St. Louis

I'm finally posting about our trip to St. Louis... it was really fun.  I was sick the whole time with a killer sore throat/cold but I drugged up everyday and had a good time.

Here are my boys on the plane ~

Dinner in the hotel the first night (Tuesday)

Wednesday we had planned to go to Six Flags but we were in the middle of a monsoon and it was closed.  I felt really terrible so I was a little relieved, but disappointed for Matthew.  Instead we headed over to the arch.  It was right across the street from our hotel which was neat.  Like I said it was raining really hard so we were the only ones around.

 The Mississippi river was flooding.  It was kinda cool to see.  We were glad we were up the hill from it.

 The water was completely covering the road.

 There's a museum underneath the arch so we wandered through it and saw some movies about Lewis & Clark and the making of the arch.  We weren't able to get tickets for Wed. to go up the arch but bought them for Thursday.  Wed. afternoon Matthew and Kurt were needed to help on the robot so mom and I went to a couple movies.  "Water for Elephants" and "The Conspirator"  Both excellent.

Thursday Matthew and Kurt were with the robot all day so mom and I made plans to site see.  Super fun!  The first house we saw belonged to the Campbell family.  They were one of the wealthiest families in St. Louis before the Civil War.  What was so cool about the house was they had most of the original furnishings and decorations from pre-Civil War.  COOL!  It was just mom and me with our tour guide and she did a great job answering questions.  We were there for quite a while.

This is the front of the house.  They bought the lot next to it so they could have a yard.  Otherwise the houses were just lined up right next to each other. 

 This is the side of the house.  There were over 30 rooms.  It's so skinny in the front because you were taxed on how wide your house was looking at it from the front.  It could be as tall or as long as you wanted.  Funny huh?

 Here are a few pics of inside the house.  Very cool.  We were told that clutter meant you were well-to-do and they would have had more nick-knacks.  Woa. 

 Because they could afford it, Mr. Campbell wanted all the latest technology which meant they had running water.  Unfortunately they got their water straight from the Mississippi river without filtering carrying disease, through led pipes.  The couple had 13 children and only 3 lived past the age of 7!  Many were born with birth defects that we now know can be caused by led poisoning.  SO sad.  My heart broke for that mother.

 Original carriage in the carriage house.  I love this stuff!

 Next we headed up the street to Scott Joplin's house.  He only lived here a couple years but it was neat to see.  They had a short film about his life and some of his things.  Again it was just my mom and me, until a man dressed as a woman walked in.  He was with us on the short tour so we were a little distracted.  He was very nice though, I felt bad for him, it was awkward talking to him like he was a woman but obviously a man.

 

 Next we drove out to the country to President Ulysses S. Grant's home.  It was actually his father-in-law's home.  He and his wife lived here in the 1850's.  He attended West Point Academy but didn't want to being the military, going against his father's wishes.  His wife's father was pro-slavery and Grant was against it.  This often caused contention between them and Julia (Grant's wife) was put in the middle.  When a recession hit Ulysses went back to his father and the military, eventually becoming General then President. 

The yellow building was the museum, the red building was their barn.

 After that we hurried back to the hotel so we could go up in the arch.  I think this was the coolest thing we got to do.  Those 2 tiny people are Kurt and Matt - just so you can get some perspective on how tall it is.

 You ride up the arch in a little pod, and there's 8 hooked together making a little train.  Here's Matthew sitting in ours.  They fit (sort of) 5 people... super squished!

 When we got to the top we walked up these stairs to the windows.

 And here we are! 

 The view was awesome.  Our hotel is the U shaped building in the bottom right corner.

 The flooded river from straight up.

 Heading back down...

 Here you see how big (or little) the door to the pod was.

My dad flew in Thursday night.  Friday was spent at the competition.

 Our pit ~

Rumor was that Morgan Freeman was there.  He was wandering around the pits talking to teams but we could never catch a glimpse of him.  That is until he came upstairs when we were having a team meeting and my friend yelled for me to "hurry up!  He's right over there!"  So we joined the crowd following him and his guards.  He was smiling and shaking hands but never stopped walking.  Pretty soon my friend and I saw that mom was at the front of the crowd shaking his hand!  HAHA  she out-ran us all!

We didn't find out til we were there, but the Black Eyed Peas were giving an exclusive concert for the robotics kids Friday night.  When I heard this I was desperate for a ticket.  Our team ended up with enough so we were able to go.  Oh it was fun.  Will.i.am actually was making a television special about FIRST (the robotics organization - For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) so there were camera's and a host and everything.  It airs August 14, 7 pm on ABC.  Watch it!  You might see us!  Our seats were incredible.

Matt and his friends Adam and Jake walking to the concert with us~

 Waiting for it to start.  See how close we were?  AWESOME!

 Kurt wasn't exactly as excited as me...  (he's reading his book) but he said he had fun.  haha

 The whole group sang about 3 or 4 songs.

 Then Will.i.am came out by himself in his "robot suit" and played his own mix of music.  Super cool.

 Saturday was a LONG day.  Up early to save seats for our division finals ~

 After the winning alliance had won out walked Morgan Freeman again.  He talked to us telling us how much fun he was having.

Here is the Einstein field ready for the main finals and closing ceremonies. 

 On our way back to the airport...  we ran into the guys driving the trailer.  Matthew created the logo the team uses so to see it on the trailer is pretty special.  I think he had a great last year after 4 years on the team.  And we had a great time in St. Louis!  I'm so glad my parent's got to be there and experience it with Matthew his senior year.