Day 3 in St. Louis

Today was spent climbing through tunnels at the City Museum, eating delicious food, and enjoying Wild Nights at the St. Louis Zoo!

It was our family's first visit to City Museum, which the kids both wholeheartedly agreed was their favorite part of the trip. It is called a museum but is really like a huge indoor playground, with all kinds of tunnels, slides, and climbing structures to explore. Oh, and No Maps! We really want to come back in the summer sometime to try everything again and to see the exhibits on the rooftop.

Getting ready to explore.

I don't have many pictures since we were too busy exploring! To give you an idea of what the place is like - all kinds of random tunnels, in which you really have no idea where they go.

Spinning chairs. They feel very weird when you lean back.

Coming down.

I think the kids' favorite part was outside. It was quite chilly, especially since we didn't wear jackets so that we didn't overheat indoors, but everyone was a trooper. Giant ball pit.

Will and Annika climbed very high up. Not a comfortable feeling for someone afraid of heights. ;)

Giant airplane mounted way up high.

Giant slide up high. You can sort of see Daniel at the top here.

View from below of the airplane.

This one particular slide was one of Daniel's favorites. He counted that he went down it more than 10 times in a row.

If you are ever in St. Louis, I highly recommend checking out the City Museum! There is really nothing like it.

We headed over to the Schlafly Tap Room upon the recommendation of a friend. This is one of St. Louis's famous local breweries.

Wheat beer!

And poutine as an appetizer. I could totally be Canadian...

Not having stuffed ourselves enough, we headed over to Jilly's (in University City) for ice cream (for now) and cupcakes (which we ate for dinner tonight). So good!! I even was able to get gooey butter cake flavor for my ice cream and taste that local flavor - so good.

We all agreed tonight that these were the most delicious cupcakes any of us had ever had.

This evening, we headed over to the St. Louis Zoo for the Wild Lights exhibit, a chance to see Christmas lights and animals on display.

Tree that is so bright that the rest of us are all washed out. ;)

Giant swan.

 View of some of the path.

Penguins!!

Daniel on the carousel - he was excited to ride a caterpillar.

Giant light tunnel.

Fake snow, aka soap, but it was cool to see the kids frolicking in the snow since we have had so little this season.

More of some of the path.

Giant peacock that really excited Annika.

Finally, at the gift shop at the end, Annika used some of her saved allowance to purchase Daniel a stuffed otter (since his money is long gone). I thought this was so sweet and was the perfect cap to the day.

Tomorrow, we are planning to go ice skating in Forest Park, check out the Science Center, and stay up late to ring in the New Year!

Days 1 and 2 in St. Louis

We made it to St. Louis and are having a great time on our winter break vacation! Yesterday, we battled crazy weather and driving conditions, and made it safely here. Today, we visited the Gateway Arch, the Magic House Children's Museum, and Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. We are having a blast! 

We had a late start yesterday in part because of poor Will's tooth that has really been hurting. Thankfully, although he needs a root canal, he was able to get some antibiotics and pain meds to tide him over until next week. 

Freezing rain, sleet, snow, and heavy winds = awesome driving conditions!! Will is a rock star and did all of the driving in this crazy weather.

We made it to Columbia, Missouri for lunch around 3 p.m. When we drove through before, we ate breakfast here at around 9 am. ;)

We made it!! We opted for the extra pull-out sofa bed option and it is so worth it.

Everyone just wanted to relax last night, so we just hung out at the pool in the hotel.

This morning, we were up and ready to go...some of us in bolder patterns than others. ;)

Our hotel is in Forest Park, quite near Washington University.

The arch!! Due to all of the construction around the arch, we parked about 3/4 of a mile away and walked.

View from the top!! You take these containers up in the shape of an egg - it was a little claustrophobic but all of us survived, including the ones quite nervous before. The windows are quite small but you can get a great view of the city if you climb up to them.

The Mississippi River is super high right now.

At the monument at the bottom.

View looking up outside.

Selfie!

Great time to visit! It was really neat finally being inside after all of our trips seeing the arch from the highway.

Next Stop - The Magic House, a children's museum in an old house! Very cool. Our kids (especially Annika) were some of the oldest ones there but they didn't seem to notice and had a blast. I neglected to take as many pictures here since I was so busy following them around. ')

Giant climbing structure.

A really cool mystery - there are 18 different stations with different clues and strategies for solving each one. Daniel wasn't interested, but Annika was totally absorbed.

Daniel in the Oval Office!

Construction zone.

This evening, we headed to the Missouri Botanical Gardens for a magical event...Garden Glow, a chance to see the gardens all awash in millions of Christmas lights. It is a bit pricey but absolutely worth it.

Looking at one of the long paths.

Will and the kids.

We opted to splurge and purchase a s'mores pack and got to roast marshmallows.

Blue tree - reminded us of our favorite blue house in Manhattan!

Purple tree. Go K-State!

Inside the really neat historic Shaw house, the original owner.

There were photo ops everywhere. Actually, it really was like visiting one giant Photo Op place. ;)

Huge fountain covered in lights.

Garden Glow "card" look.

The Christmas cottage.

Giant light-up dome. Annika was disappointed that we couldn't go inside - we need to come back at some point in the summer.

Giant tunnel.

Kissing under the Mistletoe!!

On the plan for tomorrow - visiting the infamous City Museum and going to the zoo's light extravaganza at night. We are having a blast in St. Louis and would highly recommend checking it out if you are within a day's drive!