Hi, I briefly touched on our trip to St. Louis in one of my last posts. I am here to write more. We decided to drive, it is about 13-14 hours away. Now with an almost 17 month old child, one had to plan strategically. I decided we would leave after work on a Tuesday and drive about 7-8 hours to make our first stop. I planned that we would reach that stop around 11pm. Clara usually goes to bed around 7:30-8pm so in my perfect plan, she would sleep most of that drive. We traveled through Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois on the way there. Stopping in Kentucky (right outside W. Va) for the night. Well, first, we didn't leave Chapel Hill till 7pm. And we hit rain in W. Va. Terrible rain, thunder and lightening. Clara did not sleep. We got to our hotel at 2am. Got to sleep around 3:30am. Not a good start to the trip. The next morning we woke up about 9am, got breakfast and left Grayson, Kentucky around 12. My plan had us leaving Grayson around 10am but....We got to Churchill Downs around 2:30. That was cool. Spent some time there and then went to meet Mike's friend Jon in Evansville, In for what ended up being dinner. When I thought we'd get to St. Louis around 7-8pm at night, we got there around 12 midnight. ugh. We all went straight to bed.
Next day, we went to the Cardinals game. They lost :( . We had great seats, thanks to brother in law Dave. And the stadium had a place where kids could play so we spent some time there so Clara could run around. She did well despite the fact it was her nap time and she barely slept the last couple of nights.
Friday, we went to Grants Farm. Fun place. Clara first ride on a Merry-Go-Round. At first I thought she would not like it but oh, no...she LOVED it. I warned Mike she might throw a fit when the ride ended but didn't know for sure. Well, she threw a fit. So we went around again. Since we couldn't pay for a third ride, we had to distract her with something when we got off. We went through a misting tent, she liked that.
Saturday, everyone (including Daniel) went to the pool. Daniel's first time in the pool. I think he liked it. Now I wish I had held him more when we were there. Gosh, to hold a little baby again....
Sunday, we didn't do much because we left in the afternoon for our trip home. We went through Tennessee on the way home, stopping in Nashville for the night. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe, saw the stadium where the Tennessee Titans play, and went to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Once again, I planned...I thought we would leave Nashville earlier than we did getting us to Chapel Hill earlier than we did. Well, that didn't happen. We didn't leave till around 3 (I think) which was 4pm EST. AND...we hit really bad storms AGAIN :( . So that got us back to Chapel Hill around midnight and we didn't get home till 2. Clara, though, did sleep (after we stopped for dinner around 10pm).
It was a nice trip...guess I'll have to be more flexible with schedules next time. Clara was good for the most part during the drives (except in W. Va. I think she was just over tired). And it was nice to see parts of the country we had not visited before.
I think Clara has done more in her first 17 months of life than I did at that age. Besides driving to the center of the country, she has been on two plane rides (one to Las Vegas). She is such as easy baby (knock on wood). Everyone keeps telling me that. I've got to believe it since the travels with her have been pretty uneventful (again knock on wood). She is just so much fun!
