Trek Across America - Day 3

We were all excited for Day 3 of our journey.  We planned the middle travel day to be fun rather than just driving straight for another 13 hours.

We still drove across the entire state of Missouri, but stopped in St. Louis.  Since we missed the 

"Welcome to Missouri"

sign, we took lots of pictures of the Arch to prove we were indeed in Missouri at some point.

Trek's cousin Kim lives in St. Louis with her cute little family so we stopped by on our way into the city to visit & take a breather.  She made us a wonderful little lunch which was heaven to me (I was SO sick of fast food) & the kids had a blast playing with their kids & their kids' toys.

After visiting, we drove to the Arch to take some fun pictures.  Even though the skies were clear, it was FREEZING.  We literally did a drive by for pictures.  Trek dropped the girls & I off at the base of the arch, went around the block & picked us back up.  Brrrrrrr COLD.

Our original plan was to take the kids to the St. Louis Zoo, but it was way too cold to be outside for more than 10 minutes.  Kim recommended the Science Center.  It was free, fun, & easy to get to.  Talk about a win/win for us.  We had an absolute BLAST there.

They had a super fun DINOSAUR exhibit which my boys went bananas for.  What's not to love?  I mean, we're talking about dinosaurs here.

We also enjoyed the other exhibits.  The entire place was full of science experiments & hands on fun for children.  We love museums where you DON'T have to say

"Dont' Touch That!"

This museum encouraged the kids to 

TOUCH, PLAY, RUN, & LEARN

They also had a special bird exhibit the day we visited.  The bird handlers even let each of my kids hold some of the parrots.

Taya, Lorien, & even little Craiger each held the parrot.  Cadence & Bladen are both too skiddish to get near a live bird, but the other kids LOVED it.  Craiger wanted to kiss the bird & take it home with us.

My favorite exhibit was the digital musical instrument section.  I LOVED this digital harp.  There were no strings.  Instead of strings there were red lasers in the place where the strings should go.  As you ran your fingers lightly through the lasers, the harp would play.  It was amazingly FUN.

St. Louis was great.  Our hotel was great, the museum was great, & the 5 hour drive seemed like nothing after the last 2 days.  It was by far our favorite day of the trip.