Too Much Rain At The Meramac and St.Louis

Heath and her cousin signed up for a 26 mile river race and started practicing in the kayak on some nearby lakes.

The kids and I decided to go and cheer them on. Of course we also planned some other fun. I took off a Friday and the kids and I headed out really early that morning. We drove to Meramac Caverns and grabbed a really nice campsite just off the river.

We setup quick and just enough to reserve the spot then got to the office just in time for our float.We rode a bus upriver and got dropped off with 1 other raft.

It was not real hot and not real sunny but we had a great time jumping off the raft, playing with a ball, swiming, sliding on the raft upside down into the water and all sorts of stuff. .

We had a little picnic lunch on the shore.

It started to rain and we got under the raft a bit. It stopped raining and started and lightning and thunder and all. We waited out the storm a bit in a little shelter but eventually just ignored it and floated on.

It was still raining when we floated into camp so dried off and put on our warmest clothes then went for a cave tour.

It was a bit too pricey but a good way to get out of the rain and it was pretty cool.

Some of it was pretty cheesy but the kids liked it .

It was done raining when we got out so we headed to camp and did more of the setup and Peanut got us a nice fire going.

We cooked some brauts for dinner and made a cobbler for dessert and just played around the fire all evening. Late that night Heath and her aunt, uncle and cousin showed up. It was late and they all had an early morning so we all went to bed pretty quick.

We were trying out our new dark tent 

It was really dark at night and in the morning I slept in really late.

Heath got up at 6 for the race but the rest of us all slept in until the thunder woke us. A lot of our stuff was still wet from the day before but we hurriedly started packing wet and dry stuff into the van. Heath texted the race was canceled for storms and got back soon after. We decided to go get breakfast in town and see what happened. After breakfast we bought some towels and headed back to camp. It stopped raining and the sun came out. After packing up all our stuff we took showers and drove into St. Louis. Our first stop was Grant’s farm.

We rode the trolley in

And saw the animals

and had our complimentary drinks

We also reminisced on the last times we had been there.
2019

2014

2011

2005

We also ate a whole bag of peanuts and figured out where we were going to stay that night.

Then we drove downtown and went to dinner at one of our favorite pizza places Pi.

Then we wondered the city

Eventually we headed to the hotel and got to bed. Bean was the first up and I took her for a walk then we all had some breakfast and checked out and went back downtown to get in line for the City Museum.

This place was great. It was cheaper then the cave tour and took all day and left me sore for a couple days. everyone loved it and could have spent the whole weekend exploring it. Here are some pictures but a lot of it is just too dark or cramped or crazy to get a picture of.

We were so hungry when we got out we went right for Mexican.

Then headed home but got hungry again and stopped for ice cream.

Then we had a lot of wet camping gear to hang and put away. It was raining Sunday also so the roof and outside section of the City Museum was closed so we just need to go back and do it again really soon. KC is the best but St.L is pretty darn fun.