Here is a picture of Ellie and me imitating the cardboard people while waiting in line to go up in the Gateway Arch
Me and Ellie imitating the cardboard people while waiting in line
On March 18th, we went to the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis. It was so cool and it really made me think about how people worked so hard to build this massive monument. It amazed me.
We had to wake up super early to get in line. Once we got there we got in line on the north tram side. After a few minutes they announced people could get in line on the south side, so our family and a few other families started to run toward the south end. Stella, Ellie, and me started to race these three other boys and Ellie outran them. (We were proud of her!) Luckily, we beat the rush and got in line pretty quickly.
Being at the top of the arch was SO beast. I don’t have any other words to describe it. That pretty much sums it up.
Back down in the visitor center, we saw an awesome video on how the arch was made. Then, in the museum, Dad gave us an incredibly brief tour of Louis & Clark’s expedition. Then we left and took this really cool picture of the Gateway Arch:
An interesting view of the arch
It was a really cool experience!!! 🙂
The City Museum was fun. I loved climbing in the tunnels. It was a great experience for me and my family.
On St. Patrick’s Day I went to the City Museum in St. Louis, MO. It was seriously amazing. Everything was made of recycled parts–cranes, planes, castles, an old log cabin, and so many other crazy things. There were so many places to explore and discover and, in a full day, a person couldn’t explore half of it. The museum was ten stories tall and there was everything you could imagine, including a real school bus hanging off the roof!
Outside, in a big jungle gym of tunnels, paths, and walkways, I went in the scariest passage. It was a round metal mesh tunnel that slanted diagonally upward over an old airplane that was way high in the sky (maybe 80 feet above the ground). As I climbed, I could see the ground, and the people all looked ants. It was fun and terrifying. You could see everything from above because the rods of the tunnel were far enough apart to see everything through them, including my family taking a picture of me. Here is the picture:
The girl at the top of the curve is me!
Luckily I am not afraid of heights!
I did a lot of exploring on my own. I went inside a huge whale, climbed through the trunk of a tree, ran on a hamster wheel, and so much more. After awhile I noticed that most places I went, there were these two boys there too. The three of us explored for a little bit, and in a big dark maze I ran into the one named Luke. I had a big (luckily not very noticeable) bruise on my head. Also, I destroyed my knee on the hamster wheel. I looked very graceful by the end of the day.
I had lots of fun at the museum and it was unlike anything I have ever experienced. I got some really cool handmade shoelaces from a shop in the museum to remember the day. If you are ever in St. Louis, check it out! 🙂
At the City Museum it was really fun. I felt so great when we got there and I thought it was just going to be papers that you have to read, but it actually wasn’t. It was really cool. There was a ten story slide, but I was too scared to go. So I went down a two story slide with my dad. It went straight all the way to the bottom. There were a lot of spinning things along the slide and you could spin them as you go. It was very very very fun. In a flash I was all the way down. Then I went again.
Halfway Down a Two-Story Slide
We went up stairs and we watched a circus. It was very fun.
There was a big room on the first floor of the museum. There was a big whale. It was a slide and full of tunnels for little people like me and it was very big. There were so many tunnels in the big room. Some were small and some were big. Some were like climbing up tree branches. At the top was a scary part, squeezed between the ceiling and a big wood barrel. I felt like my shoe was going to fall off, and then I finally crossed it. There was a big tank of turtles and big fish in the big room.
My favorite part of the City Museum was the cave. There were lots of holes. I loved going down in the tunnels. I think the cave was made for little people.
March 17 was St. Patricks Day and our first full day in St. Louis. We went to the coolest place I have ever been, which was the City Museum.
Outside, in front of the museum, was a huge maze of tunnels and walkways. They were made of wires, airplanes, metal plates, trees, firetrucks, cranes, even a castle building. There was one walkway really high up in the air made from the arm of a construction crane, and attached below it was a really small, tight tunnel-ish thing. It was long and seemed like it was meant for only kids and I was sure I would never go in it because it looked really scary, but I saw a grown woman squeeze through it and I decided I had to go. So Ellie and I decided we would go through it together. Here is a picture of me looking very horrified and Ellie looking thrilled:
Me and Ellie under the crane walkway
I climbed through it as best I could, but when people walked above me, the whole walkway shook. I tried to look below me, but the tunnel was so small that my body covered up the whole bottom and I couldn’t see. I was kind of glad, though, because if I had looked down, I would want to get out and I would be trapped. I was happy I went in it. It was really fun even though it was terrifying.
The inside of the museum was just as cool, if not cooler. There was a whole cave which you had to navigate through to get to a slide ten stories tall. In the cave there were so many nooks and crannies that it was impossible to go through all of them. Near the beginning of the cave, there was a big path to the outside. Along that were two animal mouths and above that was a passageway enclosed by teeth. Ellie, Ana, and I crammed inside the animal mouth and Dad took our picture:
Me, Ellie, and Ana in a mouth in The Cave
I was surprised the picture would turn out so well since it was very dark. But it turned out great. Being in the animal mouth wasn’t so great, though. The ceiling was very low and rough. I scraped my back and head on it plenty of times, just as I did in all the tunnels throughout the rest of the cave.
There was a main room in the cave. There was a pretty rock with colored lights shining on it. Water dripped from above and the ceiling was open so you could see way up. A floor above that was a railing so you could look down into the main room, but when you looked up, you could see ten stories above to the top of the slide. To me, it didn’t look like a slide–it looked more like a bunch of winding stairs. I wasn’t very eager to climb up to the top. Once I did though, I was glad. The slide went round and around and around, all the way down. It was kind of rough and made me dizzy the first time. Later, though, Ellie, Dad, and I climbed up the stair workout again. When we were almost up, right before the top, some mean boys kicked dried paint onto Ellie and my heads. It made me really mad at them because it was stuck in my hair. But as I spiraled down the slide I forgot all about it. It was much better than the first time because I didn’t go as fast or get as dizzy.
We had so much fun at the museum. At least I did–read on to find out how my sisters felt about it.
On Wednesday, March 16, we left Louisville. Me and my sisters were sitting at the table in the RV on our way into St. Louis. We were playing a game of Tripoly when Dad said, “Girls, in about 15 minutes, I am going to say, ‘Come up here,’ and I want you to come sit on the couch and buckle up.” About 15 minutes later, Dad said, “Okay, come up here now!” I rushed up and grabbed the front seat on the couch because I guessed it was a very important thing. Then Dad pointed out the window and said, “Do you notice anything different about this city?” I looked out the front window and said, “Well, there is a big curvy thing over that building!” I was joking around because I didn’t actually think that was what he was talking about.
Looking across the Mississippi River at the Arch
Then Dad said, “Remember in The Lightning Thief when Percy was up in the Arch in St. Louis with the thingamagig monster and there was a big hole blown in it and Percy jumped out into the water and met the water-angel-thingies for the first time?” I raised my eyebrow and looked at him weirdly. But I said, “Yes, I remember. That’s so cool!” I thought it was really fascinating and a couple days later I felt like Percy when I went in it! But that is another story…
One day in Louisville, my family and I went to help pack glasses at my Grandmom’s business.
Girls Packing Glasses for Grandmom
When we got there, Pam taught us how to pack the glasses in bubble-wrap. My mom took all the glasses out of the first case. Greta set each glass in bubble-wrap and taped the sides, then I taped one end and stuffed the bubble-wrap inside the top. Stella and Ana did the same on the other side of the table. Then my dad took the finished glasses and set them in a box. It went on like this for four hours. We got to take a break and look around. Then we went back to wrapping glasses.
It was fun, because I got to help my Grandmom in her business and learned how factories work.
On Saturday, March 12, I started my online schooling. At first I was on the wrong level, but then I shifted up and it was actually pretty fun. We had sandwiches for lunch and then around 1:PM we got a phone call from my aunt Holly and cousin Carson. Carson was driving on the interstate and suddenly had to stop and a truck crashed into them from behind. The back of their car was bashed in, but they were fine. They were really lucky. They got a ride to my grandparents house and wanted to play laser tag. On the way, me, Stella, Ellie, Grandmom, and Aunt Holly played Uno in the RV.
We played two games of laser tag. The first game we played was a team game. My family and I were on the red team. When we started, I ran around for a while but always had to go back to the base to recharge. I tried to go to my favorite hiding spot on the first floor, but a bunch of people on the green team were hiding there. The game was in two rounds and the green team won both times. The second game we played was a free for all, so we were all working against each other. I hid in my hiding spot and got lots of points because no one found me. In the second round, I ran smack into Stella and then we both shot at each other for a long time. My grandmom is amazing at laser tag. No one seems to find her and she gets tons of points. She won the first round, and my dad won the second. After laser tag, we were exhausted, hot, and sweaty, but it was worth it because it was really fun.
We drove to a Cracker Barrel for dinner where we met my Uncle Randy and cousin Sam. I had a delicious salad. After dinner, we showed Randy and Sam the RV. We played Uno on the way home, too. When we got home, we put our tired bodies to bed.
It was really, really cool that we got to spend a day with all my dad’s side of the family and it felt really special. I really enjoyed our day together, and I am so glad they didn’t get hurt in the car accident.
March 10th was my dad’s birthday. I was with my granddad, grandmom, my mom, dad, Greta, Stella, and Ellie. We went to Butt Rubb BBQ in Lexington, KY. It was really nice. We did not know that we were going to go to a restaurant with such a funny name. We went there because we wanted some burgoo. My grandfather told us that it was squirrel soup. He is always really funny. I got a BBQ sandwich.
Ice Cream at the Pie Kitchen
Then we went to the Pie Kitchen in Louisville. It took a long time to get there and I took a little snooze. Ellie fell asleep, too. Once we got there I whispered in her ear, “Pie Kitchen.” She woke up and then I got birthday party ice cream. We all sat down at the table and ate our ice cream. It was really fun. Then we went to Grandmom and Granddad’s and went to bed. And now my story is all told.