The drive from Cincinnati to St Louis is about 5 hours through some pretty Kentucky hills and then lots of Indiana and Illinois corn fields. We made a stop in Louisville to visit the Louisville Slugger museum. It was an interesting and inexpensive museum and tour. We got to see how they make bats and while we were touring they were making bats for Brian Dozier of the Minnesota Twins. We absorbed some history and the boys tried their bats in the batting cages before continuing on to St Louis for the night.
Fred and the boys in front of the Louisville Slugger Museum.
Photo Ops: (with bats once used by pros)
Gavin
Jacob
Wyatt
Gavin, Jacob and Wyatt in the dugout
The view of downtown St Louis as we drove in.
We stayed in the St Louis suburb of Brentwood and took public transportation to the zoo on Friday morning. We got to see bears, penguins, elephants, giraffes, and more. My favorite were the hippos. They can hang out underwater for 5 minutes at a time, but then have to come up for air. So, they can't sit still for too long, unlike many of the animals that were sleeping in their caves/burrows. Plus, the enclosure for the hippos made watching them super fun.
The hippo sneaking up on Jacob.
Wyatt watching the hippo get his teeth cleaned by the fish.
Jacob, Gavin and Wyatt by the elephant enclosure.
After a hot couple hours at the zoo, we found our way to downtown St Louis. We got lunch at Jimmy Johns (not finding a nearby BBQ joint) and then made our way to our appointment with the Gateway Arch. We got to ride up to the top of the arch and look down on the city and the Mississippi River. Last time Fred and I were there (on our honeymoon) it was early April and there weren't many tourists, this time it was a little crowded which made it seem smaller. Anyway, we looked around and took some pictures before catching another pod back down. We watched a video of how they built the arch, which was pretty amazing before heading back to our hotel for the night.
Me and the boys atop the Arch.
Family selfie in the elevator pod you ride up to the top of the arch, and then back down.
One last picture of St Louis.
Our original plan was to take our time getting back to Minnesota, but instead we decided to push through all in one day and stop in Springfield to see my Grandma. Oof-da! That was a long day in the car, but the boys did great and we made it all the way up to Melrose, so we could spend a gorgeous day at the lake on Sunday before heading back to work and park camp on Monday.
