The beginning of our 10 day road trip...

We left Arlington at 6:30 am on Thursday, July 23rd headed for St Louis, Mo.. We knew that it was going to be a long day.. We decided to make it a long day so that we could spend some time in St Louis and so that our next trip to Madison, WI wasn't a long trip.. Luckily for me, Bob did a lot of the driving that first day.. so I read which made the trip seem short to me.. Of course when I did decide to take over the last leg of the driving it started raining and I despise driving in the rain.. I did manage (even with the random moments of fear thanks to lightning, again not a big fan) and we rolled into St Louis around 6:30pm that evening.. Once we got to St Louis it was great weather.

We decided to check into our hotel and then walk a little into the downtown area and find someplace for dinner. We were very impressed with how clean St Louis was, even though all the All Star baseball stuff had just left maybe the day or two before we got there.. We found a nice little park in the middle of downtown with a beautiful fountain and everything was so green and in bloom! After dinner we were going to walk over to the arch, but were side tracked by a horse and carriage.. Emma really wanted to ride in it and we decided that would be a great thing for her to remember. Luke wasn't too sure about it but he ended up loving it (it may have helped that the horses name was "Elmo").. The ride was only 20 minutes long but it was so worth it.. I got some great shots of the scenery, but the best part was seeing the pure joy on Emma's face. The lady let her ride up front with her and help guide Elmo through the streets. So FUN!!

After dinner we walked to the arch and it was beyond belief! If I am remembering correctly, it is 630 ft high and 630 ft wide.. WOW!! Of course we didn't stay long because I noticed lightning off in the distance and decided it was time to head back to the hotel.. The next morning we got up and walked back down to the arch. The weather was perfect, the sun was out, there were very few clouds in the sky and between Emma and I we captured the arch perfectly.. Emma had the great idea to lay on the ground and take pictures of the arch from that perspective, so she did.. Then Bob stood over her and they lined it up to look like Bob was holding the arch.. Of course we all had to have one like that!! Once we were finished at the arch we checked out of our hotel and started making our way up to Madison! Here are some pictures of our time in St Louis:




















































Next up: Our great time in Madison, WI