The Ides of March

This post was orginally going to be called "Happy Napping!" and posted on Sunday because it was National Napping Day! Anyway, we left off in Srpingfield, MO on Saturday? I think..... Traveling like this makes the order of my days spin around my head in circles!

When we left Springfield, we headed East about an hour until we reached Mansfield, which, does anyone know what lived here???? Answer: Laura Ingalls Wilder! We went to Rocky Ridge Farm where Laura, Almonzo and their daughter Rose lived for so many years. In these years here, both Laura and Rose wrote their novels.

The Farm House

The Rock House

(Rose had it built for her parents but they moved back to the Farm House when Rose left home)

We also stopped at the Wilson's Creek Civil War battlefield in Battlefield, MO but it was nothing exciting or really picture worthy... There was a museum. It was neat. What more can I say?

In between Mansfield and St. Louis my dear old car rolled 170,000 miles. It has seen many a place. Let us pause to respect Sandy....

You are a dear old car, Sandy!

On Saturday evening, we made it to the Drury Inn in St. Louis, MO. Our first move was to go to a Soda Bar called Fitz's. It is the greatest restaurant in St. Louis for one reason and one reason only. They bottle their own root beer and other sodas! The root beer is always the classic and always the best. We ate here the last time we came to St. Louis and made it a point to go again.

The next day we woke up, and there was snow EVERYWHERE. Did Missouri not get the memo that it was SPRING BREAK?? I suppose not.

Really, Missouri?!?

We then had to plan our entire day on indoor activities. So we went to the home of Scott Joplin where Dad and I both played the player piano where you pump the feet and the little machine reads the punched out dots on a roll of paper and the piano plays them! Anyway, we listened to/ played "The Entertainer". By about this time, we had lunch at Chipotle which Dad and I had wanted to try forever but never found one until now (except for the time we were driving around looking for somewhere to eat then stopped at some little rinky-dink, not-worth-it restaurant only to get in our car afterwards, drive a few blocks, and there sat a Chipotle....sighs from both of us...) so we were both very excited! Although it was good, it wasn't what we expected it to be. We knew ahead of time about this Chipotle becasue it was right down the road from Fitz's and we saw it the night before as well as many of the adorable shops that made up "The Loop" on Delmar St. So, naturally, after we ate I shopped a little bit and bought the cutest shoes ever and saw this realllllly awesome violin in a music shop.

See?? Do you see the planets??

Next, we headed on over Anheuser-Busch Brewry for a tour which we didn't end up doing because we didn't know it was an outdoor tour, so naturally we didn't do it. We did wander around the little museum though. The rest of the day was pretty laid back since the snow hindered our plans, but we did go out for a late night snack at a coffee bar-bakery type thing that was very similar to Java Jacks in Nac, in the college district of St. Louis where I had a very delicious strawberry cupcake.

Note: Taken while driving.

Here we are, today. Today we woke up and walked straight over to the arch because it was literally outside my hotel window! I have been inside the Arch and done the whole deal before but it was just as great the second time! We walked over to the Old Cathedral, which is one of the MANY beautiful old churches in St. Louis, and I took many many pictures. Then to wrap up our time in good ol' St. Louis we went to the courthhouse where Dred Scott went through his law suit trials and was freed. Around 1pm we made our way down to Memphis and ate dinner on Beale Street.

Now, I am enjoying a nice big cup of hot chocolate and wondering what tomorrow will have in store and looking forward to being home soon.