is that there is really isn’t a lot of other people traveling. These next set of photos I’ve touched up a little.

The Arch was surely an experience. We’re ready for some overseas adventures in less than 3 weeks!