Memphis Monday: PROXIMITY TO NEW PLACES TO VISIT

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS JASON???

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI!

Last Monday Jason, Adelyn and I drove 4.5 hours to spend three fun-filled days in St. Louis, MO. The first day we met up with my sister, Kari, and her family and went to the zoo (which, might I add, was FREE). The zoo was spectacular! Every habitat (for the main animals, anyhow) was well done. The penguin house was amazing (just like being in Antarctica), the elephant habitat was HUGE, and the hippos had their own underwater viewing area with tons and tons of fish. We loved it, and were plenty tired by the end of the day. It was also great spending time with Kari, Eric and Noah. We're glad they're closer now!

Addie and cousin Noah with a Mexistache

We're twins!

Tuesday morning we went to the St. Louis Science Center (ahem, ahem...also FREE) and learned about building structures, space, the body, dinosaurs and computers. Addie had fun with legos and Jason and I had fun watching them use liquid nitrogen on Peeps candies.

Under the St. Louis arch that we built!

Addie absolutely LOVED this lego wall. She played with it forever.

Our hands. How tender.

For lunch we walked around downtown St. Louis (which we have since learned is the nation's second most dangerous city, glad we didn't know that then) and spent time under the famous arch and played in one of the cities numerous park fountains.

A cool shot of the arch, by Jason.

Addie's cute little toes and pudgy knees, playing in a fountain.Whew! We're finally heading back to the car!

That afternoon we went to the Anheuser-Busch headquarters for a FREE tour. For two non-drinking Mormons and a one-year-old, we realize this is not what you would expect, but we had a great time! They took us into the famous Budweiser Clydesdale stables (more elegant than many a hotel I've visited, trimmed with gold) and into the brewery to learn about the process of making a Budweiser. The most interesting part to me was the packaging plant. I only counted five people in the room with the packaging machines, nearly everything is done remotely from a control room. It was amazing. Fun fact: they have a machine that filles 1200 bottles per minute. Whoa. Afterwards, in the hospitality room, visitors are given any kind of two free drinks they want. Jason and I had lemonade. Mmmmm...

The gold trimmed stable.

Fun fact #1: Budweiser owns 250 Clydesdales in all, 50 are in St. Louis.

Fun fact #2: To be a Budweiser horse, it must have a tan coat with a black tail and mane, four white socks, and a white blaze on it's face.

Fun fact #3: The horses live like kings. The phenomenal packaging plant.

That night we crashed at our hotel. It had been a long day.

Wednesday morning we visited Laumeier Sculpture Park (free, free, free). We didn't have enough time to see it all, and we didn't wear the right kind of shoes, but even with those set backs, we had a great time. The sculptures were amazing, and some of them large enough to physically explore. It was interesting, I wish we lived near a park as cool as that. We want to buy this sculpture one day and put it in the lobby of Jason's practice. What do you think?Can you find Jason's head in this picture?

After lunch, we ventured over to The Magic House, one of the nation's premier children's museums. This, sadly, was the only thing we spent money to do, but it was well worth it! There were plenty of things targeted towards very young children, so that kept Addie busy, and plenty of other stuff to keep Jason and I entertained as well. We had a great time.

Addie shopping at Schnuck's Market.

I love this picture, it is so sweet.

Now this is truly one unruly perm!

On our way home that evening we stopped at Lambert's Cafe, recommended to me by several friends. It was an experience not to be missed! They are famous for their signature "throwed rolls" which they toss across the dining room at the customers (and boy, were they delicious!). The waiters also walk around the dining room hollering at you, wondering if you'd like any of their pass-around side dishes (fried ocra, fried potatoes, macaroni and tomatoes, etc). Everything there is all you can eat, so if you want more, feel free! Not that anyone could actually order more, Jason's piece of ham was bigger than his head, much much bigger! Lambert's is loud and crazy, and we loved every minute of it.

What a ham!

So, that's it. We really jam-packed as much into this little vacation as we could and had a fabulous time. Jason starts school again tomorrow, so this was our last hurrah before he gets his nose back in the books. St. Louis is a great (and inexpensive!) place for families to visit, it comes highly recommended! Hope you enjoyed the bazillion pictures!