July in Missouri = HOT!!! A trip report . . . COMPLETED 9/20!!! About This Page:

[DopeyGirl]

I am finally “reporting” on our July trip to St. Louis and Branson, MO . . . better late than never, I always say!!!

Well . . . most of you know, my parents flew me out to San Diego this summer, where we spent a couple of days before going to Disneyland for a couple of days, then we spent another 3 weeks at their house in Oregon. We flew back to Pensacola on July 18, unpacked, repacked and were on a plane to St. Louis on July 21st . . . heading up to visit my in-laws and DH (who was on temporary duty for the Navy in Great Lakes, IL).

Our flights were on time (we had to go through Atlanta in order to get to St. Louis from here ) but we ended up waiting for our luggage in baggage claim for almost an HOUR!!! Eventually it did come and we made our way out to the car . . . it was SO hot, it literally took my breath away as soon as we walked out into the parking garage. We sat and relaxed at the in-laws house for the rest of the afternoon and DH arrived from Chicago late that evening (he drove) . . . as soon as he got there, I crashed. To say I was exhausted was an understatement!!!

Next morning, we all got up and turned on the news to see that it was forecast to be around 102 degrees that day . . . even so, we still decided to go to the St. Louis Zoo. What the heck were we thinking?! DFIL headed out to get us some hot Krispy Kreme donuts and we all got ready to go . . . after a quick breakfast, we headed out to the zoo, arriving around 10:30am. A few weeks prior, Dianna (2princessmom) and I had talked about trying to meet up at the Zoo that day since she was in Missouri visiting her parents . . . Rhonda (mom2my4dwarfs) was also in St. Louis that weekend, for the Cards/Cubs series, and they were planning on going to the Zoo as well. We never did end up meeting though. Dianna didn’t end up coming up to St. Louis and Rhonda was only at the Zoo for a short time, leaving before we had even arrived.

So, once we had paid our $9 for parking (yes, $9 . . . but the Zoo admission is free ), we headed in. I hadn’t brought our stroller with us this trip, so we rented one and headed off towards the reptile house . . .

. . . and I shall now let the photos tell the rest of the story . . .


Walking up the ramp to the entrance of the Reptile House --- Emilie liked to PUSH the stroller more than RIDE in it


Emilie told me she thought this looks like Randall from Monsters Inc.














I thought this little meerkat was going to jump at Mike’s face for a second . . . he just kind of sat like that for a few seconds and hunkered down like a cat that is about to pounce on something!!!




Did you know that the Capybara is the largest rodent in the world?


Making friends with a Mississippi River Blue Catfish



By about 3:00 or 3:30pm, we had had ENOUGH . . . so we turned out stroller back in and headed out to the parking lot. When we got into the car, the temperature read 104 degrees . . . and it sure felt that way outside!!! We headed back to the house, cleaned up and cooled off before heading out to get some dinner with the in-laws best friends (which DMIL and DFIL do EVERY Friday night) then watching a movie before turning in for the night.

COMING UP NEXT: Hanging out and a trip to Branson, MO

[2princessmom]

Yes July was hot this year! It is usually in the nineties but 100's are unusual. I am so sorry we weren't able to come up! I couldn't handle another car ride with the girls. We had just come from Memphis the weekend earlier and what is an easy 4- 4 1/2 hour drive became an almost 8 hour day! And since we were driving back to Oregon the next week, I didn't want to push my luck!

I am so sorry that we missed out on the zoo and then Branson as well! Since we were there the same day. But definately next time!!!

[SuperKate]

I am also SORRY I missed you guys in STL, bc I'm only a hop, skip, and a jump away from the zoo and stuff!! ...oh well maybe next time!! Can't wait to hear more. I Branson....and STL of course!

[crystalloubear]

Sounds cool - I mean fun.

[GoofyMom]

Great pictures of your day at the zoo!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great day at the zoo Sarah Great pictures

[Minnie Lor]

Yes, Missouri is hot in July and August. I lived in STL for 13 years. It seems hotter there than SW MO. What makes it worse is the humidity. Hopefully Branson was cooler for you. It's usually better. Come see us in October. Weather is perfect and the trees are beautiful.

[lauren-roxy]

I'm excited to read about your trip to Branson Sarah!! Looks like you had a great time at the zoo in spite of the heat. Your pictures are wonderful!!

[loobyoxlip]

Emilie is too cute. I hate hearing about temperatures like that - I can't handle them

[DopeyGirl]

When last you were reading about our summer antics in Missouri, we were roasting our behinds off at the St. Louis Zoo . . . MAN, it was HOT!!! Just in the 40-45 minutes that we sat down at the Lakeside Café for lunch, I drank 2 – 20 oz bottles of water!!! What can I say . . . I was dehydrating!!!

Well, the next day, it was supposed to be equally as hot, so we decided we weren’t going to do much . . . we stayed pretty close to home all day. Late in the afternoon, we headed over to Holiday Shores, IL (just north of Edwardsville) to the house of DMIL & DFIL’s former neighbors. They moved from St. Louis to the “corn-fields” in IL a couple of years ago and now live in a nice little community around a small lake (which is surrounded by corn fields). They had invited the in-laws out for dinner and to take a ride on the lake in the pontoon boat. So, having nothing else to do, we tagged along! Emilie automatically declared herself “Captain of the ship” . . . She was also the lookout . . . she made sure that she let someone know if a jet ski came within 100 feet of the boat! DH and I joked that they could have used her on the Titanic . . . she’d have seen that iceberg coming in enough time to get out of the way!!!


Emilie as the “Captain of the Ship” on Holiday Lake in Illinois

After floating for a couple of hours and then having some dinner at a restaurant on the lake (we pulled up in the boat, parked it and walked in ), we loaded up in our cars and headed back to St. Louis. (we took 2 cars just incase DFIL wanted to stay longer whenever we wanted to come home . . . he does that sometimes and we’re usually at his mercy if he drives. We got smart this time! ) Emilie had passed out in the car, so not long after we got back to the house, she went to bed . . . Mike watched baseball on TV with his dad and I came and checked in on the boards!

The next day, to be honest, is a blur . . . I know Mike and I went to the mall at somewhere around 5pm to get some stuff at Archiver’s, and Emilie ran through the sprinkler for the first time EVER in her life (yes, she’s deprived )



. . . but the rest of the day I am BLANK on!!! There is ONE thing I remember . . . and here is where my rant comes in . . .

We did discuss the possibility of heading to Chicago the next day to sightsee for a couple of days, which was my idea since day one of Mike going up to work there . . . but FIL (notice no D at this point) overruled and said that since Mike was on leave and didn’t have to go back to work for another few days, there was no point in going to Chicago and that he wanted to go to Branson. I was NOT a happy camper about that!!! Even before my parents bought our tickets for Disneyland and all that, I had made the decision that at some point during the summer, Emilie and I were going to Chicago to visit Mike while he was working up there . . . the last time I was in Chicago was 1995. I had just graduated from Navy boot camp and we got all of 8 hours per day for 2 days after our graduation to go sightseeing in the city . . . I got to go to the top of the Sears Tower and we ate dinner at Michael Jordan’s restaurant . . . that was IT. I haven’t been since. So, after DM bought the tickets for DL, and I mentioned it to DMIL, she said they’d fly us up to visit them when we got back from the West Coast and we could go to Chicago then. I figured that would be OK . . . since they offered to pay for everything. I pinned down the dates of July 25-28 as “Chicago trip” days and DMIL said she thought that sounded fine, but FIL was beating around the bush and wouldn’t “commit”. Every time I said I was going to reserve a hotel, he’d say “Well, let’s just wait until it’s a little closer” HOW much closer do you want to get?! He was saying this even with just ONE WEEK to spare before the dates I wanted to go!!! Well, the 24th came around and I mentioned to Mike that I would like to go up there the next day and I thought we could get a room at the Navy Lodge (they had vacancies since it would be a Monday and they are usually PACKED on weekends, since Navy boot camp is there and the graduations are every weekend.) . . . his dad heard me say that and he spoke up and said “Well, there’s no point in going up there if Mike is going to be here. I already booked us a 2 bedroom condo in Branson for tomorrow, coming home Thursday (the 25th-28th). So we’ll pack tonight and leave around 9:00-9:30 in the morning.” Ummmmmm . . . huh? Yeah . . . so much for MY Chicago trip.

So I went to bed a little ticked off that night . . . I didn’t say a word to FIL after he made his “announcement” and told Mike we were taking 2 separate cars because I was NOT riding for 4 hours, squished in the backseat, in the same Jeep as his father. Next morning, FIL went to Krispy Kreme and got donuts then we loaded up the CARS , headed to the gas station and got on I-270 headed to I-44. We stopped in Ozark, MO for lunch at Lambert’s Café (Home of the Throwed Rolls!) and ended up having to wait 45 minutes for a table . . . I don’t know WHY we couldn’t have just gone across to the Burger King or something like that!!! Emilie was NOT a very patient person waiting for that table, I tell you!!! I don’t remember what DMIL or FIL had . . . I think I had the fried chicken, Emilie had a hamburger and Mike had Hog Jowl. They brought a bowl of white beans out with a bowl of what LOOKED like bacon. I had no idea what that was until I looked it up online after we got home . . . it’s cut from the CHEEK of a pig!!! EWWWW!!! He said it tasted just like bacon though!!! I try not to think about where the meat comes from when I eat it . . . but that kind of freaked me out . . .

ANYWHO . . . we finished up our lunch and rolled ourselves out to the cars and in just about 35 minutes, we were in Branson . We made our way to the Thousand Hills Golf Resort and FIL went in to check us in. We’d been given a 2 bedroom 2 bath 2nd-floor condo on the 15th tee of the golf course . . .


Master bedroom


Back porch


Living room


Living room towards kitchen/dining area


Kitchen


Dining area


The view from our back windows


This is how hot it was on the fully enclosed, air conditioned “back porch” ------ UGH!!!

Mike and his dad called the clubhouse for a tee time for the next morning immediately upon walking onto the back porch. I had a feeling that this trip wasn’t about going and checking out the “Country Music Las Vegas” . . . it was about golf. I didn’t get to go sightsee in Chicago because FIL wanted to play golf. Well, whatever . . . I was in Branson now, I might as well make the best of it, right?

We unloaded the car and I called dibs on the Master Bedroom (with GIANT Jacuzzi tub ) and we sat down (on the back porch . . . gotta watch the golfers! ) right around 3:30pm to get an idea of what there was to do in the area. FIL saw some ad, in the brochures he received at check in, for a Red Skelton tribute show that was showing at 5pm that evening. He said he REALLY wanted to go, but I wasn’t interested, neither was anyone else for that matter. He started to throw a bit of a hissy fit about it until Mike said “OK dad . . . I will go.” He REALLY didn’t want to, but he took one for the team! FIL called the box office at the theater where the show was and purchased 2 tickets over the phone . . . he and Mike left shortly thereafter. The show was at 5pm and by that time it was just a bit after 4:00! Well . . . DMIL, Emilie and I were left there wondering what to do . . . until we looked further through the brochures and HELLO OUTLET MALLS!!! This is about the point where I said “OK, well this isn’t where I WANTED to come, but I am going outlet shopping and I will be just fine!!!” We headed to the Tanger Outlets right off the bat . . . there’s a DisneyDirect outlet there!!! I walked in telling myself that I was NOT going to spend a lot . . . and honestly, the selection made that really easy. Everything I wanted for myself or for Emilie, clothing wise, they did not have in the right sizes. I did find 3 pairs of Disney jammies for Emilie and I got a big “Incredibles snowglobe” . . . altogether, I only spent $35!!! The snowglobe was normally $78 and the jammies were each $12 in the Disney catalog!!! BARGAIN SHOPPER!!!


My “Incredible” bargain at the DisneyDirect outlet store!!!

We stopped into the Bath and Body Works outlet store as well as the Old Navy and Gap outlets . . . then headed over to another mall.

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST . . .

[DopeyGirl]

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST . . .

DMIL wanted to stop into the Pfaltzgraff clearance store to see if she could find anything in her pattern (which is now retired). The only thing she was able to find was a small teapot, but she didn’t have that piece yet and it was only $7.99, so she snatched it right up! I spotted a set of dishes, as we walked around the store, that I really liked . . . and it was at that moment that I made the decision that my old yucky Pfaltzgraff dishes were going in the trash when we got home and I was buying new ones right then! I got two 16 piece sets (4 each - dinner plate, salad plate, bowl and mug) for $40 each!!! They are $100 each at Bed, Bath and Beyond!!! When we got home, we gave our old dishes (which were VERY used when Mike’s aunt gave them to us as a wedding gift ) to a friend of ours that had just moved into an apartment and needed “stuff” . . . and I have new “fancy” dishes!!!


My new “fancy” dishes . . . Pfaltzgraff Nautica Arctic Night They’ll be making their first appearance on the table at Thanksgiving

After the outlet stores, we ran over to Kmart and got a couple of things and as we were leaving, Mike called and told us the show was over and to meet them at The Pasta House, so we headed that way. Dinner there was “nyeah” . . . it was good but nothing to write home about. It was a tad overpriced though, IMHO! I had a small-ish bowl of fettuccine alfredo and it was $9.99!!!

Once we’d finished dinner, we headed back to the condo and Emilie got her suit on and we headed over to the pool. The water was supposed to be heated but it was COLD!!! Brrrrrrrrrrr!!! She swam for about 30 minutes then we came back and she “swam” in the Jacuzzi tub. Honestly . . . this tub was HUGE!!! Who needs a pool when you’ve got that thing?! Fill it up with cool water and swim away!!! We were kept awake until nearly 3am by the upstairs neighbors . . . their kids, I don’t think, ever slept and they ran and jumped everywhere they went!!!

Next morning, everyone got up and the guys headed out to the golf course . . . DMIL, Emilie and I just kind of sat around for a while, then we got ourselves together and headed to get something to eat. We went to Steak and Shake and had a delicious early lunch then headed to the outlet malls again! I didn’t make any purchases that day . . . I was good! Mike called from the golf course at one point and said his dad wanted us to come out on the porch and watch them tee off on 15 . . . when DMIL said that we weren’t even in the condo, he said “Dad said to come home. We’ll be through the next few holes in no time and we can go do something afterwards.” So, we headed back to the condo and sat on the (hot) back porch and opened the windows so I could yell at them while they teed off!!! I am GOOD golf heckler!


Mike teeing off while his dad stands there . . .

Once they finished golfing . . . and were whining about how hot it was . . . we talked about what to do next and settled on a “Duck” boat tour of Branson. We headed to “Ride the Ducks” and purchased tickets. It would be a 90 minute tour of Branson, starting out as a driving tour through the town, driving up to the top of Baird Mountain and then coming down to float on Table Rock Lake. We were all given “Wacky Quackers” (noisemakers . . . “QUACK!” ) and had our group photo taken then we were sent up the steps and into the boat. We were the last ones allowed on the first boat that was there, so were placed in the last row.


Our Duck boat . . . we’re in the very back row . . . you can only see FIL in the picture in his yellow golf shirt.

It was pretty hard to hear the driver’s spiel as we drove along . . . and we were getting pretty wind-blown . . . but it was actually nice to feel that “breeze” (if you can call it that!). We drove along the “main drag” Hwy. 76 then headed out towards Baird Mountain and Table Rock Lake. The driver took us up the mountain and told us about the WWII era military vehicles they had on display up there, then when we got to the top, stopped to allow us to take photos for a few minutes . . .


“One of the most gorgeous views in all of the Ozarks” ---- Table Rock Lake --- from the top of Baird Mountain

Once we’d taken all of the photos we wanted, we headed down the mountain and after a couple of minutes, came to a boat ramp. Our driver, Captain George, asked if we wanted to “go in to the lake slowly or like the Dukes of Hazzard” . . . well, naturally, everyone (except for me) voted for Dukes of Hazzard . . . You see, I was seated right in the center of the backseat . . . and Captain George said “You may get a bit wet in that seat . . . “ Well, since there were no other seats available, I guess I would have to take my chances. He revved up the engine then let off the brake and we went flying into the lake . . . and water went flying right over the middle of the backseat and DRENCHED my entire backside!!! Oh how I HATE wet clothes!!!

We floated along on the lake . . .


Showboat Branson Belle

. . . and each child on board got a chance to drive the boat . . .


Emilie driving the boat . . .


. . . and quacking her Wacky Quacker

Then we came back on shore and headed back to “Ride the Ducks”. As we disembarked, we were met by a member of the staff who was holding photos . . . we ended up purchasing the folder which had a 5x7 of the whole tour group on the boat (seen above), a 5x7 of the family and 2 wallet size pics ---- all for the low low price of $20.

I was miserable in my wet clothing, so we headed back to the condo and I changed . . . then we headed out to get some dinner at a restaurant called The Rails (which was not my favorite) then we continued the golf theme with a game of indoor (and air conditioned ) putt-putt at Grand Country Square.



After being beaten by the golf master himself (Mike ALWAYS wins ) we headed back to the condo for a swim and to try and get some sleep . . . The kids upstairs were even worse that night though and around 1am, Mike finally went up and knocked on their door and told (not asked) the parents to tell their kids to be quiet. They were fairly quiet until around 4am when the noise started up again . . . I can’t believe these kids were still up at that time!!! The oldest kid was MAYBE 14 . . . even so, kids gotta sleep!

Thankfully, though, that night’s sleep was much better than the night before!

COMING UP NEXT: A trip back to the 1880’s . . . at Silver Dollar City!!!

[Colexis Mom]

More great updates Sarah Sorry you didn't make it to Chicage and had to go to Branson instead Great pictures

[DawnDenise]

Sorry you had to go to Branson instead of Chicago! At least you got some great deals at the outlets! Love the snowglobe! More great pictures as always!!

[lauren-roxy]

Great update Sarah!! Sorry you missed out on Chicago. Sounds like you are having a pretty good time though!!