My Epic Journey

It was good to sleep in this morning.  Though we had a lot we wanted to do with our last day we felt it would be good to get some rest.

We woke up and headed down to the Coffee Cartel for breakfast and internet connection.

After breakfast, we went to see a movie, Lakeview Terrace.  It was a pretty good movie.  I would give it a grade of B.

We then headed over to the Great Forest Park Balloon Race.  To see these balloon the night before was neat but to see them during the day in all their color was truly spectacular.

The Pepsi Skydiving Team performed before the race.

At 5:00 pm the race began.

What an amazing event to see and be a part of!!

That evening we went to the Pasta House for dinner.

The food was fantastic.

After shopping and picking up last minute souvenirs, we decided to head back to the hotel to get things ready to leave the next morning.

Overall, Anna and I had an amazing time and the people of St. Louis were incredibly friendly.  We are excited about heading back again for another getaway!

The day started late–if 8:00 am is late!

We quickly headed out to Soulard Farmer’s Market which is downtown.

The market is full of amazing stuff.  Produce of course, but also bread, flowers, fish and pasta.  It was a lot of fun to walk down the aisles.

Next stop–The Gateway Arch!!  Due to my fear of tight places, we didn’t go up in the arch, but the museum, gift shop and the monument itself was simply amazing.

From there we headed over to Union Station.  We grabbed a bunch of signs for the EPIC Room and then had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. 

We knew we had to hurry because we only had 46 minutes on our parking meter.  Unfortunately we didn’t make it but we did get a nifty souvenir!!

Back to the hotel we went to grab a nap.

After a much needed rest we headed downtown to Joseph’s Italian Bar.  The food was absolutely amazing!

We then quickly headed back to change our shoes and headed across the street to Forest Park to see what the Glow at the Park was all about.  We didn’t have a clue about what we were going to encounter and boy were we surprised!

Here we were, standing in a field with 60 hot air balloons–oh and couple 100,000 people.

The scene was amazing and night ended perfectly as we watched fireworks blossom over the balloons.

What a packed but amazing day!

Anna and I were able to get away for an extended weekend thanks to my parents who are watching the kids.  We thought it would be fun to head to St. Louis since Anna has never been there and it has been a long time since I have.

We left at 9:00 am from Mom and Dad’s.  We stopped a couple of times along the way but we mostly tried to keep going.

(we saw this on the side of the road on Interstate 70.  You can read more about the cross and the foundation at Cross USA)

We finally ended up in St. Louis around 1:00 and after finding our hotel we grabbed lunch in the Central West End at Culpepper’s Bar and Grill.

The food was great and the pigeons were GREAT company.

After lunch we checked into the hotel.  Anna found us a suite at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel.

We then headed out to dinner but didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to walk through the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis. 

It was beautiful and yet so incredibly empty feeling.

We then went to dinner at Fritz so we could enjoy the world famous, in-house brewed Root Beer.

After four frosted mugs of root beer, we had the privilege of enjoying a free outdoor concert of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Here is the playlist:

TRAD The Star-Spangled Banner
ROSSINI The Thieving Magpie Overture
HUMPERDINCK   Prelude to Hansel and Gretel
ARLEN arr. Angela Morley The Wizard of Oz: Fantasy for Orchestra
VERDI   Triumphal March from Aïda
TCHAIKOVSKY   Trepak from The Nutcracker
RODGERS Carousel Waltz
BERLIOZ   Hungarian March from The Damnation of Faust
BERNSTEIN Candide Overture
SOUSA Stars and Stripes Forever

The music was great and the night was beautiful.

I can’t wait to see what is in store for tomorrow.