Thursday, September 19, 2013

St Louis and the City Museum

St Louis and the City Museum

A funny thing happened on the way to St. Louis.  Rick said you have to go to this museum - The City Museum...  The boys were so sick of museums by this time that they groaned and protested.  But, we hadn't really planned anything else to do in St. Louis except walk downtown or see the sights so I got us out to the  museum as soon as we arrived in town.  We literally parked the RV in the lot next to the museum and went in.  Well, we went straight to the rooftop and that's where these next few pictures are taken...





Then the boys wanted to take this slide down...  Alan and I were pretty tired so we sat on the roof having a 'lemonade' while the boys went down the slide.  They were gone for about 40 minutes when I started to get really nervous and thought I should go look for them.  Of course, I was torn between leaving the roof and  missing them if they came up and I didn't know where to start to look for them.  It turns out that this 10 story slide goes down in a spiral to this cave section of the museum.  The boys had spent 30 minutes lost in the caves and then got a personal escort back to us because they weren't allowed to leave the caves without an adult.  They came back up and then we all took the slide down.  The slide was amazing and was part of the original shoe factory which the museum is housed in.  


These are a few pictures from the inside of the building.  My camera could not capture the amazing artistic work and weird ways that the ramps and slides in the museum were made.  We ended up staying in the museum until they closed at 11:30pm.  The boys wanted to go back the next day to and probably the day after that.  It was really amazing and wondrous.







This is an art area they have where the boys actually sat down and made a paper mache stork.  They were so occupied and having so much fun.  I loved to see them engaging with the staff and participating in art.


Hannibal, Mark Twain and the Mississippi

Hannibal, Mark Twain and the Mississippi

One of the boys favorite pastimes has become fishing.  We stayed at another resort outside Hanibal that had it's own private lake to fish on.  



Boys will be boys


This is the only fish we caught!


The Cave Complex at Mark Twain Park...  These are the caves he played in as a child and describes in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn...




We went on a paddleboat dinner show cruise on the Mississippi...  It was fun and the boys got to participate in the entertainment.





The Missississippi

Iowa - Our Amish Experience

Iowa - Our Amish Experience


We would have driven right thru Iowa and never seen the beauty of the land had we stayed on the interstate.  I was disapointed that we didn't get to go thru Lancaster, PA  and have an Amish experience and I thought that having missed that area we were out of luck.  I was googling Agritourism and came across this little town called Kalona, IA.  They have the largest Amish population west of the Mississippi and offered tours.  We spent the day having lunch in an Amish ladies house and touring around the Amish farmhouses, bakery, stores, etc.  It was really quite fun.  The Amish are gracious hosts and wonderful cooks.  It was pretty simple, down home cooking and really worth it.  The ladies in the Historical Society in Kallona were so nice to us and so accommodating.  I really fell in love with these farms and the skylines!











Minneapolis - Fishing and Farm Animals

Minneapolis - Fishing and Farm Animals 

We met up with Teryn's good friend Alex and went shopping in Uptown

We stayed at a great little place called Ham Lake.  Fishing was the  main event here.


I was in love with the skyline and sunsets here in Minnesota.  

Alan had to do most of the worm duty!


Aaron got brave and hooked a few worms but he was very squemish...

Our little Liza...

We made this great little roasted apple campfire desert...  Apples with melted butter and brown sugar :)

I couldn't resist this baby goat...  It was so precious...

One of the goats was supposed to give birth 'Any day now" and we kept waiting but it never happened.  Every few hours we would all run over to the barn to check and see if it was time.  It's one of the things Aaron and Ryan were really excited about seeing is a baby-goat birth...  The manager of the park spoke with a Minnesotan accent and kept saying "Any day now"...  Teryn does a hilarious impression...

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Chicago

Chicago - Hot Dogs and Shopping in Wicker Park

We ate at Portillo's and I found out I'm not really a Chicago hot dog fan...  Sorry, but give me grill marks!!!


We went shopping in the Wicker Park area.  It was hip and cool...


Aaron discovers his inner Gramma






The boys discover their inner Pimp...





Aaron discovers his inner Queen...








Not sure about this one...


Ryan finds the 'bad boy' jacket of his dreams...


Weird doorways we found...



We loved Chicago and wanted to stay there in the city a couple more days.  Dad had had enough though and wanted to get the hell out of dodge.  It was pretty hilacious driving the RV through town and finding parking and all.  Dad won and we drove out of town to Wisconsin...  Home of the cheese.  I also found out what a 'Dell' is, from 'Farmer and the Dell', clearing up a long-standing mystery with that song.  

The city takes its name from the Dells of the Wisconsin River, a scenic, glacially formed gorge that features striking sandstone formations along the banks of the Wisconsin River.  a small valley, usually among trees.
"lush green valleys and wooded dells"  derived from the french word for small narrowing...