Here are our pictures from our first driving trip!
We left on Thursday morning at 7am and got to St Louis at about 2:30pm. We got checked in to our hotel and the boys went swimming right away. Then we walked down to the Arch from our hotel. We were going to take the trolley, but it didn't seem like it was running. Luckily it was only about 2 miles to walk. Pausing at a fountain on the way...
We made it! The boys liked the Arch more than I thought they would.
We had to get some selfies putting us in the center of it!
Here is the little pod we rode up in. They had one to sit in before you went up.
We were number 6!
Checking out the views. All the views outside of the windows were taken by Sam. He took tons of pictures while up there!
We took an Uber back to the hotel and ate dinner at the restaurant there and then we all went swimming before it was time to go to bed!
Friday we woke up and it was a rainy day. We went to the City Museum first which we were all looking forward to. It did not disappoint! Such a cool place to explore, climb, figure out. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...
We left the City Museum after about 2 1/2 hours and went to get lunch. We found a place called Fitz's that makes their own soda right there in the restaurant. We ordered floats to share, and thank goodness we did! Even sharing them, we couldn't finish.
Joey and I shared an Orange Sunburst
John and Sam shared a Black Cherry bomb.
It cleared up a bit while we were at lunch so we went to the zoo. They have a great zoo in St. Louis. You can get so close to the penguins that you could reach out and touch them if you wanted to.
We rode the carousel and were at the zoo for probably 3 hours. It started to rain a little bit again right when we were leaving.
We headed back to the hotel and took a rest before going back to the City Museum (the passes are good all day). By that time all the rain was gone, so we got to spend time outside there.
Here's Sam climbing to the top of the big slide on the roof.
This one gives a little idea of how high up it is...The slide to go down is right under Joey. We all did that! John and I took the stairs to the top though :)
They had a ferris wheel on the roof too. We rode that once in the daytime and then again when it got dark.
Sam climbed this structure on the roof.
We were at the City Museum another 3 1/2 hours. We probably would have stayed longer, but it was after 9pm when we left and it was starting to get more of a college/older hangout place so it was time to go. This was the only day we didn't swim!
The next morning we went to Grant's Farm as we headed out of St. Louis and on to Springfield. The day before the high was probably about 75 degrees. Saturday, there was a heat index warning and it was going to be about 94. We got to Grant's Farm right about when it opened and did that while it was still tolerable.
The boys rode a camel for the first time...
The best part about Grant's Farm was the shows. We went to one that told us about a few of the smaller animals there (birds, a porcupine, some rats) and then we went to one with an elephant named Toby. We all enjoyed the shows. We saw the Clydesdale horses and looked around and left at about lunchtime for the drive to Springfield.
We stopped at Steak and Shake on the way to Springfield and the boys and I had never been to one, and it had been years since John had. Maybe we were just really hungry, but it was really good!
We drove the 3 1/2 hours to Springfield, checked into our hotel and the boys went swimming. We went to supper at a BBQ place called "Whole Hog Cafe", which was really good. Then we decided to check out Bass Pro Shop where we were going the next day for the Wonders of Wildlife and Aquarium.
The Bass Pro Shop is huge!
We went back to the hotel and all went swimming. We were lucky because the hotel we were supposed to stay at had called me the day before and said their pool was broken and they wanted to let us know in case that was a big deal. Well, of course it was, so I booked a different hotel and we got a working pool. I wish I would have taken my phone down at least a couple times when we went swimming, but I never did so I don't have any pictures.
The next day we went to Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium as soon as it opened. Sam took most of the pictures in the aquarium. It was pretty amazing!
They had an art station where you could color in a fish and then they would scan it and it would swim on the big screen.
Sam's is the colorful one in the middle.
Mine is the smallest one, and Joey's is below it with COOL written on it.
We ate lunch there and then went into the Wildlife section. The boys had a lot of fun posing for the animal displays...
They had penguins here too where you could pop up in the bubble and be in their exhibit with them. Fun!!
We left Springfield and drove about 4 hours to Hannibal. We checked into our hotel and then went to eat dinner. We ate at a place called "The Brick Oven" and when we walked in John and I were a little nervous because it was fancier than we thought a wood fire grill pizza place would be. The prices were good though and the food was delicious. Sam declared that his pizza was 7 stars.
We went to Lovers Leap quickly on our way back to the hotel to check out the view.
Then we went, you guessed it, swimming!
The next day we checked out Mark Twain's boyhood home and the rest of the tour associated with that. They boys liked pulling the boat whistle...
The museum was pretty cool in that they had more interactive exhibits like we got to sit on a raft and watch a video, there was a big boat wheel to try, and they had a scavenger hunt to find animals hiding (Sam loved that!).
After that we headed to the Mark Twain Caves. The boys got to pan for gems , which they enjoyed and then we did the cave tour.
Sam was nervous in the cave, but it was a really interesting tour. Our tour guide had been a guide when he was in high school, and he retired 4 months ago and came back to be a guide again.
After the caves, we hit up Golden Corral for lunch before the long ride home. We got home a little after 7pm so overall we did well with timing and car rides.
It was a fun trip, and seemed to be a good amount of time for us. We were all ready to go home by the end!
