Exploring St. Louis

We are just home from an action-packed trip to St. Louis! My husband attended a full week of training and brought us along. We have a family vacation planned soon, so this was a very special and inexpensive bonus trip for us! Here are some shots of the sights in St. Louis:

Our hotel was just up the street from Union Station. The back parking lot was so pretty with a pond a fountains! We stopped by one evening to split a chunk of fudge from The Fudgery.

Our hotel was downtown, but the I didn't have a car in the middle of the day. We walked quite a bit, took the Metro, a bus, and even a taxi one day. I think the transportation was a definite highlight for the kids.
On Monday we walked all the way down to the arch. Our hotel was on Market Street, so the arch was straight down that street and it was almost entirely green spaces, fountains, and gardens. Good thing, because the walking to and from totalled about three miles.

Pinocchio was just one of the sculptures at the City Garden on Market Street.

We packed lunches from home. We didn't end up eating them because we ate two big breakfasts at the hotel every day. And had popcorn and lemonade at the hotel every afternoon. And the hotel had a Pepsi soda fountain and I wasn't even tempted to get Mt. Dew. Not even once! (Those of you who know me well know that's my downfall. Former downfall. My New Year's Resolution was no Mt. Dew and I've stuck to it!)

We were very surprised to find St. Louis FREEZING! We survived by walking so much we couldn't possibly be cold.

This is a shot of the riverfront by the Arch. It was very flooded.

And here's the main attraction - the Arch! Guess what? It's big!

A fountain and statue of a runner on Market Street. This is the first vacation where we've actually been jealous of all the runners we saw at the Arch park and Forest Park. I'm definitely getting weird compared to my former self - not craving Mt. Dew and wishing I could go for a run.

Yet another pretty spot on Market Street.

St. Louis also has some super cool restaurants and lots of free attractions. I hope to post more pictures soon!