Reunion Tour 2009, Part 2

So, where did I leave off? Oh, right. We spent our first evening in St. Louis with Aaron and Alisha.

We returned back to our hotel room and got a great night of sleep and headed to the zoo on Monday morning. We got there right at 8 AM and were able to park on the street, thus saving $11 on parking. Also, all of the exhibits which cost extra money are free from 8 - 9 AM. The zoo itself is free. It's such a nice zoo. I had been there a few times in college and appreciated it even more now.

Jack seemed excited about being able to pet the stingrays, so we did that first.



We walked around as long as I could handle it. Jack preferred Kyle's shoulders to his stroller.



With the money we saved on parking and exhibits, we let him pick out a toy (a stuffed turtle) which served as a pillow in the car.

We were done at the zoo by 11 AM and headed to the Galleria( so that I could buy a decent pair of maternity shorts) and then had lunch at the Spaghetti Factory (not to be confused with the Spaghetti Warehouse . . . the Spaghetti Factory is so, so, so much better).

We went back for a nap that afternoon and then met up with Jan and Dustin again for a Cardinals game at Busch Stadium. It was Jack's first MLB game, and even though the Cardinals lost it was perfect because it only lasted about 2 hours. Jack did really well and enjoyed it! He liked seeing Jan and Dustin again, too!




On Tuesday, we swam in the pool at the hotel and then checked out and met up with Heather and Nicole for lunch. I hadn't seen Heather since our wedding (almost 7 years ago)! We keep up with each other's blogs but it was so good to be in the same room and share a (delicious) meal! I had never met Nicole before, but it's so nice to feel like I know her in the real world rather than just the blog world. Kyle calls all of the people whose blogs I read but have never met, my "imaginary friends." Nicole no longer fits into that category.

Anyway, it was such a good time and my only regret is not pulling my camera out ONCE! Can you believe it?!

From there we went to Springfield to have dinner with Ben and Heather. Again, no pictures! But we had a chance to talk and just spend an hour or so catching up . . . which didn't seem like enough since we hadn't seen each other in two years! I'm hoping that it doesn't go that long again! Jack was a little bit, um, difficult at the restaurant. I think he had been in the car way to long because he was wound up and totally defiant.

We left Springfield and headed to Chicago and spent two nights with my sister. I hit the Land of Nod Outlet and got these two storage bins, among other things, for only $9 each! That's a $120 savings! Yay!

We ate at Giordano's, Ann Sather and Nookies . . . all of my favorite places to eat. We actually saw Jesse Jackson at Nookies. At least we're 99.99% sure it was him. We shopped a little and just wound down before heading home.

We had a great vacation and while sometimes it's nice to stay in one place for a while, it was nice to keep moving and to see lots of friends!