Thanksgiving Trip to St. Louis, 2022

Ellie and Joe went on their trip together to Egypt during Thanksgiving break.  The rest of us didn't want to be just left behind, so we planned our own trip.  We started with visiting Adam and Michael in College Station.  Michael had an exam on Tuesday evening that he couldn't change the time of, and Adam was scheduled to drive his shift that evening.  Nate and I drove up.  The first thing that we visited was the BUILD site that Michael worked on all semester as a supervisor to build a medical clinic in a shipping container.  

Then we went and ate a dinner with Michael in the dining hall.  He assured us it was disgusting, but we found that it wasn't bad.

While Michael went off to take his test, we went and rode the bus that Adam was driving.

Meanwhile, Marley was left behind all alone.

When the boys got done with their activities, we drove for a few hours to get a head start on our activities.  The first destination that we went to was the Crater of Diamonds state park in Arkansas.  We got equipment and dug for diamonds.  To be honest, it was cold, a little rainy and no one really wanted to work too hard to get the diamonds.  We probably spent more time in line that actually mining for diamonds.

Then we drove for a few hours and went on a hike at Whitaker Point.  We got to the spot a little later than planned, and it was getting dark as we hiked.  It was fun to hike, but there were no views because it was so dark.

That night we drove up to Branson, Missouri.

We went on a riverboat cruise that had a dinner and a Christmas show.

We also did an escape room while we were in Branson. 

The next day, we got up and drove to St. Louis.  Our first stop was the St. Louis Arch.

We rode to the top and looked out, about the time the sun was setting.  That evening we found a park and walked around it and went to dinner at an old Foundry that had been converted into a huge hall with many small restaurants.

The highlight of our trip was our trip to the City Museum in St. Louis.  This is the coolest museum ever.  They have taken and old shoe factory and converted it to a giant playground.  There is a lot of recycled iron and objects, all put together in a way that is not only fascinating to look at, but super fun to climb in.  There are slides that are 8 stories long, tunnels that take you across the museum, and outside there are wire tunnels that allow you to climb up over the whole yard.  Everyone loved this museum and we spent hours climbing and enjoying it.

That afternoon, we went to the science museum in St. Louis since it was free, but it wasn't nearly as cool as the City Museum.  

Overall, it was a fun trip to places we wouldn't normally have gone, the only catch was that Adam and I both came down with a really bad sinus infection on the trip and it was a few rough days getting over it.