Day 62

Day 62: 7/18/15 (St. Louis)

29 miles

After a long day celebrating with Shannon and Kevin, we slept in until 10am and slowly got ourselves ready for the day.  The original plan was to head out to Mammoth Cave National Park, our next destination, but we switched things up and stayed in St Louis for another night.  The Santamarias had one last get together at Panera before people started heading home.  We drove over to the hotel to pick up Rico’s Aunt Susan and Uncle John and bring them to Panera and then to the airport afterwards.  Most of the family was there, though a few were already on an airplane towards their home cities.  After breakfast, Rico headed to the airport with his Aunt, Uncle, and one of the bridesmaids.  Jillian headed back to the house with the others so everyone headed to the airport would have more room in the car.

Kevin, Ari, and the kids headed to the St Louis zoo, and we thought about joining them once Rico was back, but we got caught up in apartment hunting (once again).  We decided to head over to the Soulard Market which was just a 2-minute walk from the house.  It was full of produce, seafood, and sweets.  We picked up some mini donuts, and strawberries and blueberries that were $1 per package – can’t beat that!  When we were back at the house, we made the decision to stay for the night and take advantage of internet access.  We planned out the rest of our trip and made a few camping reservations for the next few places we’d be camping.  We also found a few apartments and one place that we really loved – everything was included in the rent and there was no extra charge for our kitty. 

After sorting out some things, we jumped in the car and headed downtown.  We stopped at the Hard Rock to pick up sticks, a grocery store for dinner stuff, and a liquor store to find some Wild Blue (the beer we found in Houston).  We got a bunch of veggies, some rice, and a rotisserie chicken for dinner.  We cooked up everything and had enough leftovers to take with us for our first night back in a tent.  The rest of the night was spent going through all of the pictures and videos from the wedding.  It was fun to see all the candid photos we captured and the videos from the party bus.  Everyone went to bed shortly after, but Jillian stayed up trying to sort through the photos and post them on Facebook so Shannon would be able to see them.  Around 2am she finally went to bed.

Fact:

The Soulard Market has been operating since 1779

Lesson:
You get what you pay for when it comes to cheap produce (eat ASAP)

Eat Well; Travel Often

Rico & Jillian