An explosive weekend

This weekend was our St. Louis trip, and I have to say, if we had traveled down there for no other reason than to catch the fireworks show framed by the Gateway Arch, it would have been worth it.

And what a trip it was: in fact, we were lucky to reach St. Louis at all, let alone in time for our riverboat tour reservations. We were delayed by this:

This minor setback was a tire blowout that occurred around mile 17 of Interstate 55 - so we were a little under 20 miles from our destination when the left rear tire decided it wanted to disintegrate.

Luckily Dave's parents' AAA account works for him, because it was fixed and we were on the road again in time to get to St. Louis, check in at our hotel and get the tire fixed, all in time for our riverboat tour.

Incidentally, our hotel (the Renaissance Grand downtown) was gorgeous - both in decor and view. Not only was the room furnished beautifully, but we had a corner room and a view of the Arch!

On our first day, we also went up the arch, where we got some good shots of the city. After dinner, we caught a free concert and a fireworks display on the greens below the Arch. Dave and I both agreed that it was the most beautiful fireworks display either of us had ever seen!

The next day, we checked out several of the free attractions the St. Louis area has to offer, including the Gerhardt Richter collection at the St. Louis Art Museum, a free tour & two free beers at the Anheuser-Busch brewery, and hiking at Cahokia Mounds.

Here are my adorable little dashboard buddies with the Arch behind them!

On our way back through Illinois, we stopped to visit the Bloomington folks, as well as my retired professor, Dr. Don Davis, who was kind enough not only to buy lunch for Dave & I, but to give me a copy of his book!

Speaking of reading, I forgot to mention that we finished listening to my first book on CD over the trip: "Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown. It was enjoyable, but not as good as his other books, and the people in this book seemed much dumber than his other works.

We also stopped by my parents' house to pick up the bunnies, and we had some good clean fun with Diet Coke and Mentos, pictures to follow. (For some reason Blogger isn't letting me load more than three.)

So, not only did fireworks explode this weekend, but so did our tire - and, of course, the 2-liter of Diet Coke.