So I know it's been a while (#almostamonth) but I promise I have a lot of blog posts sitting in the draft pile waiting to be shared with all of you lovely humans! I'm trying to focus on creating quality posts rather than the quantity, so if I'm in the midst of summer stock craziness I'm not going to just post to post if you get what I'm saying.
But regardless, I had a much needed TRAVEL day off last Monday! And instead of sitting at home (as I have my last couple of days off) I actually put on real human clothes and went on a day trip with some friends from the company to St. Louis.
Now I have been to St. Louis previously, which means I believe this is the first time I have traveled somewhere twice (outside of the normal east coast family trips). However, my first trip to St. Louis was for USITT when I was part of SMMP the first time. Now I went back to look and see if I had any pictures of the city from this trip, but no joke I only have pictures inside the convention center. I didn't even get a single picture at the City Museum at the closing party.
So needless to say, I was very excited to be traveling back to St. Louis and having time to explore. We left at about 9:00 AM for a two and a half hour drive. We stopped at Starbucks on the way and since I already had coffee I forced myself to get a grande Iced Carmel macchiato and a breakfast sandwich. However, I managed to mess up my sandwich order and alas was not a fan so I was hyped up on coffee all morning.
The caravan (of two vehicles, 11 people) finally arrived at the St. Louis Zoo and I was pumped. A few of us bought the $12 wrist band to do the extra activities, but the zoo itself was free. We saw the sea lion show
( & they were fierce sassy female sea lions which I loved) and then walked around for a while. We didn't see lions and tigers and bears, but we did see elephants (my favorite), giraffes, penguins, and a polar bear (to name a few). Two members of the crew almost got pooped on by the penguins which was hilarious. We took a little lunch break and I split a MASSIVE quesadilla with some of the group before we pet the stingrays. After some more exploring we hit up the gift store (yes I bought a coffee mug) and then left to get some real food.
On our way to dinner, we drove past The Muny. I recognized the outside immediately from all of the Instagram posts I have seen of the hanging show signs. The theatre geek in me nerded out and I cannot wait until I actually go see a show there (which will happen sometime before I leave fingers crossed).
We stopped at Salt and Smoke which was a FANTASTIC BBQ place. I got a pulled pork sandwich, The Bad One (hard cider), and some of the best Mac and Cheese I have ever had in my life. I was not the biggest fan of the cider, but hey ya win some, ya lose some.
Somehow I managed to convince the rest of the group to live my cute bookstore dreams with me and we made a stop at this adorable little bookstore called Subterranean Books. I didn't buy anything (#miracle) but everyone seemed extremely happy while looking around so I'm very happy we made the stop. We also stopped at this gaming/comic store, where I flipped through some Archie comics because #RiverdaleisBAE.
Here are some other miscellaneous pictures from the day:
Our final stop was the famous arch. We took MANY pictures, ran around in a grass field, and made sure we touched both sides of the arch. Probably shouldn't have hugged it because it's really dirty, but we were living our travel day dreams so here we are.
I absolutely loved St. Louis and I can't wait to go back. Unfortunately, this day off is being spent doing the large amount of laundry that has piled up, organizing my room/starting to look at packing, and getting my life together. I am beyond excited to head back to the Go Round in two weeks and be back on my favorite coast. I have lots of exciting adventures planned so be sure to keep reading and share my blog with some friends if you feel so inclined!
Much love always,
Chels <3