we still managed to find a couple of big antique places open. Then, as we spotted the sign for the winery in Rocheport, we decided to make that our stop for lunch. What a beautiful place it is, with a fun viewing deck of the river...
we enjoyed a very satisfying picnic lunch with assorted crackers, cheese, salami and grapes...the ones you eat, and the ones you drink!!!
There was a lot of traffic to drive through once we arrived in St. Louis, so we were glad to settle in to the hotel, order pizza for dinner, then do a little swimming and hot tubbing in the hotel. We all put our pjs on and while I perused the tourist fliers, Marion carried on with her business via laptop, and Kayli was on her ipad. She was so happy the hotel had wifi!
We were up early the next morning, and while Marion went one way, we went another, straight to a place called The Magic House. What a pleasant coincidence it was that this place was featuring a special exhibit this month, all about CHINA!
As you walked from room to room, there was so much to see and do! In one place there was someone instructing you on the fine art of making tea. In another station there were instructions for drawing a panda bear. There were these really cool windows in each room with shutters, that when you opened them, it appeared that you were viewing a real street scene from a window in China, like the one Kayli is standing next to in the photo above, and this one below...
I loved the fact that there were so many "hands on" activities...
there was a big section on music that allowed you to try out instruments, both real life and simulations...
there was a very cool exhibit on pandas, panda reserves, and panda hospitals.
they had a little room set up just like a baby panda hospital, with baby beds, baby bottles, incubators, toys...so you could pretend to be a "panda vet!"
On the way out of the exhibit, one wall had this mural showing a typical street scene in China, with all the bikes parked in a row. We definitely saw lots of bikes when we were in China, but never saw a street this void of people and/or activity!
now, on to the rest of the museum...
what a FUN place this was!!!
Next up...dinner and the famous ARCH tonight!
While waiting for Marion to finish her business today, we discovered that there was a mall a few blocks from our hotel that had an AWESOME American Girl Doll Store! Well, naturally we had to check it out! They were having some fabulous summer sales throughout the store, and Kayli managed to find some matching "bling" shirts for her and her look-alike doll, Ling! In addition, she found a super sale on some funky, cool watches. So I agreed to buy one for her. We decided that this store was bigger and better than the one in KC, but not as big and bold as the one in Chicago. Anyway, it was a great "find" along our path on this mini-vacay!
Soon we met up with Marion, hopped on the interstate where we enjoyed a loooooong, rainy ride in St. Louis interstate traffic, ugh, while trying to decide which GPS guide to listen to. We had Siri, Google, and Garmin all in the car with us! I had just changed the voice of my Garmin to sound like a squirrel, and that was entertaining, to say the least, but he did try to get us lost in the maze of one way streets! Finally, we found a parking garage across from the visitors center, and found that it was a good place to snap a picture...
We decided that it really was lucky for us that it was misting/raining because we did not even have to wait in a long line to get to ride to the top of the Arch! Woohoo! This is what the little trams looked like. It was like climbing into a ride at an amusement park.
once at the top, you could see for miles...
...great fun for all of us!
We ate a late dinner down by the arch, then headed back to the hotel as Kayli wanted to make sure to get in another night of pool time! I let her swim while I sat at a nearby table, sipping on Irish Creme, and scanning the new brochures I collected with the idea that we would try the Science Center tomorrow.
We all got up around 8ish, ate some free breakfast downstairs, then parted ways again, as Kayli and I hopped in the car and headed for the interstate. Well, it was raining hard today. It should have been a 10-15 minute drive, but turned into almost an hour drive in gridlock traffic! Jeez, it was 9:30 in the morning. Where were all these people going, and why weren't they at work?!!! Once we finally found our exit, the squirrel GPS, once again tried to take us on a wild goose chase and eventually back on the interstate by mistake, and I was not a happy camper! Luckily, while I instructed Kayli to ask Google to take us to the museum, and Google kept misinterpreting what she was saying, I spotted a sign at the next exit that lead us straight to the museum, Whew!
This museum is free, Yay! Every summer camp in the world is here today, Waa! Oh well, onward we go...
my favorite part was the following section that was "people controlled". You signed up for a turn to go into this "Life Science Lab" and participate in some "self-guided, hands on" experiments. It was awesome! In the picture below, Kayli is being given the opportunity to be a detective. The museum dog was stolen, and a ransom note was left. Her task is to analyze the ink from the note!
next station was all about fingerprints...
I must say that this was very well done! There were other stations with more experiments but there was such a long list of people waiting for a turn in here that the staff was only allowing each person 1-2 stations today. I wish our Science City had something like that!
We finished up here around 12:30, went to get some lunch, picked up Marion, and got back on the road to home. Whew! What a whirlwind, spontaneous, fun-filled mini-vacation this was!
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