Elizabeth mentioned how much she wanted to go to St. Louis
and see Uncle Al and Charlotte many times during the past year. Michael also wanted to see them again. I have wanted to travel to their home for
years; however, I didn't think my back/neck would let me. But you never know unless you try … so off
the three of us went, while Steven stayed behind to work and take care of Zoe
and Niki. As rare as this comment
probably is after a trip, everything
was amazing on this trip. Even the car
ride was significantly (p<.01) better than I expected. In one day, we made it all the way to the beautiful Crowne Plaza Hotel, which was recommended by Charlotte and is 1.1 miles from their home (unless I am driving and misunderstanding GPS, as happened every morning, so it ended up being a multi-mile trek for us).
If you ever travel to St. Louis, stay in that hotel. Pool, fitness room, fabulous breakfast
reminiscent of The Seasons with its omelet and waffle station, large hotel
rooms, etc. We loved it. I got to play Frogger for the first time in
probably 30 years at their arcade! It cheered
me up after Michael would soundly beat me at fuse ball every game. 
We saw Uncle Al and Charlotte the next morning and headed to
the zoo. The hundred degree (literally,
it was 100 degrees) weather did not deter us from touring the majority of the
zoo (with multiple stops at the misters to cool down) and loving the sea lion
show!
We then cooled down further at the
science museum, where Michael loved working with the construction demonstration
and Elizabeth loved figuring out the Killer Ball activity, which involved
sparing Gumby's life by figuring out how to use random supplies (i.e. paper
clip, straw piece) to divert a fast-moving ball from plowing into him (Gumby is male, right?). We had a fantastic home-cooked dinner made by Charlotte and just enjoyed being in her and Al's presence and sharing our lives with one another. None of us wanted to leave their home.
The next morning we picked up Uncle Al, who took us to the
Arch. The gods and goddesses were
shining down on us as there were no lines for tickets or the ride up to the
top. You can ask him why we weren't able
to purchase the souvenir photo, but we fortunately had plenty of photos of our
own. We spent time in the
beautifully-created exploration museum and ate taffy, which apparently is food
popular a few centuries ago. 
Uncle Al then took us on a tour of St. Louis and Washington
University, where we ate in one of the dining halls. Uncle Al was quite the popular person, as we
saw very few people during our campus visit, yet Uncle Al knew three of
them. We were surprised. Only because he is retired, not because he is
not an extravert. Then we had my
favorite … frozen yogurt! That evening,
we went for Chinese food at their favorite restaurant and wow, we knew quickly
why it was their favorite. Back at their
house, we had dessert and a big coin spill all over the kitchen floor. I won't tell you the name of whose fault it
was, but he wears glasses and longish hair and is my mom's brother.
The next morning we headed back to Kentucky and arrived in
one piece. We knew seeing the sights of
St. Louis would make the trip worth it, but to spend time with Uncle Al and
Charlotte, well, nothing compares to that.
As I said last time we saw them in Kentucky, the world needs more Uncle
Al and Charlottes.