St Louis, Missouri (ana)

we arrived in St Louis at around 5 in the afternoon, and my mom said our first night was going to be in a hotel, the Hamptons Bay, which is a spin-off of the Hampton Inn.
it was an amazing hotel.
luxury would be the word i would use.
the rooms were big, there were two beds, a comfortable leather desk chair, a flat screen, and free internet. but sadly, allana and i got the floor that night.
my parents went to the High Pointe, an old movie theater. they went on a date, and saw Captain America.

we got to stay at the hotel, order pizza, watch TV, and go on the computer. in other words, relax.
it was very nice.
we got a good night sleep (even the floor was comfortable), and went downstairs for breakfast in our swim suits. the breakfast was great.
the pool was a lot of fun. it was all the way in the back of a hallway, but my mom got to work out, and we learned that mei is a really fast swimmer. we actually tied once!

we were all sad when we had to leave, but we got the nice water with the oranges (another 95 type of day) and left to go to the City Museum, a museum that one of my mom coworkers- Mr. S - said that we had to go to.

mary and mei going up to a slide

mary climbing up a spring

if you are ever in St Louis, no matter if you are a kid or adult, you have to go to the City Museum. it is crazy. you are allowed to go pretty much everywhere, touch everything, climb everything, crawl everything, slide everything, and go through near death experiences about every other minute. in other words, it's a kid's paradise.

i was ducking the entire time

everything that decorates this museum is made of recycled items. the outside of the bathroom is made of baking tins, there's one wall with bottle caps, a part of the ceiling is covered in white plastic shopping bags, the list goes on and on.

we were at City Museum for about 3 or 4 hours, and we did not run out of things to do.

allana in a giant wire tunnel, suspended above the air

climbing up a giant spring, crawling under the floor trying to find a way out, shimmying under a pipe on your back, squeezing through a cave, going down a slide that drops straight down to the boiler room, climbing a bunch of stairs for a ten story slide, jumping into as ball pit, sitting in an airplane that is suspended high above the parking lot that shakes at the slightest movement, etc. your nerves are tested here.

allana and i decided not to go from one airplane to the other

i think i've said enough about City Museum, it was just so much fun.

we like the shade

we had lunch there, and then after the museum (we left because of the temperature- 103), we went to the St Louis Arch.

st louis arch from the side

we went underground, where the museum and tram is, and we bought tickets to go up to the top of the arch, the problem was, the time we were going was in 2 hours.

somee of the creepy talking/moving mannequins

so we walked around the museum, then just sat for about a half hour.
finally, they called our group, then we waited on line for about 15 minutes, walking through another museum thing to where the little cars would come to get us.
the pod we had to sit in was so small, and we could see out the window that we were slowly rising.
when we got to the top, the carpeted walkway was curved. we were at the top of the arch.
inside that are tiny windows that you look out. you can barely see them from the outside, but the view from inside was great.

one part of the view

we went back down the other side, and then we went to where we were going to spend our second night in St Louis.

part of the pod

mary doing the "facebook thing"

since St Louis is on the border, the nearest campground was about 5 minutes away in Illinois.
we arrived at the campground, and as we drove to the campsites, it looked really nice.
there was a lake, and on one side of the road it was filled with lily pads, which was really pretty.
the drive to where the actual sites was a really long one. when we got to the sites, all we saw were one other site with people. we chose a nice one, close to the bathroom, and close to water. it was also shaded, which was nice, because it was another 95 degree type of day.
we set up camp, and then drove back to where you sign up for the sites, at the entry.
then we went to dinner at this small, back road, Chinese place called Wong's Wok. it is really good, and it's close to University of Washington, St Louis. after we had that amazing food (along with Fanta), we went driving around University Loop, which is the neighborhood near the university. the house there are very pretty, very big, and actually not that expensive- if my memory is right.
we got back to our campsite, and now it was time for the horror to begin.
allana had gone into the bathrooms before, and said it looked like a prison cell. we had decided to hold it. but now it was nighttime, and we all needed to pee, so...
mary decided to not to come with us, and allana, mei, my dad and i decided to go to the prison cell. so we're walking along the dirt road, and a police cruiser comes by, with the flashlight pointing out the window, just like in movies.
we look at him, then continue walking. he continued on to the other people and got out of the car.
but now we weren't paying attention, having just stepped onto the porch of the 'bathroom.' my dad went inside, because it was dark and there was no lighting, and, well, we were scared.
he checks it out, and then we walk inside with our flashlights.
it is made out of cinderblocks, and there are two stalls, one bigger than the other. there were also no doors. seems like wyoming all over again. anyway, while we were holding the flashlights around the corner for the person in the "stall", my dad was screaming at us from the mens bathroom. i couldn't hear him.
turns out we were supposed to be listening to the domestic violence dispute that the only other people in the campground were having. the cops came 3 or 4 times that night.
when we were done with our interesting visit to the bathroom, we went back and my dad was making a fire, even though we were going to bed.
so my mom is screaming at us to stop talking and go to sleep. after everything finally gets quiet, and we're all starting to breathe heavy, we hear this strangled, rabid, loud, terrifying noise from the woods. we all bolt up and start freaking out, i guess you could say. my mom shines a flashlight outside to scare the thing away, and then the fire starts up again.
this campground is just lovely.
we get the fire under control and then the people start screaming again.
wow, this is fun.
also, to add to this misery, it's about 106 degrees inside the tent. cause of the bodies, and the sleeping bags, and the nylon, everything got hotter. it was pain.

at least there was a pretty view

the next morning, the bugs greeted us as we stepped out of the tent. there was a colony of flies living in the car by the time we were ready to go. the solution? my mom drive the wrong way to get the flies out with the doors open.
my dad had just gone for a run so he took a 'shower' in the pump water.
you can see how classy this place is.
the domestic violence people had left by the time that we woke up, thank god, so we left Granite City, Illinois, so ready to get home, it's not even funny.
(on our way to the highway, we passed about 7 strip clubs in a row- one right in front of a school)
we left for Lexington, Kentucky, having no idea where we were going to sleep that night.