May 20, 2019-Great Lakes Day 2

(click here for today's pictures)


We all slept perfectly well last night. I did wake up once to go to the bathroom and once when Robby was peering over me to look at the clock. When our alarms went off this morning, Robby and I were the only ones who stirred.

He got in the shwoer while I started making noise and opening the blinds trying to wake everyone up. Campbell was the first one awake while Reagan was the slowest to move around. Whitman could not wait to get to breakfast.

Robby said that breakfast was just enough, but not enough. They did have his sausage biscuits, but they didn’t have my bagel or granola. We all managed to find plenty though. Soon we were loading up the car. As we were walking out, Anderson raised his shirt showing me a few bug bites. He asked if I thought that they were bed bugs. As soon as I sat down in the car, I googled a bit and his bites were not bed bugs thankfully. I do think that he has a few spider bites though-I think that spiders like him since he just had a spider bite at home.

Once in the car we listened to some music before passing out ipads. We did listen to a podcast about the renaming of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. It is now the Gateway Arch National Park. The kids weren’t too interested, but it was a decent podcast.

Before we did make it to the arch, we stopped at Ted Drewes. I mean how can you not stop at Ted Drewes while you are in St. Louis? It doesn’t matter how long you are there. Robby bought everyone concretes except for Whitman who wanted an ice cream cone. Robby and I split a peanut butter, chocolate concrete of some sort which was very good.

To end our little food tour of St. Louis we thought that we had better have some tasted ravioli since that is one of the things that St, Louis is famous far. We went to Mama’s on the HIll to pick up some toasted ravioli and cheese bread. Even though we had just eaten ice cream, the kids devoured the toasted ravioli. Robby and I both fondly remember eating toasted ravioli while we were in college-I guess that is a college cafeteria staple.

Now from there, it was just a hop to the arch. Whitman and Graham weren’t too sure at all about going to the top of the arch. Robby bought tickets while Whitman and I worked on stamping our passport books along with picking up Jr. Ranger books for us to do at home.

We had a few minutes to walk around the little museum before it was time for us to board our pod to the top of the arch. Whitman knew that he wanted to ride with me, so he and Reagan rode up in my car while everyone else rode with Robby. We had two strangers with us, but that didn’t bother chatty Whitman.

The kids were pretty awed at the top of the monument. It is pretty neat actually-we could see the courthouse, ballfield and Mississippi River. We were almost able to see where we had parked the car. We stayed at the top for a while before finally heading back down.

When we went outside, we walked under the arch and looked at the flooded Mississippi. Then we hiked back up the hill towards the Courthouse. I don’t think that I had ever been in the courthouse before. There wasn’t too much to do inside, but it was beautiful though.

We then found our way back to the van and crossed the river into Illinois. Once we were well on the road, I did work on our late lunch. I had to write everyone’s sandwich request down before starting. It didn’t take too long for me to make everyone’s lunches. The kids ate their lunches quickly but not as fast as they ate their rice krispy treats.

While we ate, we listened to one of our books on tape. When we listen to books, the kids are just as quiet as when they have their ipads. It wasn’t too long of a drive to Springfield, the home of Lincoln.

We went to the Abraham Lincoln National HIstoric Site. There was a video which we watched-I saw some of it, but may have a snoozed just a little bit. Then we had a tour of the Lincoln home. It was an interesting tour which I was wide awake for because I was worried about Whitman stepping off of the carpet and making the alarm ring (he didn’t) and I was worried about him asking too many questions (he did ask some, but not too many thankfully).

After we finished the tour, we walked around a bit there and then drove to the Lincoln tomb. They were almost closed, but we managed to hurry around the tomb and see everything that we needed to see. We walked around outside and then headed towards the capitol building in Springfield. Anderson stood in the middle of the road for me to take a picture of him before we had to jump back in the car because of traffic.

We were pretty early checking into the hotel-almost too early. We do think that the optimum hotel check in time is around 8 and certainly not 6. It was fine though because as soon as we unloaded the van, people through on their bathing suits. Reagan opted not to swim but the others did so they swam as Robby ran back and forth moving our laundry from washer to dryer.

The boys played football for most of their time in the pool. Campbell and Keaton are thinking about trying out for swim team so they worked on their strokes (which they can’t really do!). The boys were finished first, and Robby walked them to the room for their showers. Reagan had her shower while we were swimming.

The littles stayed in until Robby said that it was time to get out. They finished their showers as we worked on supper. Robby did most of the cooking tonight-chicken soft tacos. They were delicious or maybe we were really hungry. Everyone had at least 2. We were starting to wind down around nine tonight. I do think that the kids were a bit tired tonight. It was almost 9:30 when we finally turned out the lights. Tomorrow will be another fun yet chilly day.

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