We went on our first overnight trip by ourselves as a family of five when we went to Dothan for a wedding in June 2021. It was a long weekend trip, which went really well, and it really opened my eyes to the fact that travel with kids was getting easier. So, I started thinking about where we could take our next trip together. We had heard from other parents that St. Louis was a great place to visit because there are so many free activities for families. We were debating about going over spring break, but ultimately decided to wait until June so that the weather would be warmer for our visit to the zoo. We found an AirBnb and booked it for the first full week of June. After the school year ended in May, we started to get really excited about checking out a new city together.
We left for St. Louis on Monday, June 6th around 9:15 AM. We had a smooth trip and only ran into heavy traffic around Nashville. Other than that, it was a pretty easy drive. It did rain on us off and on, but not too bad. It was neat to drive interstates that we haven’t been on before…going up through Tennessee, western Kentucky, Illinois (the girls’ and my first time in Illinois!), and finally into Missouri. We stopped at Chick-fil-a for lunch and only made 2 stops other than that!
We saw a random blimp on our drive!
It wouldn’t be a road trip without a nap from Abigail ;)
The Illinois flatland was beautiful…
…but the gas prices in Illinois were not! In hindsight, we were traveling during the peak of the really high gas prices over the summer and didn’t know it. But the gas in Illinois was especially high compared to the surrounding states we drove through. I think they charge extra taxes that really add onto the cost.
We ended up getting to to our rental house around 5:45 PM. It was really neat to see the Arch as we drove into St. Louis…the girls were very excited. It was way bigger than any of us imagined until we saw it in person from the interstate. We ate leftovers for supper and got settled into our house. It was a good first day!
Tuesday, June 7th was our first full day in STL, and it was a busy day! We started off with a riverboat cruise along the Mississippi River…
I took this picture of the girls while we waited to board the boat! The loading area for the cruise was within walking distance of the Arch.
It was a narrated tour and actually very informative and interesting (at least for Travis and me). The girls enjoyed the ride too, but I think we enjoyed it more. It was neat to see things from the water (STL on one side and “East St. Louis” in Illinois on the other.) The boat wasn’t crowded at all and it was a fun way to kick off the day. The boat ride lasted one hour and then we walked into downtown to find something for lunch.
We were amazed to see how high the water had gotten a couple of times before. This marker was at the street level after we got off the boat and walked up the ramp.
We were walking across the grass toward the downtown area when a nice lady stopped and asked if she could take our picture. She said she remembered how she never got in many family pictures when her kids were little (which I can relate to!) because she was always the one taking the photos.
We decided not to bring a stroller on our trip now that Abigail is getting older. We did a good bit of walking between the riverboat, arch, and getting lunch, and she did great. It also helps that she doesn’t weigh very much when she convinces her sisters to carry her ;)
We ate lunch at a deli called Pickles, and it was really good! We all liked our food, and it was obvious by all the business people eating there that it was a favorite of the locals.
Brooklyn and Abigail got grilled cheese sandwiches with 5 types of cheese in them! And, Savannah’s hot dog was a quarter pound of meat…and she ate the whole thing! I guess the girls worked up an appetite that morning.
After lunch, we walked back toward the Arch…
and went inside to check out the museum before our ticket to ride at 1:30 PM. Covid cases were increasing across the country in early June, and the Gateway Arch JUST reinstituted their mask mandate inside the arch the day before we visited…ugh. Thankfully, we weren’t required to wear them anywhere else on our trip!
I was really impressed by the museum…it was really well done and contained a lot of info about the history of the city and not just the arch. We learned so much! The Arch is the 2nd tallest monument in the WORLD (tallest in the U.S.) and only behind the Eiffel Tower in the entire world. It is as wide as it is tall. Learning about how the arch was constructed was really amazing.
The tram ride to the top of the arch was pretty wild. We had a tram car all to ourselves, which was good because it was tight quarters in there!! It takes 4 minutes to get to the top and 3 minutes to get down. You can’t actually see outside during the tram ride…only when you get to the top. All the noises and jostling made my hands a little clammy on the way up! I was definitely more nervous on the way up and at the top than I was on the way down. But we made it…whew! ;)
When you get to the top, there are small windows to look out of on each side. We had plenty of room because only half the tram cars were filled up on our way up, so it wasn’t too crowded at the top. I had heard from others that they felt claustrophobic, but the only part that felt that way to me was in the tram car and not at the top. The views were really cool…seeing everything from that high up. The girls enjoyed that, although Brooklyn said she was a little nervous. You can supposedly see 30 miles in either direction from the top on a clear day!
The view looking out over St. Louis. You can see the Cardinals’ stadium in the picture!
Looking out the other direction, we could see the Mississippi River and East St. Louis.
Once we got back down to the bottom, we checked out the last bit of the museum that we didn’t have time to get to before our tram ride and then we headed back to the car.
As if that weren’t enough for one day, we decided to drive about 20 minutes over to the Magic House in Kirkwood for the last 1.5 hours or so that they were open. Admission was only $3 per person after 3 PM, so it was a good deal and a fun way for the kids to get some play time in after mostly museum/educational stuff for the first part of the day.
The girls really liked the museum! Parts of it reminded us of the McWane Center in Bham. There were some neat exhibits, including a Molly of Denali exhibit and one about life in Kenya from a kid’s perspective. The girls had a lot of fun!
The girls especially liked this “ice fishing” area in the Molly of Denali exhibit.
Bubbles are always a big hit :)
We ended the day with pizza at Dewey’s, which was delicious…
…and gelato at a nearby restaurant. Kirkwood was such a cute little suburb with so many shops and restaurants you could walk to!
Sticky but happy! We were all super tired by the time we got back to the house and hoping for a good night of sleep. (The night before, there were birds singing outside our window at 3:30 AM that woke me AND Travis up…which is really saying something if he got woken up! He was so confused that he stumbled out of bed and started to open up the blinds until I told him it was still dark outside and the middle of the night…haha. He said he thought he’d overslept based on how loud they were singing!! Haha!)
On June 8th, after a better night of sleep (ha!), we ate breakfast at a restaurant called Chris’s before heading to the City Museum. The girls drew pictures of the Arch while we waited on our food. Breakfast was good! It was a little diner that didn’t look like much from the outside, but we all really liked our food. It filled us up before we did lots of climbing and crawling at the museum ;) We were seated near to an older lady who was eating by herself, and she struck up a conversation with us about STL and all that there is to do. It was obvious she was a regular at the restaurant because she knew all the waitresses by name. We enjoyed talking to her and hearing her tips and recommendations.
The City Museum was unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. It’s one of those places you just have to experience to understand what it’s like. It’s very eclectic and strange….so many random collections and oddities. Lots of unusual artwork. And tons of caves and things to climb and play on. Huge slides made of industrial material. Stuff to do inside and out.
They recommend long pants, knee pads, and flashlights, if that gives you any indication of what its like. We even saw someone with a headlamp! At one point, Savannah was crawling up along the ceiling, and we were just watching from the floor hoping we could find her when she got out of there…haha.
The museum is inside an old warehouse that used to house a shoe factory. It was hot in some parts of the museum because the A/C didn’t work very well on certain floors. I’m not sure I’d want to go on a super hot day! (Today was only in the low 80s). Some of the slides and cave areas were a little too much for Abigail, but Savannah and Brooklyn loved almost everything. We went down a slide that started on the 10th story and went all the way down to the 3rd story!
I think Travis and I used muscles at the City Museum that we haven’t used in a long time…haha. There were quite a few tight places that we would have had to crawl through on our bellies, but we turned around instead…haha. I took this picture of Travis crawling after the kids on his hands and knees….just trying to keep up with them ;)
This rope swing was a favorite of all three girls!
I didn’t get many great pictures while we were there because the girls were in constant motion ;)
These spinning tops were really cool!
Other highlights from the day: We watched a very strange “circus” with only one acrobat. She mostly danced and performed some acrobatics (including hanging from a cable by her hair). There was an aquarium, an art exhibit, a bug museum, and tons of other stuff. We climbed SO many stairs and did more crawling than I’ve done in a long time. Whew. We were there from about 10:30 AM to 2:45 PM, and by that point, Abigail was exhausted. We made a quick stop by a grocery store on the way home and ate spaghetti for supper. (We were so full from breakfast that we skipped lunch and just had an afternoon snack instead). We went to church in Kirkwood that night and met several “friends of friends/family”. The girls enjoyed bible class, and it was neat to visit a new congregation we’d never been to before. It was a great day!
This street was a few blocks away from our AirBnB, and I had to stop and get a picture!!
These girls were loving St. Louis so far!
On Thursday, June 9th, we went to the STL Zoo. It is a free zoo (other than a few paid extras inside + parking), which I thought was so cool!
We got there around 9 AM and stayed until the zoo closed at 5 pm. We saw almost everything there! We had trouble finding our way around at first using the printed maps, but after we got the hang of where we were and figured out that using the signs were much easier, the day went much smoother.
Abigail was looking cute in her baseball cap that day :)
We were amazed at how close we were able to get to this bird!
A BIG highlight of the day: Savannah FINALLY got to see a polar bear! His name was Kali. We went to his exhibit early this time since we missed seeing the polar bear at the last zoo we visited, the Cincinnati Zoo.
When we got to the polar bear exhibit, Kali was laying down on a big rock close to the glass, and we got to see him pretty close up! We were all amazed at how big his paws were.
He was laying down the whole time, but we got to see him yawn, scrunch his nose, cover his face, etc. It seemed like he was trying to get the bugs off his nose.
All the girls were excited to see the polar bear, but we were especially glad for Savannah!
We also got to see a trainer feeding fish to a bunch of penguins. She knew them by name just by looking at them. Some of them made noises because they were excited about the food…not sure we’d ever heard penguins “speak” before!
Seeing more bears!
We saw lots of bugs, but Travis didn’t look too closely at the spiders ;)
We learned on this trip that Abigail is terrified of butterflies…haha. She’s been scared of bugs for a long time, but I didn’t think she would be scared of butterflies until we got into the butterfly house and they were flying all around her. She screamed and cried, and I had to carry her ;) The rest of us loved the butterflies! Hopefully she will eventually realize that they aren’t going to hurt her.
After lunch, we paid $4 each to see a sea lion show, and that was my favorite part of the whole day. All of us loved it!
They had a smaller sea lion do a few things first (He could pick out his shape, a sea turtle, by looking at it next to another shape. He touched it with his nose…it was amazing!). He is still learning to perform. Then they brought out Robby, a huge 700 pound sea lion who did all sorts of amazing things…
He waved, clapped, imitated a seal (which was hilarious), walked on his front flippers, threw frisbees to the audience, collected trash and put it in the recycling bin, and jumped through a hoop. I remember loving the sea lion show at Sea World when I was little, and this one was so great too. The girls loved it! I am so glad we bought tickets to see it.
Wheeee!
Next, we walked over to Big Cat Country, which Brooklyn had been waiting patiently to see. She LOVES big cats!
We got to see a jaguar…
and a lion, who were both asleep. We missed seeing the tiger, leopard, and serval…it was afternoon by this time and they were probably in their indoor habitats.
We went back a little while later, and still only saw those two cats. But the jaguar was awake the second time at least!
“Take my picture with the jaguar!” :)
Abigail fell asleep around this time and got a little nap in the stroller, which was good timing so that she could last a while longer while we explored.
Monkeys are so entertaining to watch! At one point, Savannah said, “I forgot we are in Saint Louis because I’m having so much fun.” :)
We saw hippos, elephants, giraffes, bears, and so many other animals…
We missed out on getting a smoothie in a pineapple, which we had seen other people carrying around earlier in the day. Apparently they usually sell out, and we were too late by trying to get one at 3:30 PM. So we settled for Icees instead. This was the girls first Icee experience, and they didn’t like them as much as I thought they would. I guess because they don’t drink soft drinks and aren’t used to that taste ;) Travis and I thought they tasted good on a warm afternoon though! It was warm today (low-mid 80s), but low humidity so I never even broke a sweat. It was great. After our Icees, we headed back to try to see the polar bear one last time, but he wasn’t out where we could see him. We were hoping to see him swim ;) So glad we went in the morning at least when he was out!
One of the last things we did at the zoo was ride the carousel…Abigail had literally been asking about it all day since she’d seen it. She didn’t care about seeing any animals…she just wanted to ride the carousel…haha. Travis took pictures, and the girls and I rode. Savannah picked out a polar bear, and Abigail and Brooklyn rode cheetahs :)
Abigail had the biggest smile on her face the whole time…this was definitely the highlight of her day. She LOVED the carousel. I’m glad we decided to do it.
Happy that she isn’t too cool for carousels just yet ;)
Savannah didn’t realize until we started moving that her polar bear didn’t go up and down like most of the animals did. She was a little disappointed, but I think she was still glad she chose it.
We ended the day by visiting the gift shop. The girls all picked out a t-shirt, and they picked some really cute ones! We had a really fun time….it was definitely a record for our longest day at a zoo!
We got back to the house and ate leftovers for dinner and then walked down to Cups + Cones for some ice cream. It was literally a few houses away at the end of our street, and the ice cream was SO good! Plus, it was only $1.75 per scoop….we felt like we were getting a steal compared to the way prices are these days with inflation.
We walked over to the playground nearby to eat our ice cream, and the girls played for a few minutes after we were finished.
Then we walked over a few blocks to see Benton Park for a few minutes before coming back to the house to get the girls ready for bed. It was a very full but fun day!
I snapped this photo of the girls when we got back to the house. We lucked out with the AirBnB that we stayed in. It had 2 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms and just the right amount of space for us to spread out and not feel too cramped during our stay. (We are just not hotel people when it comes to traveling with kids.) It was located on a quiet street, but it was very convenient to most of the places we were going in the city.
The girls’ room had two beds and a trundle bed, which worked out great.
I looked ahead to the weather for Friday, and we couldn’t have timed our trip better before the heat wave came through. Mid-80s was much better than temps at 100 degrees or higher.
Friday, June 10th was a little bit of a slower pace. We decided to drive out to Purina Farms–about 40 minutes from our rental house in Gray Summit, MO. It had free admission just like the zoo did! We got there a little after 10:30 AM and stayed until about 2:45 PM.
We explored the visitor center first, and the girls enjoyed looking at the different exhibits and seeing which type of cat or dog they were most like ;) There were a lot of neat facts about cats and dogs, and we learned several things we didn’t know.
We were pretty sure the girls would love Purina Farms, and we were right!
Brooklyn is all about anything with a screen ;)
“Pets are special because they are sweet!”
We bought lunch there and ate it on a table outside under a covered tent area. The weather was absolutely gorgeous!!
After lunch, we checked out the animal barn and got to see a lot of different farm animals. Savannah enjoyed petting a horse…
and all the girls loved seeing rabbits.
The neatest part was the cow milking demonstration. After listening to a short talk about cows, all of the kids were given the chance to milk the cow! The girls had never done it before, but they all got in line to try. Savannah was sure she wanted to do it…but the other girls were a little more hesitant. But they were all glad they did it afterward.
Brooklyn took a turn after Savannah…
Abigail’s first time to milk a cow :)
Next we walked over to the Pet Center where we saw some different animals that were up for adoption. Of course, the girls were hinting that they wanted to take one home…haha. After that, it was time to watch a dog show outside nearby.
It lasted about 15 minutes, and the girls loved it!
Some of the dogs ran through agility courses, and others caught flying discs. It was so cool to see how fast they could weave in and out of cones and how high they could jump.
At the end, the kids were able to stand by the pool while some of the dogs jumped in to catch a flying disc. The girls really enjoyed the whole show!
We also went on a tractor ride around the property, where we learned some more facts about all the property that Purina owns. We had no idea they hosted so many dog and cat shows, and that people camp out in RVs during the competitions. We made a stop in the gift shop–the girls can’t go somewhere without stopping in the gift shop, of course…haha, and they all picked out a Beanie Boo to buy with their own money. We ended the afternoon with a quick trip inside the Purina Event Center. They were hosting two dog shows that day for Silken Windhounds and Salukis…two types of dogs we’d never heard of. They were already finished with their competitions for the day by the time we got there, but it was neat to see what the event center looked like on the inside. The girls were so happy getting to pet so many dogs over the course of the day!!
We stopped at Ted Drewes for frozen custard on the way back to our house. We had heard from several people that it’s the place to go in STL for frozen custard, and we could tell when we pulled up that it was definitely a popular place. It was delicious! You walk up to a window and order, and there is no seating except for a few benches in the parking lot. We all tried a different flavor, and everyone loved it.
We tried gelato, ice cream, and custard ALL this week…good thing we did a lot of walking!!
That evening, we ate leftovers/sandwiches for supper and then took another walk around Benton Park. The girls loved running ahead and trying not to step on the cracks in the sidewalk. We packed a TON of fun into a few short days.
On Saturday, June 11th, it was time to head home. Packing and loading the car didn’t take too long at all, and we hit the road around 8:30 AM. Before we got of town, we stopped for gas, knowing it would be much higher in Illinois. We paid a cool $4.79 per gallon…yikes.
The drive went smoothly, and we only stopped a couple of times for gas and lunch at Firehouse Subs. We boarded Gabby at the vet during the trip, and we were hoping to pick her up when we got home. They are only open from 4-5 PM on Saturday and Sunday for drop offs/pick ups. We pulled into the parking lot at 4:48, so we made it with 12 minutes to spare! Gabby was so happy to see us. She even slept on our bed that night, and I can’t remember the last time she did that.
It was a fantastic trip!! The girls are still talking about it months later and asking when we can go back to St. Louis. There is so much to do there, and we really enjoyed all of our activities!
