Wanderlust - St. Louis

Every couple of months I start to feel the need to travel. It doesn’t matter where I go. I just have to go somewhere. A couple of things you should know about the way I travel 1) I am always on a budget. 2) I never make plans too far in advance. 3) I always take my two boys (now 7 & 9). 4) I love to see and do new things. 5) My husband usually doesn’t travel with my kids and I. With that said one of my favorite types of trips is the car trip. I totally enjoy driving for hours to somewhere I have never been before, singing songs from the 70‘s, and smoking….if I hadn’t given it up 15 years ago. That to me is freedom! Now that I have a mini van with a built in DVD player and my kids are a little older, I am totally in heaven. So the kids will never know what a real pig looks like :)

With that said let me get to the interesting stuff. One of my favorite driving trips was the one to St. Louis. Who knew??? But I am here to tell you that St. Louis is such a great city for kids. It is also very budget friendly. I think it took about 5 hours to drive there. On this particular trip my husband did join us. I booked a hotel through either hotwire or priceline. We got a great deal $64 per night (3 years ago) in the St. Louis Union Station Marriott. Our room overlooked the mall area, which was cool. The hotel has an outdoor pool that we couldn’t use because it was still too cold out. We stayed for 3 nights but we could have easily spent another 4 nights.

My all time favorite museum geared for kids of all ages is the City Museum. It is a bit pricey if you add in the aquarium. So unless they have changed the aquarium section within the City Museum I would suggest skipping it. Check the internet and some of the travel magazines, you might find a coupon for a couple of $$ off admission, this is true for all of the places in St. Louis. The City Museum is soooo amazing! We got there when it opened and we were the last ones to leave. Go on a day when you can spend some time in the outdoor area. Check out their website because I don’t know how to describe it properly.

We went to the Arch and rode to the top. That was neat and I would do it again. The Saint Louis Zoo was nice but it took a while to find parking. It was the first nice weekend so everyone had the same zoo idea. The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum is the best I have ever been to and I have been to a lot of Children’s Museums. The Butterfly House is huge and definitely worth a visit. 

One night we ate at Fitz's American Grill and Bottling Works. They brew both beer and root beer. You can see the brewing area from the restaurant. I had found 2 coupons for free ice cream floats. They let us use both coupons and brought us two floats that were as big as my head. Another night we went to Crown Candy Kitchen for ice cream sundaes. It is an old candy shop that opened in 1913 and still looks that same. I love that kind of stuff.

There are a ton of things to do that we skipped because we didn’t have enough time or our kids were a bit too young.

Here are some of the other sites and activities that we didn’t have time for Six Flags St. Louis, Steinberg Rink in Forest Park, Riverfront and KATY trails, Miniature Museum of Greater St. Louis, Grant’s Farm, Purina Farms, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, and the Missouri Botanical Garden.

St. Louis has a lot of free kid friendly places such as the Saint Louis Science Center, Missouri History Museum, Saint Louis Art Museum, Grant’s Farm, Saint Louis Zoo, Purina Farms, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, and the Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour.

If you have taken your kids to St. Louis, please share.
Do you know of a great driving trip from Chicago?
Want to hear about more great driving trips from Chicago?

February Kidwinks Prize

The February Kidwinks Prize, a new child’s bedroom design, was awarded to Sarah in Des Plaines. Her 4-year-old son, Matthew, needed a bedroom makeover and their wishes had come true – they won, but what would it be like? Would Matthew think his new room looked cool, or would he want his old one back?

Before

Affordable Interiors owner Deborah Oberschelp arrived at the home and told Matthew he was in for a big treat, but he would have to stay busy in another room for most of the day until his big surprise. He was a willing participant and played happily with his mom all the long hours of waiting.

Finally Deborah was ready to reveal the finished room. All eyes were on Matthew as Deborah led him down the hallway to his new digs, his hands over his eyes. At the count of 3, Deborah asked him to look, and Matthew began to jump up and down, and around in circles, shouting “I love it, I love it!” What a great day for the family.

Deborah chose a racecar theme. She transformed the room by

¨ Moving furniture to the right spot

¨ Removing clutter

¨ Replacing old strawberry curtains with a custom car & checkered-flag valance

¨ Adding a custom checkered-flag pillow to the bed

¨ Painting a racetrack around the perimeter of the room

¨ Painting a red rectangle frame on the wall to showcase 3 hubcabs hung as wall art

¨ Arranging Matthew’s car-&-truck collection on shelves to complete the theme

What a difference a great design makes! These photos show Matthew’s room before and after the makeover, and Matthew and mom’s happy faces. Congratulations Matthew, and to Deborah on a job well done!

For children’s rooms and more designs that reflect your style and respect your budget, see www.selectredesign.com and contact Deborah for information.

After