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Tuesday, May 04, 2004
3:01 PM

STL Day 1 (aka Lois Is Always Right)
I promised to post more about the STL trip when I had time. I really don't have time (funny how taking a couple of days off results in huge piles of work on your desk), but far be it for me to deprive my loyal readers of an STL report. Given all the fun that was had, I cannot begin to capture it all in just one post. So I'll do it one day at a time.

I arrived in STL at about 6 pm on Wednesday evening. Flight was fine (more to come on that in a future post - so much to make fun of when it comes to airlines). As I got off the plane, there was Dana waiting to greet me (her flight got in a bit before mine so she waited for me). Yay Dana! I must admit that it is nice to see a friendly face when getting off a plane - that just doesn't happen these days with all the new airport security measures. Once we met up, we headed out to the curb where Auntie Lo was already waiting to pick us up. It was like clockwork. Split second timing. A well oiled machine. Anyway. . . off we went to the Vogel abode.

Dinner was a fabulous stew thanks to Uncle Tom (and Julia Child). We sat on the screened porch (I need to figure out how to add one of these to our house), ate, chatted and watched the birds.

(Sorry the picture is kind of fuzzy.)

Pretty mellow evening all in all. Naturally, we made the first of several trips to Ted Drewes that night. Mmmm Ted Drewes. Need to figure out how to add one a Ted Drewes on to our house too.

Alas, the next morning Tom had a patient he had to see so he was out for the morning plans. But Lois, Dana and I headed out to see the sights. I'll skip the first stop given our unanimous disappointment with it. If you really want to know, here it is. Let's just say that you know things aren't going well when the most interesting aspect of a location is the story about how someone else's car was broken into minutes before your arrival. Not an auspicious start to the day (for us, or the victim of the break in). Luckily we managed to avoid a similar break-in and the day of touring improved rapidly.

Lois then insisted on taking us to the zoo. I admit that I was hesitant, reluctant, even stubborn in my resistance to the zoo idea. I figured that with the San Diego Zoo so close by, why go anywhere else? I freely admit the error of my ways. Sorry Lo - I'll never doubt you again. The STL Zoo was wonderful. I think I liked it better than San Diego. And, best of all it was 100% completely FREE! Imagine that! Let me say it again - FREE! As in zero admission fee. That is unheard of. San Diego costs list a gazillion dollars, which is definitely more than FREE!

So we spent most of the morning strolling around the zoo. Here are a few samples of the sights:

Lois and Dana Making a New Friend:

Crazy Blanket-Climbing Bear:

(I actually took way more pictures at the zoo. But I figured that I would bore everyone if I posted too many animal pictures. As you will see, somehow I managed to take pictures of a lot of animals on this trip.)

In short, the zoo was great. I have no idea why I resisted Lois' expert advice, especially given my love of animals. I think I'll just let Lois run my life from now on.

As a brief sidebar - the zoo also had great funnel cakes. Mmmm. In addition to a lot of animals, this trip was characterized by lots of very yummy but not very healthy food.

After the zoo and a couple of errands, we met up with Tom and went to lunch at my dad's favorite place from his recent STL trip - The Blue Owl. In fact, we were super-mean and called him while we were there eating just to rub it in. But I agree with him - I loved that place. It is right by the Mississippi River so then we drove down to check that out (sorry no pics - just imagine a really big river).

Then we went home and took naps (all that eating is really very tiring).

So endeth the first 24 hour period. Stay tuned for Day 2 of the Great STL Adventure (aka Mark Visits the Midwest). . .

P.S. Lest Lois' head get too big, allow me to remind her of the "Heellllooooo" incident at Costco on Day 1.

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