Venimus, Vidimus, Vicimus: St. Louis!

Last month we took our first legit vacation as a family. Sean's dad generously offered to cover the costs of a vacation for our 10 year anniversary, so we chose to explore St. Louis for a few days.  With a loose itinerary and a comically stuffed Prius, we hit the road for adventure.

Our hotel was fantastic.  We had an Arch view and were on the top (17th) floor, so we had a great panorama of the goings-on of the city.  We swam more times than I can count and chose to eat most of our meals as carryout in our room while watching baseball.

While in St, Louis, Wes was able to visit his first MLB ballpark.  We took a tour of Busch Stadium as well as went to a game.  The highlight for him was being able to walk on the warning track during the tour and run around the miniature brick baseball field during the game.  

Warning track

Dugout!

Challenging a call by listening to his pretend headphones

Press box

The heat index was 114 degrees...

But the heat doesn't slow down this baseball guy

Like any good tourist, we visited the Arch and took a tram to the top.  Wes enjoyed the tiny elevator doors and the big view.

Trying to knock the arch down

Wes-sized doors

We had heard a lot of people rave about the City Museum, so we visited that as well.  It is a place to play, climb, and explore and is made entirely from recycled industrial materials.  It's absolutely beautiful in a Tim-Burton kind of way, and entirely too overwhelming for a family of introverts.  We are used to actively supervising a 4 year old, which is nearly impossible with the tiny tunnels, dark caves, and high bridges.  I think it could be a fantastic place when Wes is older and there are 500 fewer people there.

The zoo is always a wonderful place in St. Louis, but it was a HOT day.  We tried to do a number of indoor exhibits, and Sean even faced his fear of the butterfly display for the sake of our son ;)

The Magic House is St. Louis' children's museum.  There are a ton of great exhibits, but the amount of people that are there at one time is pretty overwhelming for all of us.  It took us a while to find our niches, with Wes' favorites being a number wheel game, sand table, and a Lewis and Clark maze.

We cut our trip short when Wes woke up with a high fever on our last day.  We came home tired but with many great memories of our vacation.  Wes is a fun travel buddy, and we are looking forward to future summer adventures.