6-25-11

Today we planned on spending time with the least vocal and most neglected member of our family, Lola. She has been so good, patiently riding in the back of the truck for hours at a time with no complaints. Our camp here in St. Louis is basically a big parking lot for a casino, and directly across the Mississippi from the St. Louis Gateway Arch.





There is a big park at the base of the arch, so that is our destination for the day. We saw a big helicopter in the park when we drove in and saw people getting to tour it. Jack was real excited... When we got to the park, before we headed over to the helicopter, we hung out in the grass for a bit and let Lola play, the we headed down towards the Arch.





As we got closer, we noticed more military vehicles, and booths, and heard marine recruiting propaganda being played over the loudspeaker. Apparently today was the culmination of Marine week in St. Louis. We let Jack go in the helicopter, but nervously steered clear of the kids trying out the machine guns.











After hanging out for a bit in the shadow of the arch, we moved on to an empty part of the park.





I took some photos and even got to see the mississippi starting to flood. It seems like whenever we are around, the Mississippi decides to flood.


















We went back to Mimi for naps, which we all took. For the afternoon, after a misguided adventure into a scary part of town, we ended up at a mall for dinner. Of all the places...we ended up at the California Pizza Kitchen. Before we got our food Lucca was chewing on crayons when she gagged, and threw up all over the place. We managed to clean up before anyone noticed, but had to sit with a stinky Lucca for the rest of dinner. Back at Mimi we settled down for bed as the rain started, again.

Location:St. Louis, MO