St. Louis

Our three day trip to St. Louis was delightful! We wanted to get away and enjoy a little honeymoon before our baby is born in about seven weeks. (so soon!!) Thursday we settled into our hotel room and went out to eat at a fabulous sea food restaurant called "Moby's Fish Tales" I enjoyed succulent crab cakes and fried calamari. YUM! Aaron and I both think that half of the fun of going on vacation is the food. We like to look up what restaurants are famous in the cities we are going to, and treat ourselves to the finest!

On Friday we went to the St. Louis zoo, which was absolutely fabulous. The best thing about it was that it was free! The weather was perfect and we enjoyed the outing immensely. Afterwards we went to the St. Louis science center (also free) but we didn't stay long because I was thoroughly worn out from walking around at the zoo. (being eight months pregnant imposes certain limitations and I'm afraid I was a little too optimistic about how much I could cram into one day!) So after the science center, we decided to do something a little more relaxing and headed off to St. Charles.... a historic district known for it's quaint little shops and old-fashioned atmosphere. We found a shady bench by a river and sat down to rest and enjoy the beautiful evening. It was glorious to just be together...feel the breeze and ponder how sweet life is. We were refreshed after our little rest and felt adventurous enough to wander down the historic main street.... a lovely brick road lined with gas lamps and cute little shops. Unfortunately most of the little stores were closed for the day, but we still enjoyed the walk. We found a few that caught our eyes and made plans to come back the next morning to check them out.

By this time, we were starting to get hungry and were thrilled with the idea of trying out another new restaurant. My aunt who used to live in St. Louis told us we needed to go to "The Hill" and have Italian food. That was all we knew about it. A place called the Hill... associated with Italian food...but we were definitely up for the adventure of finding it! After driving around for a while, consulting "city-search" on Aaron's handy-dandy i-phone, we found it. Basically "The Hill" is a section of St. Louis that is saturated by.... Italy. It's like China-town or Little-India, only Italian. As we literally drove up "The Hill" we saw Italian flags everywhere... so we knew we were in the right place... and now began the search for the PERFECT restaurant. And we found it! A little corner restaurant called, "Zia's" it was packed with people (which we always think is a good sign) and the we were not disappointed by the food! It truly was fabulous. We had veal and pasta and bread and salad.... all authentic and mouth-watering. (and I would know authentic food, having lived nearly four years in Italy)

On Saturday we went to the famous "Union Station" and spent about an hour wandering around looking at stores, sampling fudge and learning about the history of the old station. It was quite an experience. Next we went to the St. Louis Arch... but being the cheapo's that we are, we didn't feel like paying to go up inside it. We were satisfied to just look at it in awe from the outside. It really is an architectural masterpiece!

We were told by several people that we couldn't go to St. Louis and not eat at a place called, "Fitz's" where they make and bottle their own root beer. So we tracked it down and tried it out. To be honest, we were not thoroughly impressed. The root beer floats were good, but as neither of us are big root-beer connessoirs, we didn't get that much of a thrill out of it. Aaron's bison burger that he ordered was just...okay... but nothing fancy. Still, it was a little interesting to see the conveyor belt where they bottle up the root beer.

After Fitz's we headed back home and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching "Horacio Hornblower". (which if you haven't watched the series... I HIGHLY recommend it. It is absolutely fantastic!)

*sighs* My nine day trip over seven states (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and KY) was wonderful... but I must admit that I am enjoying being back home with my wonderful husband and getting back in the groove of everyday life. Though, after our little date to St. Louis, both Aaron and I have decided that we definitely need to make "date trips" a priority at least every six months, even after our little girl is born. It is refreshing and encouraging and definitely worth the extra money!!