Day & Evening 2

we woke up early saturday morning, as we usually do on our vacations, eager to fit in as much as we could in the day. we first hit an adorable little downtown coffee shop - of course, we did the usual coffee and crossword, and headed out aiming for what we thought was the aquarium.

we arrive at what appears to be an insane asylum for children. suspended over virtual thin air are abandoned planes, a school bus, wire tunnels, a trolley car, a massive ball pit, and various and sundry other very enticing climbing devices. walking under all of this with parents and kids screaming and climbing above us, we enter complete mayhem. children everywhere, exhausted parents, exhausted but forcibly perky employees, and the most insane environment i've ever encountered. a bit overwhelmed, we consult a posted map for the aquarium, only to find that the supposed water wonderland encompasses roughly one eighteenth of this place, this place we've come to find out is called the city museum.

we decided to wander through the store, which happens to be around the corner from ticketing and the one sad sack "guard," aka an older woman in sad bunny ears and a droopy easter tshirt. we look at the store, head out of it, and decide to just look around this crazy place. wandering off, we move far enough in to the place to realize that we have managed to sneak in without even trying. reveling in this, we went on to enjoy the entirety of the building, unfortunately excluding many, many climbing and hiding opportunities both because we were carrying large bags and because we were scared that we would disappear, never to be seen again except occasionally by other Dwellers of the Tunnels.

all in all, we had a blast. we literally high-fived on the way out for our screwing the man and enjoying a $20/person museum for free. totally going back there. because it was freezing, we hopped back in the car and drove a few blocks down to the union station for lunch at houlihan's. we achieved this after a brief driving the wrong way down a one-way driveway debacle, engineered by the chauffeur reverend. we had quite the wait at houlihan's, thanks to about 3000 college-aged wrestlers in town for the NCAA wrestling tournament championship deal occurring one block from union station. who knew that drinking a canned 40 of beer at lunch was mandated by the NCAA rulebooks? we had a great lunch nonetheless, and left union station to attempt a brewery tour, only to be crowded out by wrestlers there as well. our next try was gus's pretzels, a great buy. finally we hit up the history museum, learning about lindbergh, the early conquests of the country by various other countries and how they made their way to missouri, and the st. louis world's fair.

then we headed back to the hotel, where i proceeded to be really romantic and make great use of our time by napping for a large portion of the afternoon. i awoke to pete launching the ironing board around the room with extensive groaning and squealing (on the board's part), and a call to go get my butt in gear so we'd be ready in time for our 8:15 reservation. we made it to savor by 8:20, were seated immediately, and tried to chain ourselves to our table so we'd never have to leave. after an extensive meal of new york strip steak (that you could cut with a butter knife) and crab-encrusted salmon, followed by dessert coffees, we left beyond satiated, replenished, and desperate to return.

trying to extend our nice evening, we stopped at what was neon-lightedly exclaimed to be a bowling alley and movie theater on the same road as savor, only to search much of the building without any success of actually finding a bowling alley. literally, nowhere to be found in the building. so we called it a night, headed back to the hotel, and collapsed to prepare ourselves for the next day.

coming up: snow, bottomless mimosas, a room of desserts, art & heels, pool halls, windshield wipers, and tgi fridays.