Winter 2023 Vacation

Hello All: Many of you know that Bill and I were supposed to go to Costa Rica for our winter vacation. A couple days before we were supposed to leave, my grandpa got sick and had to be hospitalized. There were no beds in the area, so he had to be moved to St. Louis for several days. Bill and I decided it would be best to cancel our Costa Rica trip and do something closer to home.

A few days ago, Bill met me in St. Louis so we could be there to help grandma and grandpa with anything they needed. We were really happy to get to spend time with grandma and grandpa. I’ve been very lucky to have fantastic grandparents for so long. So many people grow up rarely seeing their grandparents or without grandparents. It’s a real advantage in life to have grandparents to help you become an adult and to help you deal with problems once you become an adult. People who’ve been around for a while have good advice!

Bill drove grandma and grandpa home from St. Louis yesterday while I followed behind in my vehicle. Grandpa seemed to be doing much better. Unfortunately, he had to be rehospitalized this morning. I’m hoping the problems are related to medication he was given in the hospital, but we don’t really know right now. At least he’s in Cape Girardeau now where family can help more easily. It’s hard to be stuck alone in St. Louis were people can’t easily bring you stuff or stop by to see how you’re doing.

For anyone who needs to stay in St. Louis, Bill and I stayed and the Carlton Plaza Hotel. It’s really close to St. Mary’s Hospital. It’s an older hotel, but they have on site self-service laundry, which is great for people staying in the hospital. It also had a super neat heated pool. Part of the pool was inside but you could swim under a low wall and part of the pool was heated outside in open air. It was pretty chilly at night but they kept the water warm so we could swim in the evening.

We visited the City Museum, which was awesome! It’s basically a huge unique playground with 10 story spiral slides and artificial caves you can climb through. It would be especially fun for little kids because there are lots of small spaces for kids to crawl through and slides they can take. It was fun for Bill and me too. For my friend Samantha: Julianna would love this place!

We also visited the Planetarium and saw a show that was really interesting. Next time we are in St. Louis, I’d like to spend more time there and at the Science Museum. Sam: these would be great places for Julianna too.

Last night, once we got grandma and grandpa home, Bill and I worked out a plan to go to Savannah, Georgia for a few days. It’s not too far away, so if we need to come back to MO, we can be back in about 10 hours. We are spending tonight in Chattanooga and we’ll drive the rest of the way tomorrow. After we checked into the hotel, we took a trolly up the side of a mountain to Look Out Point. It was a good activity, but if anyone wants to come, we recommend that you skip the trolly and just drive up to Look Out Point. The trolly was a little expensive. We may find an activity for tomorrow morning too since we can’t check into our town house in Savannah until 4pm. We have a heated pool here too, so I’m getting ready to go swim again.

I hope everyone had good holidays and is doing well!