Hello faithful readers!!! it’s been awhile! Our vacation this winter was postponed into January after I changed ambulance services. I now work for AMR in Independence, Iowa. They are contracted to do the 911 and they do transfers out of Buchanan County Health Center. Originally we were looking at being back by Christmas and we were going to go to Grenada but flights were a mess so we decided on Costa Rica again and bumped to January. In the end the timing worked out well for us to be available for visiting Emily’s grandparents during her grandfather’s hospitalization in St. Louis and getting them home again. We will have to turn some things into the travel insurance, that is why we get it though. Life can be unpredictable.
While we were in St. Louis we had some free time to visit the City Museum. It is a fun place to visit. There is a lot of climbing and crawling available for those who are adventurous. Plenty of stairs to get to the slides, Emily and I both went to the top to do the spiral ten story slides, you get a little dizzy by the time you get to the bottom.
All the caves and tree houses are great for working your legs, Emily was still feeling it today some. They have a small aquarium area that wasn’t completed yet from the looks of things. This place has a lot of room to grow and there is a lot of things in storage yet. It is an amazing place! It was right at $40 for the two of us and parking is just $10. You can park there and stay all day if you wish. There are some food options and they also have adult beverages for those who enjoy them. You will occasionally hear someone crying, there is a lot of things you can hit your head on and areas you can get lost or hemmed up in.
On Wednesday morning we were able to make it to the Science Museum and over to the planetarium. We didn’t spend much time there but it’s free to go into. You do have to pay for parking, $12. You also have to pay for IMAX shows and planetarium shows as well if you want them. It was $6 for the planetarium show we went to. We are looking forward to going back and looking at more of the exhibits and maybe more shows. They have different one to choose from so if you are going be sure to look up the times for the ones that you want to see.
After the planetarium show Emily’s grandfather was released and we were able to go pick him up. Her grandparents rode with me back to Dexter and we had some good conversation along the way. I was glad that we were able to be in St. Louis during their stay there. We were able to make a few trips over to just visit and also take some food.
The hotel we stayed at was nice, had character. The pool was heated and it was an indoor outdoor pool.
After St. Louis we overnighted in the swinging city of Dexter. I don’t remember if I mentioned that I ended up with an ear infection after our white water trip last year in Costa Rica, seems it’s common for some people that travel and do those activities to get one. Well I ended up with one this year as well swimming in the pool in St. Louis, so we started out the day with me visiting Urgent Care for some Antibiotics. I was using some over the counter stuff we picked up on Wednesday and it seemed to be helping but I decided it wasn’t enough and I didn’t want to have issues during the rest of our trip.
After I was done at Urgent Care I found out that Emily’s grandfather had to go to the Emergency Room again as some issues returned, that was a bummer to hear. But it sounds like he will be able to stay closer to home and there will be more family around so we were encouraged to continue on with some more vacation plans we had made as a back up that will keep us within a days drive if we need to get back.
One thing that we did find that we have added to our list of things that we want to do when we have less time for traveling but plenty of notice is the Aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia. It seems they will for a price (not a small one but seems totally worth it!) allow scuba diving and snorkeling. Emily found the snorkeling when were we’re trying to decide if we should go. When I first found it I only saw the scuba option. So someday hopefully we will be able to give you the rundown on that experience.
In the end we stayed with our original plan of going to Savannah, Georgia. We found a 3 bedroom townhouse in a historic building in the area we wanted to visit. It will be nice as we enjoy having some space and the ability to cook for ourselves some. We should be there tomorrow. We split the drive into two days stopping halfway in Chattanooga, Tennessee. With everything going on I don’t remember if there was something specific that we wanted to do here or not. We should have some time in the morning to do something if we want.
We went up Look Out Mountain after we settled in to our hotel. It was a fun touristy thing to do, like touristy stuff it was over priced at $15 round trip per person. You could drive up and get pretty much the same view I believe. It was fun to do though. Emily was smiling on the trolley.
So no foreign country this time, hopefully though we can entertain our readers with a different type of vacation. We have had some fun already and we look forward to having more.
Traveling with Emily! 