Cernin4: Vacation

Tim took vacation the week of June 14th-June 22nd. We decided we were going to hit the road and spend a few days in St. Louis. On Monday, we headed to St. Louis...in the rain. It rained the whole way to St. Louis, almost got into an accident, (a pickup in the lane next to us started to hydro-plane) and only ended up across the river in Illinois, once! How was I supposed to know the "Last Missouri Exit" was coming up? We got a good chuckle out of it! Our initial plan was to hit the Zoo and City Museum. Since it was raining on Monday, we headed to the Science Center. Although this was pretty cool, it wasn't very age appropriate for our kids. This place is pretty big. They enjoyed walking the skywalk to the other half of the center. In the middle of the walkway, they made holes so you can look down at the highway underneath you. They also had radar guns to see how fast cars were going. However, the highway was closed due to construction and all you could see was the cement. We ended up eating lunch there, then saw that it cleared up and decided to go to the St. Louis Zoo that was close by. The Zoo was very cool and ginormous (according to Taylor). We saw snakes, zebras, gorillas, donkey's, warthogs, tigers, leopards, etc...all those things you see at a zoo. A new attraction is Caribbean Cove with Sting-rays. For a fee, you are able to pet them. Tim and Colin pet them and yes, I was a little hesitant at first, but finally touched one. Taylor of course, didn't. We got splashed a couple times by them and Colin got soaked! We didn't even get thru the whole Zoo when we heard over the PA that the Zoo is 'now closed'. So, we headed to the car to track down our hotel. Which is a story in it self. To make a long story short, (too late), we found our exit, found the street the hotel is located and drove...and drove...farther away from downtown and the nicer hotels, the restaurants, shops, etc. I'm not one to usually judge things by appearances, but that night looking for our hotel, I wasn't sure what we had booked. The website showed a nice, new construction Days Inn. Doesn't that look nice? Plus, it was a great rate! Who wouldn't argue? So basically, we were located about 5 minutes north of downtown... with a bunch of empty warehouses, run down buildings, totally not where I expected a hotel to be at. Tim compared the area to downtown Burlington....how the hotel would look if placed in downtown Burlington. I did not agree and felt a little nervous about the whole thing. I felt better when I saw a car with Iowa plates. All in all, the area seems to be in process of renovations and restoration. The hotel was very nice and had that "new" smell!

Since there were no restaurants near by, we (I) decided we would go find something downtown. And we found Hard Rock Cafe. After eating, we walked into Union Station and bought the kids some Cardinal T-shirts to wear to the game the following evening. Then headed back to the hotel to call it a night. Taylor was so excited to sleep in a 'motel'. She was in her glory! She was super excited when we told her she'd be sharing a bed with Colin. But that ended when we saw how high the beds were and we made a bed for him on the floor.