The adventure began at 11:30 a.m. central time, Friday, March 19th, 2010. I gobbled up my lunch (it was weird eating with the A lunchers), grabbed my suitcase, and headed out to the bus. Once we finally got everything and everyone loaded, we began our journey southward. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Annabelle Randall. We talked, laughed, did some homework, played B.S. with Addison, Kelly, and Kelsey, and watched some awesome movies, such as: Pirates of the Caribbean, Up (very cute movie :), and Transformers. We stopped in Iowa City to do a little shopping and stretch out our cramped limbs. After that, we drove for a couple more hours and then stopped for some dinner. I ate at Sonic, and it was really good! I'd never been there before and it was cool to eat at a drive in/walk in restaurant. Although I think the waitress wasn't too happy with us, she had to serve about 50 rowdy high school kids :S We finally got to the Drury Inn and about 10 p.m. I was expecting a nice hotel but this certainly exceeded my expectations!! It was 7 floors!! We went swimming, and you could swim under a flap and go from the indoor pool to the outdoor one. Who woulda thunk?? Swimming outside in March! We were pooped from our long day of travels but somehow me and my roomies (Taylor Peek and Annabelle) stayed up til midnightish watching the Suite Life of Zach and Cody.
We were rudely awoken at 7 a.m. by the blaring of the phone. I was extremely irritated and answered with a sleepy "Helloo?" "Good morning!" Came the voice of our chaperone. "May I ask who I'm speaking with? It took me about 5 seconds to comprehend to register what she said, adn then another 2 seconds to figure out how to answer. It's still a mystery to me why she felt the need to wake us up an hour and a half before we needed to leave!?! But we ate a yummy breakfast of sausage, biscuits n gravy, eggs, cereal, and juice and set off for our first activity. The orchestra and band played a couple songs at the Washington University. I wasn't awake and so the whole process seemed to take muchhhh longer than it needed to. If it would be possible to fall asleep while playing an instrument, I would've done it. Next stop: Walk of Fame. I didn't pay much attention to the stars beneath my feet (because there were stores and statues-potential Kodak moments-lining the sidewalk) but I did happen to see a couple famous names I recognized like: Dred Scott, Miles Davis, and Tina Turner.
Then we were off to the Hard Rock Cafe at Union Station! I was excited because I'd heard nothing but good things about the restaurant. And I wasn't disappointed, the food was delicious! I wanted to get something at the gift shop but having inherited my dad's bargain-itis, I didn't see anything worth spending $25 on.
Now you can't go to St. Louis without going to the Gateway Arch, which is where we went next. The Gateway Arch is 630 ft tall and started being built in 1963 and was completed in 1965. The reason for its construction was for a nationwide contest for a monument honoring westward expansion and the pioneers. In case you were wondering :) The little sphere-shaped enclosement that took you up to the top was very small, and I fear that if a claoustrophobic person ever went up there they might have a heart attack. But I liked it! We got to the top and it was a really spectacular view of the city. Kelly and a local adult took an interesting picture together ("butt" let's just say, the other person didn't know it) We decided to be bold so we asked Mr. Gepson if we could go on a horse drawn carriage ride instead of going to the arch museum. Surprisingly, he said yes just as long as I called him and told him when we'd be back. So we went around a couple blocks and saw some lovely sights for half an hour.
Next up was the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was extremely fancy and really big, plus the spaghetti was top notch. Even if we did have to wait 45 minutes for it. Which actually created an interesting twist in our next activity-the symphony orchestra concert. Most of us were plum exhausted and just wanted to sleep but we were outvoted. By Mr. Gepson. The bus drivers had to step on it to to get there before the doors closed. He had to park a couple blocks away and all us band/orchestra students in our fancy clothes ran down the sidewalks all the way. We received many laughs and a glare or two from passerby's. Most likely thinking, "They're obviously Minnesotans." We made it just in time and noisely settled into our seats. (Apparantly we got a couple complaints about our entrance) It was 2 1/2 hours of music. 2 1/2 hours. 2 1/2 hours!!! Don't get me wrong, it was really pretty and I would've enjoyed it if I wouldn't have been so sleep deprived. I decided to catch up on some sleep, falling asleep twice. Once back at the hotel, as soon as the T.V. was shut off I was out within 2 minutes.
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