Solo Trip to St. Louis

A couple of weeks ago I had several days off in a row so I decided to go somewhere, anywhere. I asked around questioning my friends where I should go and while they all gave me great ideas it was something my mom said that inspired me. I asked her where to go and we chatted back and forth and then as the subject was nearly dropped out of the blue she goes, "There's a lot to do in Missouri!" This struck me as kind of an odd statement because all I knew about Missouri was that it had the Gateway Arch but I was intrigued so I looked into it. And the more I looked the more I saw.  

The one the only, Gateway Arch! What a beautiful photo right? You'd never know that it was freezing that day. Ha.

I think the hardest part of this trip was the drive there. Nearly 5 hours of me alone in my car.  I played podcasts, listened to music, screamed because I could, and generally felt a little insane. But finally, I arrived at St. Louis. The first thing I did was walk along the mural mile.

I'll always remember the mural mile as such a contradictory place.

The front of the murals has artwork with tags partially obscuring the art and the back is all tags and a great expanse of what feels like a construction zone. It's really day and night when you look at the front versus the back of the murals. The front feels like what you are supposed to see, what everyone expects. The back feels like the wild wild west where anything could happen, full of nicks and crannies.

Very seldom do you see something so raw and human like the mural miles.

City garden sculpture park. Fun fact this head is in fact hollow and I did go inside!

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One of the few photos I have from an amazing day.

The mural mile was great and all but my favorite thing was during the trip was when I went to City Museum. It's amazing! Sadly I don't have many photos or videos of it because I was trying to enjoy myself.
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The city museum is a crazy cool place! There were so many things to climb, and look at, and touch. It's perfect for me. This is an absolute must experience! If I'm ever in the area again I am stopping by for sure.

​When you enter the first thing you see is this cave-like structure and you crawl in and then you just keep going up and around and discovering all these neat little hidey-holes until you climb so far you're in this wood like area with branches and slides and then you keep going and suddenly you're in an arcade. And just outside of the arcade are the most amazing chairs I've ever seen in the world. They're like a top. You sit in them and dip and spin around. I now have a fierce desire to own one of those chairs! But I digress.

​If you keep climbing up city museum you'll find an Egyptian area and then you look out the window and discover there's a whole new world outside ready to explore. So you make your way outside and you climb and slide and you pretend to fly a plane. And then when you're ready to leave if you're like me, you top it all off by going down the 10 story slide.


City museum you and I shall meet again! I don't know when but this I swear.

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City garden sculpture park.

Now you may be thinking, "Surely she's done adventuring?" "Nah, that ain't me." 

There's one thing constantly driving me forward... Curiosity. I have to know what's out there. I have to understand. I don't know why, but I do. I crave the new and exciting and I feel lost when I'm stagnant. I have trouble sitting still even when I know rest is good for me. Which is how I found myself out in the cold admiring the lights at Missouri Botanical Garden in December. I may have been shivering but I had to admit, It was a really nice show. I appreciated the puns they made with the 12 days of Christmas song. Overall a very pretty light display.

Missouri Botanical Garden (Glow).

My adventuring spirit may have not wanted to quit but I did eventually have to go home.​ On my way out of town, there was one last thing I wanted to see. ​Laumeier Sculpture Park. Sadly unlike the City Museum, there were far fewer things that I was allowed to climb on.

Turns out my mom was right. There's lots to do in Missouri after all! 
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Have you been to Missouri? What was your favorite part?