Because Crystal and I both drive trucks (I'm not sure how that happened) we decided to rent a car to take advantage of better fuel economy and a dry trunk. This proved wise as it rained on us the entire way Friday and parts of Saturday afternoon.
Our first order of business upon arrival was to find Fritz's for some lunch. While waiting on your food you can watch them bottle their in house root beer. Macy was pretty impressed with the operation.
And she looks equally pleased with the root beer float. It was a neat place to eat, and if you make it there I recommend the fried pickles and fish tacos.
After checking into our hotel and doing some swimming we headed off to Pi Pizza for dinner with Crystals cousin. If you're in St. Louis you really need to eat some Pizza. And if you're gonna eat some pizza, Pi is the place to go. They have several locations around town with more varieties than I can list....so go crazy.
Saturday morning found us at the St. Louis Zoo bright and early. This place rocks! Not only is it free, but the exhibits are close together and the interaction with the animals is first class. If you arrive early you'll enjoy watching the animals eat breakfast and you won't be dealing with a crowd. Plus you can take advantage of free on street parking that will save you $10. We stayed from 9 till noon, and by then it was getting pretty packed.
For lunch Saturday we dined at The Fatted Calf. It's a bit on the pricey side of burgers, but you'll enjoy every mouth watering bite.
This is the Kobe patty special....and I'm still thinking about it!
That evening we ate at Schlafly Bottleworks, which is a micro brew and restaurant. Unfortunately they weren't running tours but the food was still pretty good. And so I won't be in danger of sounding like a foodie, that's it for restaurants.
Sunday morning we visited the Missouri Botanical Garden, which gives you acres and acres of backgrounds like the one above. They give tours but we opted to just walk around and check it out on our own. The kids really enjoyed the tropical climatron enclosure, and Cris and I enjoyed the relaxing walk.
I hate to end on a fail, but that's just how it worked out. I had promised the kids a river boat ride before we left town, so after leaving the gardens we headed downtown to the riverfront. We were an hour early and planned to eat lunch on the barge while we waited, but the ticket counter informed me they only had two tickets left.....FAIL! Now I'm on the hook for a major I O U.
That concluded our weekend in the Gateway City. With spring here we have all kinds of events in the near future. From Easter, fishing, dad camp, and possibly a trip to the ocean, I can only hope the kids forget about the river boat. :)
