Me and My Boo in St. Loo

Holiday weekend means a kids-free trip with Amy.  This time was St. Louis, a great American city but off the radar screen for most people thinking of a romantic getaway destination.  But it worked for us.

The reason I had St. Louis on my radar screen was that its botanical garden, the Missouri Botanical Garden regularly makes Top 10 lists.  It didn't disappoint.  We made a beeline from the airport to there and spent a goodly amount of time walking around and taking photos.  We then headed downtown to check into our Airbnb unit, a first for us.  It was nicely decorated and superbly located, so that worked for us too.  Even better, it was within close walking distance to a Y and a grocery store, two staples for us which we hit before calling it a night.




We had picked up rental bikes when we got in, so I rode mine out to Forest Park and went for a glorious run and bike through one of America's truly great public spaces.  I took a bunch of photos while puttering around, and then took a bunch more when I came back with Amy later that day.  We hit the Science Center, Zoo, and a bunch of other places.  It was a glorious day out, although it's quite hilly to get there so my legs were crying uncle by the end.

Of course, the next morning I got right back on that bike and headed out to a further away Y because it had a pool.  My route took me through two other great green spaces, Lafayette Park and Tower Grove Park, so even though my thighs were burning my soul was soaring at the same time.  I headed back out with Amy to check out the World Chess Hall of Fame before returning the bikes.  But the day's main activity was to hit the Gateway Arch, which included walking the grounds, visiting the museum, and taking the tram 600+ up in the air for spectacular views on both the Missouri and Illinois sides of the Mississippi River.

I tried another morning run, this time across the Eads Bridge to Illinois for some sweet views of the Gateway Arch from the other direction.  We checked out of our unit later that morning before hitting Laumeier Sculpture Park, Ulysses S Grant National Park, and the Butterfly House in quick succession en route to the airport. 

That's where the trip went a bit awry.  We were at our gate in plenty of time for our flight, but an hour before its intended departure it was cancelled.  Apparently, there was weather chaos in Philly and elsewhere, throwing the whole system into disarray.  We quickly scrambled ourselves onto a connecting flight through Dallas (which, if you know your geogaphy, is in the opposite direction of home), but that was extremely dicey, as there was bad weather in Dallas as well.  The thought of being stranded even further from home loomed, but we made it into Dallas safe.  Though we were late, so was our connector, so we were fine on the connection.  But then our second flight got delayed even more, such that by the time we touched down in Philly at 2 in the morning, there was hardly anyone around to help us get to the gate.  To make matters worse, we had to check (not carry on or even gate check) our one tiny suitcase, and that too took forever to get from plane to baggage claim.  We finally got home around 3:30 in the morning, barely a couple of hours away from when Asher was to wake up.  A bit of a damper on the trip, but in the grand scheme of things we're glad to be home and glad to have gone to St. Louis.