St Louis

This weekend Michele and I went to St Louis with her friend Sandra. I worked half a day on Friday then we flew out of Fairhope at 2:00. We arrived 2 hours later in Eureka and picked up the rental cars. After checking into the hotel Michele and I went to a nearby trail and hiked 3 miles. Hilda Young Conservation area:

On th way back to the hotel I found a tick crawling on my arm. When we got to the hotel I found one on the car seat. We checked eachother and didn't find any so we thought we were clear. We get in the room and Michele finds one on her foot so we put our clothes in the tub to isolate them and go to dinner. When we get back I get in the shower and find one on my foot and one on Michele's pants in the shower so Michele and I checked each other again and even searched each others scalps. So I thought we were clear then Michele finds one on her should when she went to work Monday. I have never had a tick on me before this was rediculous. Saturday morning we got up early and went to the farmer's market in St Louis to look around and eat breakfast.

Next we drove to the waterfront and went to the Gateway Arch. We were told to get there early and I am glad we did. There was no line when we got there and lines all over when we left. You ride up in a "pod" on a track like a rollercoaster that goes to an observation area at the top.

Next we walked across the street to the historic courthouse and watched a movie about the Dred Scott trials. Next we walked across the Historic Eads Bridge to Illinois and back.

Just north of the bridge is a historic distric with lots of restraunts so we grabed a bite of lunch

We decided to spend the hottest part of the day inside so we went to REI and did some shopping and climbed the rock wall. We had climbed three sides and the last side was crazy hard with overhangs and junk but somehow Michele talked me into trying it so I spent like 20 min hanging on by my fingertips doing chinups trying to find purchase on this wall. My arms hurt for days. I could bearly grip the steering wheel or feed myself Monday.

Next we went to Forest Park and looked around. We must have seen a dozen weddings all going on at the same time in different places in the park. There were brides and everywhere. We rented row boats rowed around the park. When we got to the boat we told the girl that we didn't know what we were doing. That cazy girl put us in the boat backwards. As I am rowing away from the bock one of the other workers yells and we get the boat turned around but how could that girl not know where the front of the boats was?? So Michele ends up rowing but she can't get it to go straight so we figured it was because her right arm was stronger than her left. Half way through we switch and I can't go straight either. That's when we figured out one of the oars was twisted in the oarlock. So rowing was interesting but it would have been better if the oar hadn't been twisted.

We could have stayed in the park for Shakespeare but it had been a pretty long day so we went back to Eureka and found a little Italian restraunt.Sunday we went to the dog show. This was my first dog show so it was neat to see. I enjoyed playing with the dogs and helping the handlers to ferry the dogs to and from the RV. It was an outdoor show so the handlers got hot running the dogs around the rings but we stayed pretty compfotable under the tents. i especially enjoyed watching the junior handlers. they were so cute showing their dogs. Most of the dogs won breed but none of them won group so we left early and arranged for the plane to leave early. it was nice to get home at a decent hour and over all I give the trip an A+.