What do we do for Fall Break? Matt really wanted to visit his grandparents in Southern Illinois. (Sunday was Gigi's birthday, and they recently moved to assisted living and needed some encouragement.) So, we were able to stay at their house and use that as our base of operations for a fun weekend. First stop: Saturday in St. Louis.
St. Louis, here we come!
Dilapidated building in East St. Louis? "Look! A castle!" says AJ.
Crossing the mighty Mississippi
The Gateway Arch
The kids pose at the foot of the Arch.
Waiting in line for Homeland Security fun!
Stuffed grizzly bear in the Museum of Westward Expansion
Stagecoach
Bison
Chloe and a longhorn
A real (reproduction of an) Indian tepee!
Wagons West!
The builders of the Gateway Arch
Getting ready to board the tram for the top of the Arch
AJ & Chloe in the tram
Dad and Essie
Essie and Mom
AJ & Essie look out the window at the top of the Arch
Chloe
Enjoying the view
A view of the city of St. Louis
More St. Louis
Looking down at the base of the Arch
630 feet in the air!
Looking back across the Mississippi at Illinois
Next Stop: The St. Louis Science Museum
(Yes, we know the City Museum is cool. But the Science Museum is free!)
A Blue Angels jet outside the Planetarium
T-Rex!
Triceratops
Animatronic dinosaurs
AJ checks out an optical illusion
Playing a harp with no strings
AJ works on building a model of the Arch
Essie and Chloe pitch in to help
Mom joins in on the fun
The arch is getting high...might need Dad's help on this one.
Success!
Another arch project
Essie learns about the engineering of an arch
Chloe & AJ learn about earthquake protection
We also watched an Omnimax feature about building a railroad through the Canadian Rockies.
Next stop: The St. Louis Zoo - also free!
Always up for a trip to the zoo
Rhinoceros
Hippo
Asian elephant
More elephants
Baby elephants
Taking a short break, but the zoo closes at 5!
Gotta keep moving!
Feeding time for the penguins
More penguins
Puffins
Grizzly bear
Flamingos
Seals
Panther
Tiger
Leopard
Let sleeping Snow Leopards lie!
Zebras
The Somali donkeys were having a little race amongst themselves
Enjoying all the animals.
(But Essie is adamant she wants to see the snakes.)
The lion was feeling very vocal that day!
The lions were licking their chops at the zoo visitors.
Chloe and the lemurs
Iguanas
Tortoises
After a long day with lots of walking, we're all still in good spirits!
(And yes, Essie got to see the snakes. But Mom didn't take any pictures.)
Back to Gigi's house for warm beds.
1 comment:
So glad you and your family had such a good time in St. Louis. Even though it's clear you all have Kentucky pride, I hope you left a little piece of your heart in Missouri:-) Come back and see us some time!
Love from the road,
~VisitMO
http://facebook.com/VisitMO
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