St. Louis

We stayed for seven days at Grafton Harbor Marina.  Beautiful facility, met another 12+ Loopers during our stay and had a fantastic time.  The weather has been great, including the "light show" on Saturday night that started with fireworks from the local festivities (a POW/MIA event) to a thunderstorm that went through the night.

Art and Yvonne Lewis, my parents, surprised the kids and joined us on Thurs. evening.  They were troopers with my mom sleeping on the couch and dad on an air mattress.  They wanted to be with their grandkids as much as possible!

We went into St. Louis for two days.  Our first stop was to the Gateway Arch.  Pictured here are the "tram cars" that felt like a tight small cage to transport us to the top.  It took 4 minutes to go up and 3 to head back down. 

There were tiny little windows to look out and view the greater St. Louis area.  There was so much to see!

Very impressive as it stood 630 feet which is the highest monument in the U.S.

We had the rare opportunity to see a fountain go off in the distance from the top of the Arch.  It reached 650 feet tall.

We attended the Budweiser Anheiser Busch Brewery Tour.  The dalmatian dogs King and Buddy were trained very well. We weren't able to pet them, but kids loved seeing them and the Clydesdales.

 

We toured for an hour and drank beer at the end. Kids loved the pop and pretzels and we were able to try many different varieties!

Union Station was nice, but the kids loved feeding the fish outside the most! Went to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner - fun and delicious!

We were so impressed by the St. Louis Zoo! We've attended over 40 zoos as this was by far a favorite!

We met an eight day old giraffe named Desi.  There was a lion in a tree and the sea lion show was very impressive.  We were there for over 6 hours and felt like we still missed a lot. 

We were fortunate to see a hot air balloon show in Forest Park.  Due to the hot weather and no wind, the 25 balloons we saw weren't traveling very fast.

There was an Energizer Bunny that the rest of the balloons were to follow...it didn't go far without any wind!

A hot air balloon for Bud Select 55 (your favorite Carrie)!!

 

Ryann loved her red slushy!

Just before we went to Grafton Harbor, we anchored in Havana and pulled up a "Gator"...one without four legs...a big LOG!  

Craig still thinks he's alllllllll that!!! 

The kids helped Craig change the oil in the dinghy....always a learning opportunity on this boat! haha!