St. Louis

Well we left Franklin and hit the road full speed ahead, at least until we happened upon St. Louis, MO.  And there we chose to stop and spend the night.  After a few errands and a few more stops along the way we arrived in St. Louis, crossing the bridge into MO from IL while looking below at the great Mississippi.  Our hotel was not far from the great Arch.  We decided a walk to the National Park was in order and we rode the tram to the top of the arch, over 600 feet in the air.  Thing 3 and I were a bit leary but we pressed forward not wanting to miss the experience.  I am so glad we did.  Although the ride was a bit cramped once we reached the top the view was out of this world.  The expanse of the city lay before us.  Everything from the barges on the river, Busch Stadium, the Jefferson Expansion Memorial and downtown St. Louis.  We ended the evening with a delicious dinner at a quaint Italian eatery and a walk under the stars.

The morning brought a much anticipated trip to a renowned coffee shop famous for it's ooey gooey butter cake.  Um, I'll take two please.  There are over 73 flavors of ooey gooey butter cake rotated at Park Avenue Coffee shop.  The owners were featured on Food Network and were winners of the Food Feud.  Rightfully so.  Thing 2 and Thing 3 shared the red velvet, Thing 1 and Thing 4 split the original and Husband Jared and I sampled the triple chocolate.  We were all quite impressed and immediately over the moon with our sweets.  With all that sugar flowing we decided to take some time to walk and play in the park in the sweet area of Lafayette Square.  It was there we played tag on the play equipment, looked at the swans and walked the beautiful flower gardens.  It was also there that Thing 2 had a bit of a mishap herself, I will let her tell you about that in her own blog post.  Trust me, you'll want to read it.

The Things sharing so nicely

Funny story.  Thing 1 immediately recognized what she described as a "dog food" smell in the city.  Consistently she asked both Husband Jared and myself why the entire city smelt of dog food.  And not just dog food but wet dog food.  Go figure.  On our way out of the city today we discovered her answer. The Purina factory.  A collective aha moment for sure.  We shared a laugh all the way onto the motorway.  Then we were off, goodbye St. Louis and your dog food smell, get ready Chicago, the Six Hansons are on their way!