Fishing and St Louis

My life seems to get busier by the minute. I cannot believe how fast the summer went by and I'm not sure fall is going to hang around long.

A couple weeks ago we took the boys to a stocked pond not far from our home. It was a family fishing day. Eli got to reel in his first fish, a perch. Dylan had the privilege of catching and reeling in a bass. Without exaggeration, I would say 3.5 lb and maybe 17 inches long...maybe bigger! The smile on his face is unforgettable. Fishing for kids is not so much fun...until they catch them...then they just want to keep trying.

Last weekend we took a trip to St. Louis. We like going up there but would definitely not want the big city life. At least, not that one. There is so much to see and do and much of it is not too expensive. We went to "The Hill" to eat at Mama Campisi's. I have to say I was not impressed. Don't get me wrong the food was good, but just not great. The service was mediocre. We called ahead and the lady was just not as friendly as you would expect a hostess. When we got there we had to wait almost 5 minutes before anyone even greeted us. And, NO, they weren't busy. We got seated and no one asked us if we needed a high chair or a booster. Within minutes Eli fell out of his seat and on his head. I quickly took him to the car and we got our booster seat out of the trunk. It was fortunate we still had it in there. They brought us our water but only brought 3 and said, "Do you need an extra?" I'm thinking, extra, there are 4 of us. How about do you need enough for each of you to have a drink. Oh, wait...I guess in there business the kids don't count. They brought us some bread but had to be asked to refill it. We had to set our drinks on the edge of the table so the waiter could see they were empty. When our main dish finally came, the portions were small for the price. The food was good, but when Chris got to the middle of his lasagna...it was cold. We didn't want to say anything because we had waited forever to get the food in the first place. The kids were ready to go. After all the other tables of people left, the waiter said "It was a pleasure serving you today." He didn't do that for us. We weren't difficult, we asked for nothing special, our kids were excellent, and we were very polite. I guess it's just the fact that we brought our kids into a nice restaurant. Well, you can rest assure, we won't visit Mama Campisi's again. The last time we were there we went to Zia's. Despite the long wait, the food and service was great at Zia's.

Friday morning we visited the Arch which I actually endured quite well despite my tendencies toward claustrophobia. We then found free parking for a tour at Busch Stadium which was really cool. The boys enjoyed most of it even if they didn't understand it all. Friday night we went to a Cardinals game. Our seats were a little high and we couldn't see part of the outfield, but we got to enjoy the majority of the game. The boys enjoyed watching the major league and when they got restless we just gave them snacks which we were allowed to bring into the park without hassle. They have a family friendly policy and they allow you to bring any food items in a soft cooler and any drink items in a plastic bottle. That was a huge money saver for us.

Saturday we visited the zoo, free to all and we even found free parking not too far to walk. That day the sea lion show was free so we enjoyed it, also. We ate a small snack of french fries. They did give us a large portion but charged the usual outlandish price. Good thing we just needed a snack.

On the way home we stopped and ate at Five Guys and Fries. Their food is fresh, never frozen and pretty delicious I would say. The boys scarfed down their cheeseburger in no time and then didn't sleep a wink until 30 minutes away from home. It worked well, though! We played outside a little, took baths, and got them into bed early for church on Sunday.

St Louis is a definite replay for us. Next time we're going to try the City Museum and the Magic House. We hear both are fun for all.