St Louis Tour
The only thing I love more than actually going to the game is getting home to see Kelly and our boys. Whilst I hang out for Sundays I know that Sunday night is the beginning of another uninterrupted week of playtime with our crazy kids.
After the game last night Steve, Marty and I all went back to their house for dinner and family time. Somehow, as we all got to know each other a little more, the topic of the best (and worst) ever bands reared its head. Before we knew it we were eating Pizza, drinking Coke and singing songs from the likes of AC/DC (known in Australia as Acca-Dacca) Tina Turner, The Little River Band, Van Halen, U2 and Coldplay.
Ahhhhh, good times.
Luc had been a little sick over the weekend but for the most part he was still himself. Last night however the fun really started. As Kel went off to bed I did what I normally do. I got my laptop, a cup of hot chocolate and switched the TV from Kelly’s station, usually E!, HBO, TBS or CW to Sunday Night Football.
There’s a rule in our house. All football but the Packers is off limits until Kelly goes to bed. As much as I’d like to watch everything else I think this rule is a fair one so I certainly don’t complain. I do like my Sunday and Monday second half fixes though.
Anyway, as I settled down to start writing Luc began to cry. He did this on and off for the next 8 hours or so leaving Kelly and I to tag team our way through the wee hours of the morning.
I had a couple of interviews to do in the morning but apart from those our plan for today was to go sightseeing through the streets of St Louis. With Kelly, Luc and Lyn at the doctors those plans were put on hold. They got back around 10 with the diagnosis, an ear infection - poor little thing.
Once we knew he was OK he was off to bed for an hour and a half sleep followed by a 5 hour sleep taking him through until sunset. In the meantime Steve, Lyn and I took the other kids down to see the Arch. Whilst excited to see what all the fuss was about I was again disappointed to be doing it without Kelly. I didn’t feel so bad though when we arrived and saw that it was closed today and tomorrow for routine maintenance.
How’s that for luck? For the first time in 4 months we were able to get away as a family and Luc was sick. Then, the one attraction that everybody has raved about since learning that the Rams were on our schedule was closed. The funny thing is that they closed it the day after a Rams home game and on the same day they were hosting a commemoration to the folks that helped build the very Arch all those years ago.
That being said we all still had our health and our happiness so that was the main thing.
In absence of the Arch we decided to stay and check out the “Museum of Westward Expansion” that is situated underneath the structure. It celebrates the years from 1764 that St Louis was founded by Pierre LaClede as a “gateway to the west”.
We learned about the exploration and settlement of the west. The fact that as recently as the early 1800’s the US, as it is known today, only stretched from the Atlantic to the Mississippi and that not until the bust of the 1840’s did the river really take full effect and encourage settlers from the east and as far away as Europe to emigrate.
Admittedly though, and for the most part, we looked at the exhibits, films and artefacts that remind us of how far the “western world” has come in the last 200 years.
Outside of the history lesson we ran around, visited the gift store, bought taffy and played hide and seek. I guess it didn’t pay a whole lot of respect to the tales of life on the ranges that were right there before us but when you have an energetic 3 year old to entertain what else can you do?
We finished the road trip with a drive by Busch Stadium, where the Cardinals play, the Anheuser Busch Brewery and Budweiser’s International Headquarters.
