And then, we didn't have a place to live. Part I: St. Louis

It's true! The house was not done, the lease was up, it was the middle of COVID (maybe not, I don't know when the end is, so I couldn't tell you where the middle was) and we were out on the street! So we packed and packed and packed (poorly I might add) and stored stuff and then hit the road. First stop, a fancy hotel across the street we always wanted to try, the Robie.

Alice likes hotels. and crackers.

Then, off to ST. LOUIS!!! Yes!

We stopped to disc golf about halfway to st louis. We got about 10 holes in before the rain came down. Right when we walked back to our car...SPIDERMAN!

First stop in St. Louis, the Botanical gardens.

It was interesting to compare different states and cities and their COVID policies. In Chicago, at the time, you did not have to wear a mask outside, but when you did have to wear a mask, everyone over the age of 3 had to abide. In St. Louis, anyone over the age of 12 had to wear a mask pretty much all the time, including outside. So the kids LOVED St. Louis.

I think that is a Holly bush or something...

The lily ponds were my favorite!!

Alice petting a lamb's ear.

In our hotel, we were outside a sort of tourist square. They had carp that you could feed. While Alice was napping and daddy working, Brock and I had a delightful habit of going down to the square, ordering a cocktail or a kiddie version, and catching the baby carps with the fish food that you could buy that people dropped. Dirty and deplorable and such fun.

No, we did not keep him, but I was tempted.

Sharing the joy with Alice and daddy later.

Wondering if we adopted a 12 year old. Nope. Let's talk about how weird COVID policies are. Soooo, in line for the big wheel, we are all our standard 6 feet apart from the person in front of us. Then, they proceed to pack us in with other families in the actual car. So there were eight of us in a 4 x 4 space. Love it.

But I guess it only weird out Matt and I, the kids had a great time. And Alice was so infatuated with the "big wheel" as she deemed it, that she continued to pine for it throughout the rest of the trip. And we also had a stellar view of it from our hotel room, so that also helped inspire.

Then we checked out the St. Louis Aquarium, which was small but utterly delightful. We have been to may aquariums, but this one had a couple of original things and was the perfect way to spend a couple of hours without feeling overwhelmed.

Land shark.

During one Alice nap, Brock and I went to a "fun house". The quote are deceiving, it was fun, I didn't mean to seem like I was commenting on it. It was fun!!

Gawd. But seriously,where is this elixer?

We then explored St. Louis's awesome zoo at Forest Park. Some sloppy old turtles.

I was in love with the reptile house. Built in the Victorian Era had a special place in my heart with our awesome house in construction from the same time.

These lights are snakes!! love love love gimme gimme gimme.

There is an awesome sculpture garden in downtown St. Louis. We visited the bunny slide a few times.

Yeah. So there was NO ONE around. And before COVID you could climb on everything. Then we found out that we could no longer do that. But NOT BEFORE WE SOILED THIS BOAT SCULPTURE! HA HA HAH HAHAHAHA!!!!!!

We then took our annual boat tour. Again, let's talk about how random COVID policies are...for some reason they turned off the fountains that we love to paddle through? I'm not sure if they thought that the water would catch our COVID germs and spray them at another boat? Anyhow, I'm no epidemiologist, but I missed that report from the CDC. Any hoo, we still managed to have fun, but were hot darn it without our mini-shower.

A close up of the dumb dumb small spray this year. It normally shoots like 30 feet in the air...

All the lameness in the COVID world and yet, the CITY MUSEUM WAS OPEN. Our favorite place. So we went. Limited timed entry and no rooftop open, but we did not care we were so excited.

I can't believe it was open. I don't think there is a more difficult place to clean and sanitize on earth, but it was. There were many, many, many parts of it closed but WE DID NOT CARE. HALLEHLUYA

This place is awesome.

and yet, Alice just wanted to sit on the tractor and eat crackers. That saying needs to be updated... Life is what happens while your sitting on a tractor eating crackers....

Omg, so I know because we got a sample, they got their net from the same place we did ...they don't make them in the US and there is like one company in France that does. So I got a little preview of what was to come from our playroom!! and... Alice loves to hang.

(fun aside on this video: immediately after uploading, YouTube's algorithm flagged this video as violating their community guidelines on child safety and pulled it down off the site. I handily won my appeal, and now you can see Alice live dangerously! I'd love to know what got it flagged.) -from Matt

The cafe was open and still had beer and sweets.

And seefood!

The pool was open. And it was so damn (yep, I'm leaving the "n" friends, I could not express myself fully without it) COLD. Alice loves a good pool and hadn't swam in ages and yet, here she is, pondering the human make up and why our species could not have evolved from penguins instead of primates.