St. Louis Science Center

Another sunny day and we decided to go to the Science Center in Forest Park. It was pretty interesting. It was a lot like the Science Museum in Minnesota but it had a fiew different things. It was more of a kids museum if anything but it was still a lot of fun. Steph and I got to run in a hamster wheel and we had the chance to be pilots in a plane. Stephanie took a couple nosedives into the ground but over all she did pretty good. ha thankfully it was computer-generated.

After the Science Center, we walked around the park. It was really cool to see all the people that used the park for exercize and relaxing and just enjoying the outdoors. The fountains were beautiful and there were a lot of dogs! It was a relaxing day and a good start to the four hour drive that we had ahead of us towards williamsburg, Iowa. We arrived at the hotel around 7:30 P.M and had just enough time to go to the Water Park for a little while. It was a great day. That picture is of Steph and I on the bridge that crosses the fountain area.

Julia :)

St. Louis Zoo

Today, we went to the St. Louis Zoo but before we went there we enjoyed an amazing breakfast with biscuits and gravy! It was free admittance but we each paid 10 dollars for an all access pass to the Children Zoo, Three 3-D movies, and a Sea Lion show. The Sea Lion show was closed until May but we did go to all three of the 3-D movies. The first movie was called an Animal Adventure and it was kind of disappointing. The movement was blurry and hard to watch. The second movie was the Extreme log ride and it was a "shaky chair ride" as we would say, but the seats moved and we couldn't tell if the kids in front of us were screaming because they were scared or if they were having fun. The next movie, Planet Earth, was very interesting for me, but for Stephanie and my dad not so much. At the end of the movie, I looked at my dad and he was just waking up, Stephanie was still a sleep! My dad said, " Did it get any better?" I said," Which part did you fall asleep in?"

"The part where the mom whale was with the little whale...." (a.k.a the very beginning )...

We did go to the children zoo, which was my favorite part, where we went to the petting zoo :) There was the Wild, The River, The Red Rocks, and the Children Zoo and all of them had some amazing animals. There were elephants, lions, tigers, and my personal favorite... the Kangaroo !! The Zoo closed at 5, so we went back to the hotel and relaxed and watch TV until we got hungry, where we went to the Chinese Express across the street from our hotel. It was good despite the looks of the place. I had 4 plates ! We came back and me and Steph went to the pool and the hot tub. mmmmm :) Then we went back up to the room and just sit and relaxed. It was a pretty great day and we all enjoyed it.

If you would like to see our pictures, go to the Photo Album on the left, click on St. Louis Pictures and check out what we've been doing!

Julia

Eventful Day In St. Louis 3/24/09

To start off our day, we went to the Lincoln Home National Historic Site ( a.k.a. the 16th President) or as Park Ranger Mike would have said, " The home of the man who represents freedom and democracy." The home is being preserved from 1860. As we were walking through the home, Stephanie (as curious as she is) proceeds to open a door in the home, that was claimed to be already "open" and sets of an alarm and lights start going off everywhere in the house. It was hilarious!

After the Lincoln home, we walked around the 4 blocks that are blocked off in Springfield, Illinois around the home. We spent about an hour there. We then drove for another hour and a half in a Pontiac Grand Prix (which my dad does not enjoy, by the way) to downtown St. Louis to see the amazing Gateway Arch! Its 630 feet up and was built in 1933 to 1935. Before we walked into the exhibits and to purchase tickets, we had to go through security where Stephanie, again, set off of an alarm going through the metal detector! She had a metal heart necklace on. We took "The Journey to the Top." It was a 4 minute ride up and a 3 minute ride down. Ha! The view was miraculous. On one side was the Mississippi River, which appears dirtier than it should be. On the other side was Downtown and Busch Stadium where the St. Louis Cardinals play. They werent lying when they said that there would be slight swaying at the top of the arch. Stephanie went white in the face when the swaying started, but I don't blame her because the swaying was freaky. It moved at least half of a foot and I don't think my dad enjoyed that much considering he was already afraid of heights. To end our night, we will be going to dinner and then to a St. Louis Blues hockey game! When we were about to go get tickets, a scalper tries to sell us tickets. We went inside of the arena and purchase better tickets and Stephanie was getting worried that the scalpers were going to get mad. She almost ran back to the car!

Over all, it was a pretty eventful day and we all enjoyed each other. There are a lot of pictures of the Lincoln Home but unfortunately my dads computer doesnt take my memory card :P

Written by,

Julia!

Heavenly

After a short five minute rain(the only rain of the trip), this beautiful rainbow appeared over hole 11 at the Jubilee Course in St. Andrews. Unfortunately it was not a sign from above for my golf game, I took a Double Bogey on the hole. Must have been distracted by the rainbow, I am sure it had nothing to do with the bunkers surrounding the hole.

St Andrews

We started our trip in St. Andrews. Our first day was exhausting with the flight to Newark and then to Edinburgh, taxi rides and the time difference. Quiet day once we were finally in St. Andrews, several naps and some walking round.

We stayed in a cute little B&B a block from the old course called The Bell Craig House and we were treated like kings by our lovely hostess Hazel. Every morning eating Bangers and Beans for breakfast along with fried eggs and Canadian Bacon. During the stay in St. Andrews I tried haggis, pigeon, deer, pheasant and anchovies.

We started our golf experience at Crail on Tuesday, beautiful course. On Wednesday we we able to golf the Old Course, it was pretty incredible. It was an amazing feeling coming over the bridge on number 18, and having an audience applaud as you approach the green and again once you sank your putt(mine happen to be a birdie). On Thursday we golfed The Jubilee, one of the other seven city courses in St. Andrews, and the only windy day we saw the entire trip. I heard the winds were in the 40's, and we had a 5 minute down pour. After golf, we visited St. Andrews castle, Cathedral and Abbey. And on Friday we golfed Scots Craig.

St. Andrews was a fun college town. We seem meet someone new every night, and always from a different part of Europe.

You can see more of my pictures in the Photo Album section on the left by clicking the "Scotland Pictures"link or read more about the trip by clicking on "Stan's Scotland Blog" and see how a real writer can write .

Leaving for Scotland

SCOTLAND GROUP: Leaving in two days with this group for almost two weeks of golf and tourist crap. Everything is set, extra shoes and socks, lots of clothing, credit card companies contacted to make sure they don't get suspicious and cut off the funds, pounds vs dollars, passport and guide to what is good to eat and what is not(Meals made in a Pig Stomach tops that listof whatnot to eat). Starting in St. Andrews golfing at Crail, then THE OLD COURSE and Jubilee. Then heading out and we will also be playing Peterhead, Scots Crail, Cruden Bay and Carnoustie. We will be there during St. Patricks day, and will assume being next to Ireland, that it should be fun. So far temps do not look good, mainly in the upper 40's. Good news though, only 1 day showing rain. In addition to golf, we will be taking a 2 day Whiskey/Castle tour visiting many of the Scotch Distilleries and Castles dotting the Northern coast. During the trip we have been invited to be the special guests at a friend of Danny's for dinner, note to self, bring guide of foods not to eat.