St. Louis - Day 1

There was just too much to post about it all at once. It was a whirlwind trip but we tried to cram in as much as we could.

So, the regular route is I-65N to Nashville, then I-24W. Well, we forgot about that turn. We didn't miss it, we didn't even look for it. The only way we knew we were going the wrong was is John started telling me what his GPS said and it sounded super wrong. We could either go back 30 miles to Nashville and get on the right road or we could take the back way. We opted for the back way.

Am I the only one to realize that the middle of Kentucky has quite a large Shaker community? No? Good. It does. Lots and lots of Shakers. We saw four or five horse and buggies, a Shaker Museum and a Shaker Bed and Breakfast. We also saw a TON of tobacco fields. And zero bathrooms. We turned off on a little two lane highway and it was 45 minutes before we saw a gas station. Not a good thing.

We're podunking along, not really paying attention, and all of a sudden we see this:



In the middle of NO WHERE. Seriously. That thing was huge. It's a marker for the birthplace of Jefferson Davis.



It was also in the middle of a park with a playground so we stopped and took pictures and let Dash run some steam off. Turns out our detour cost us an extra three hours on an already seven hour trip. With a two and a half year old and a four month old.

We FINALLY got to St. Louis. And saw this.



That crazy little structure will forever do funny things to me. It's such a symbol of my hometown.

New Busch was right behind it, and it's just not.the.same.



It's just a regular ol' stadium now; nothing special. Old Busch was something special.

We quickly checked into our hotel room (anyone ever stay at a Drury Inn? Holy moly, what a great hotel for the price. Free hot breakfast, adult beverages and snacks every night (three free per person!), indoor pool, great staff... And I think it was 65 bucks a night.) and headed out to meet my best friend from the fourth grade! It had been all of 16 years since I've seen her.



We had so much fun. Sarah is as sweet as she ever was and found herself an equally sweet husband. We picked up where we left off like we never skipped a beat. She took us to The Hill, the Italian district in St. Louis, to an awesome little restaurant called Rigazzi's



And this crazy little thing was sitting out front. =)



After dinner we headed off to Ted Drewe's, one of my all-time favorite St. Louis places.





and filled up on Chocolate and Oreo concretes. Oh-so-good. More to come tomorrow... (do you believe that? You know what kind of blogger I am, right? I'll try for tomorrow though. Seriously. =) )