Weekend in Review: Melissa's Visit

This past weekend my college friend Melissa came into town... but before she got here I did a couple of things.

On Friday during the day Lindsey and I got lunch at our favorite Thai place - The King and I.  Then we went down and made an appointment to get tattoos in a couple of weeks.  I'll talk more about the whats and whys at a later time... but know this - I'm already nervous!

After that we went by Target because I needed to grab a couple of pillows for Melissa.  I have like one extra pillow in the house... so figured it was probably time to get something.  After that I went home and cleaned and baked my bread.

Melissa got to my house around 4 - she came in from Des Moines.  I actually went and visited her last year.  We mostly hung around Friday night and chatted and reconnected.  I forced her to watch the Cardinals win the NLCS to go onto the World Series (um, craziness!)

Saturday was our packed full STL day.  First we started off with breakfast at Benton Park Cafe.  Then we headed to the zoo.  It was a wonderful day to be there.  My amazing sister let me borrow her Zoo Friends ID so I could get free parking.  She also gave us some free tickets to the Sea Lion show.  It was nice to not have to worry about where to park!

The animals were all out and the weather was crispy, but not too cold.  We got to see a bunch of animals up close which was really fun!  A lot of the apes were out so I took and sent Lindsey a bunch of photos.

Mel took this pic - I remember his name is Robbie

Ok, not an ape picture - but I took it for Dan

We also went to see the sea lion show.  It was a lot of fun - wasn't too long but really neat seeing them up close doing fun things!

After the show we hit the gift shop and made Melissa a smashed penny we met my mom over at the Missouri Botanical Garden.  We wanted to go there since the rare Corpse Flower had bloomed.  This plant produces a flower rarely and without much warning.  Their flower also smells like a dead corpse rotting (which attracts bugs to pollinate them) They are very unpredictable... we've had a couple of them bloom here in St. Louis but for one reason or another we weren't able to get to see them (the blooming period doesn't last long).  Even with this one we saw, it was no longer smelly... which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing.  Either way we were happy to see this crazy plant - the size of the flower reminds me of something out of Jumangi!

Good pic to show size

The holes were cut on the light green part for pollination purposes

The yellow part collapsed earlier than "normal" however these plants really don't do anything "normal"

We hung around there for awhile to hear the botanist (I think) talk about the plant and then we checked out the rest of the Gardens.  I hadn't been in awhile so it was nice to see all the different things.  Although I will say I was starting to get tired of being on my feet :).

Climatron

Red water for the Cardinals

Japanese Garden

When we were done walking around the Garden we decided to get some lunch.  We tried 3 Monkey, but much like Mother's Day they had something going on so we ended up at City Diner.  Which tasted wonderful!

When we were done with food we said goodbye to my mom.  I drove Melissa around downtown to see things like the Arch, Busch Stadium and Union Station. 

Then we ended up going to the City Museum.  (side note: just realized their slogan is 'always building' how appropriate!)  I hadn't been here in quite a long time - so a lot had changed.  That place is so neat - it takes a really creative mind to come up with that stuff.  There's nooks and crannies of places to crawl, climb and explore.  Really though, I'm not sure how people don't get more hurt, but whatever... It's just so artsy.  You could go there every day and still find something new.  I'm not sure how to express just how amazing this place is!  Although I will say I don't want to crawl in some places b/c I don't like to feel like I'm going to get stuck, but it's still so much fun... and makes me wish I was younger, more nimble and more fearless.

Outdoor area

Mel in the ball pit - I got smacked in the face while in there... stupid teenagers

I thought this was funny - they have a whole museum of archetectual pieces that were salvaged

Mel on the iguana in the caves

We also went down a few slides including their 10 Story slide!  It was a lot of fun (except the walk up to that 10 story slide, that wasn't as fun haha)

We ended the night by coming back to my house and watching Something Borrowed on TV.

Sunday morning we got breakfast at Steak n Shake (she doesn't have them in Des Moines).  Then she headed back up... it was really great having her and hanging out... reminiscing about the old times.

The rest of Sunday I mostly cleaned and did laundry and relaxed my achy muscles.  I think next year I'll head up and visit her... maybe around fair time again :).