Saint Louis Trip!

Let me preface this blog post by saying that I was not expecting St. Louis to be as cool as it was!  In the past, I have driven through St. Louis many times while on family road trips or going back to Bloomington when coming back from Texas, but we never stopped in to view the crazy cool city!!

The morning began like any normal morning,  I picked up everyone who was riding in my car, got some much needed coffee, and we were off!  While on the road, we had a good vent session about our classes and program.  

On the way, we stopped in Pocahontas Illinois for a stretch potty break.  I was sure to get some lower leg stretches in, as I am 6foot 3 and it gets fairly cramped in my 2005 Toyota Corolla.

My first glimpse of St. Louis was the arch, peeking out above a hill.  I exclaimed to the car, "There is the Arch!  We are here!"

We had lunch at a brewery, ordered a table for 6, but realized that the other car in our caravan was at a different brewery location!  Rachel Schend and I shared the Huevos Rancheros (H-OOO-EVOS) - one of the people in our group did not know how to pronounce Huevos or what they are - and the crab cake eggs benedict.  The eggs benedict was AMAZING, but I was SUPER happy with the Huevos Rancheros.

While driving to Washington University in St. Louis, I noticed how gorgeous St. Louis is.  The day was completely clear, sunny, and in the upper 60s.  The area surrounding Washington University in St. Louis reminded me of the are around Rice University in Houston, Tx.  The architecture of the campus buildings and the enormous houses near the school scream Houston. 

The Art Library was delightful!  They had a great concept of passing out a sticker with the library resources site on it, a button of an image from ARTstor or another database.

This is the Society of Art Librarianship Students at Indiana University! 

After meeting with the librarians, we viewed the art museum.  While looking at a very interesting installation of videos, my brain gave me notice that it was time for some coffee. 

 

Post coffee, the St. Louis adventure continued at the arboretum.   This featured many acres of beautifully manicured plants, succulents, and a variety of buildings that were temperature controlled to allow for the growing of unique plants.  I believe that the most beautiful areas were the arid cactus and succulent building, the Japanese garden, and the land around the house - pictured below.

After the Arboretum, we checked into our AirBNB (my first experience) - it was great!  

We had dinner at The Block -- their mushroom soup and meatball pizza was SO yummy!!!  After, we went had a few drinks at the City Museum.  We climbed around and had a great time sliding down the huge slide - WEEEE!!

Kendra then led us to Steve's Hotdogs... MANNNN was this place delishhhh!  

 

The St. Louis art museum was GORGEOUS!  I never expected the building to be so majestic!  It reminds me slightly of the cathedrals in Rome. 

 

After we left the St. Louis Art Museum, we were off to Bloomington!

We hit some traffic on the way back, which made me late to my shift at the Fine Arts Library.

All in all, it was a great trip!