Trip to Saint Louis
Last weekend Joyce, Endo, Andy and I went to Saint Louis to hangout with the InstantCool gang. This was the annual trip to City Museum. Out of the four of us, Endo was the only one that had been before.
Andy and I went down together, and Joyce and Endo went down togehter. The trip down was quite the adventure for Andy and I. We took the senic route, through Chicago. There is no reason why we should have been with in an hour of Chicago, yet there we were. In fact we were minutes away from Matt’s house, Andy’s brother. Andy made a phone call to Matt and with his his help we managed to make it through Friday rush hour traffic and back in the direction we needed to be going in about an hour. All in all our little detour took us about 2 and a half hours. We still have no idea how we managed to end up in Chicago. I think it was a combination of us talking and Illinois road signs.
I consider myself to be a very shy person, so this was kind of a nerve wracking experiance for me. Besides Andy, Endo and Joyce I only knew a few of the InstantCool group. So I wasn’t really sure how it was going to go for me. I’m happy to say that I had a wonderful time. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. :)
This trip also gave me the oportunity to try out my new digital camera. I was so glad to have a digital camera instead of a 35mm camera. It was nice not having to carry around extra film and mess with changing the film. I took lots of pictures. Andy helped me to set up a gallery and this weekend I posted all of the pictures from the trip.
Endo had to head back up to Wausau on Sunday, but Joyce, Andy and I were able to stay until Monday. Our friend Jeff was nice enough to let us stay at his house. Being at a house was a much welcome change to the hotel. Not that I didn’t enjoy the hotel, I did. It was fun and full of energy and new friends. But, by Sunday night I was ready for the peace and quiet that came with Jeff’s house and a smaller number of friends.
Staying at Jeff’s made me realize just how much I miss living in a house. I had lived in one the two years before my current location, but both of my room mates at the time graduated and moved on in thier lives. Matt’s in grad school in Idaho, and Manda has a job in a different city. So now I’m living in an apartment with Joyce and her son Alex. I really enjoy living with them, just not in the apartment building. To a certian degree I feel like I’m back in the dorms. There is just something nice about living in a house. When I think about it part of me wishes I was in a different place in my life, then I could think about buying a house of my own. Right now, I just need to concentrate on graduating. :)
Back to the trip. . . On Monday Joyce, Andy and I did some site seeing in Saint Louis. As far as sight seeing goes it was a bit odd. We spent some time in a couple graveyards looking for a friends realitives. We had luck in one and not in the other. I think we would have had luck in both if there hadn’t been snow covering almost all of the gravestones. It was very quiet and peaceful in the graveyards. It made you think.
Next it was off to The Arch. I had been there many years ago, but Andy and Joyce had never been. We decided to watch the documentary of the building of The Arch and then take the trip tp the top. The documentary was a bit disappointing. Not so much a documentary, but an exagerated comercial for the Steel industry. Oh, well. The trip to the top was pretty cool. We had to get into this little furturistic looking pod that slowly brought us up. Once there, we were able to look out from the windows at the city and the Mississippi River below us. I don’t have a fear of heights, but being that heigh up gave me a real appreciation for them. I think we were all gald to be back on solid ground.
Before we left Saint Louis we stopped at Union Station for lunch. The food was great, and the waitress was quite possibly the best waitressI’ve ever had. Lunch is when we found out just how incredibly cold it was back in Wisconsin. Although it wasn’t all that warm for Saint Louis, it was warm compared to Wisconsin. But we had to get back. And so we left.