I was able to take a train to St. Louis with my 14 y/o son. What a blast that was! Had a sleeper car with meals included. Didn't have to worry about stopping, directions or getting lost! We arrived in St. Louis on a Sunday at lunch. Walked to the hotel... it happened to be the wrong hotel. We strolled another mile to the correct one and dropped our stuff off. Got refreshed and headed back downtown to Busch Stadium where the St. Louis Cardinals were taking on the LA Dodgers that evening. We hung around the Brewery did some shopping and of course eating. We got in line at the game a few hours early because my son wanted to get his Cardinals jersey that they were handing out.
We had a blast and met some really nice people while waiting and sweating....
We got into the game and found our seats.... They were amazing. Amazingly high, but amazing still. We ended up moving down closer to the field later in the game and found some even more amazing seats and enjoyed the rest of the game. The atmosphere so incredible.... That happens with a winning season. (Go Rangers!) The Cardinals lost a close one and we journeyed back to our hotel and rode a pedi cab. When you have walked as much as we did it was worth every penny!
Our second day we headed back to Busch Stadium to take a tour and see all of the history. What a great baseball history they have! After the stadium tour we headed for the St. Louis Arch. If you haven't been to this you need to. A great piece of history for the Gateway to the West. The construction involved in building it was incredible.
We were so worn out from all of the walking, we had an early night and headed back to the hotel.
For Tuesday, we hung out around the Brewery again, they have some great restaurants and the atmosphere is just so fun. When a 14 y/o says this is a great vacation, you know something has been done right! We headed to another ballgame that night and ended up in the outfield in great seats again. The cardinals lost again, but our time at the stadium watching those guys play was really enjoyable.
Wednesday we found the public transportation that we had been walking around. Let me say. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IS THE GREATEST INVENTION EVER!!! I wish more cities invested in it. We made it out to the St. Louis zoo, which was free. This was more for me then my kid.... I love learning about animals and their adaptations. LEARN I DID!!! Best part of this trip was Caribbean Cove to visit the stingrays and few sharks. WOW! We were able to pet the Stingrays and 'pet' the sharks. What an amazing experience. I could have stayed here all day. My son was able to put his arm in the water, after a shark swam by and fed a stingray. So cool! I highly recommend the St. Louis Zoo if you are in town.
The last day was spent wrapping up last visits to shops and we headed out to the Galleria. Got our mall fix in and we were ready to go. It was funny loading up on the train to leave with all of the fans going to the ballgame. We felt like that was what we were supposed to be doing...
This trip was an adventure for my son and I. We have done a bit of traveling together and thankfully he is good at it. Taking AMTRAK was the way to go. It was a long trip, but the sleeper car made it so much more bearable. The food that we ate on the train was so much better than airplane food. I highly recommend traveling by train. We will be doing it again that is for sure!
We had a great vacation to St. Louis! I'm so glad that our schedules work out that we can do those things. I'm glad that I work a second job to be able to take a vacation. I'm thankful that there are summer jobs out there for teachers. I'm thankful to be heading back to school in a few weeks to our beautiful new JMS campus!
Here's to a great summer and a great new school year!