People As Places As People: St. Loius

Friends have told me that Robert and I are “bad at vacation.” I think that we’re just misunderstood. We don’t do cruises, or resorts, or tropical. We do long drives and small towns and rust belt cities. We pass the time imagining what it would be like to build a life somewhere else, not somewhere crazy, just somewhere different. We drive the neighborhoods and eat at the cafes and lie in the parks. If we could, we’d see the whole country this way. Here are some photos from our trip to St. Louis. Be warned that they are pretty arch-heavy.

I did not intentionally sit below that sign, and am not generally inclined to post breastfeeding photos, but Robert found this highly amusing.

This is what the non-Chicago parts of Illinois look like. All of them.

I have this bad habit of busting my camera the moment I see something interesting, even though I know am certain to get a better photo of it as I get closer, and end up with dozens off crappy photos all leading up to the one that’s halfway decent. This is one of the crappy ones, taken from the car.

Getting closer.

Finally!

For some reason, it took us almost eight hours to make a drive that should have taken less than five. Dylan was pissed.

BBQ!

View of downtown St. Louis from inside the arch.

View of the arch from inside the arch.

Crazy baby feet. Am I starting to look like a mommy blogger?

You have to ride inside these terrifying little pods to get to the top of the arch. We didn’t realize it until the doors opened and we had to step inside. I discovered that I have a touch of claustrophobia when we went to a Bruce Springsteen concert (see: Robert’s shirt) just last year, and the four minute ride to the top confirmed that it is still intact.

I am not as happy as I look.

Which one of these books probably does not belong in the children’s section of the arch gift shop?

Robert and I like to tour breweries, but not this one.

This is where we ate breakfast. I took a photo of the front of the building, but the side is more interesting.

Koi pond at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

Clever!

I don’t know, I just like mausoleums. This is Henry Shaw, who was crazy for trees.

This unremarkable plant is called hosta. The Botanical Gardens are overrun with the stuff. After two hours of wandering around in the hot, hot sun, we got slap happy and started making unforgivably bad hosta jokes. Hosta la vista! I’m a hostafarian! I could really go for a cold hosta salad right now! I’m sorry.

We did not eat at Blueberry Hill, but I did take a picture of these friendly ducks. We also went to an excellent record store, not pictured because I want to maintain hipster cred when I’m in record stores, even if I am perusing albums with a baby strapped to my chest.

I’m a sucker for historic trolley lines because they remind me of Tucson.
I wanted to take a picture of the arch at night, all shiny and bronze looking, but the camera settings weren’t right and the flash went off and Robert whisper-yelled that I was going to wake up Dylan, so I turned it off and went to bed and remain bummed that this is the last picture I took of the arch. The arch is really, really cool.

I hope to document all the cities we’ve visited and lived over the years at some point. In the meantime, here are Tucson, Nashville, and Milwaukee.

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