Long, Strange Trip: St. Louis with Pictures

8/5

It was St. Louis day, and with it came the eagerly awaited St. Louis Cardinals baseball game (Paul). The family was woken up around 7 and everyone was moving almost as soon as their eyes opened. Breakfast was provided for us but we didn't have much time to enjoy it as we were on the road by 7:45. It was a four and a half hour drive to our hotel in Missouri and in that time we managed to watch our last redbox movie Jack Reacher. The plan was to make it to the Hotel, check in and head to the Zoo. Doing this all in a timely fashion would be necessary to help us make it to the 6:00pm baseball game. The hotel was very nice which surprisingly I had become accustomed to but we had major problems parking the car with the bulky “Thule” on top. After a precarious crawl through an underground parking lot with myself directing we finally managed to park the car with only minor scratches and a couple of bumps. That was after the zoo, though. The St. Louis Zoo is one of the top ten zoo’s in America, what that means I don’t know but after walking through it I agree. Finn and Paul were almost in a state of shock, for them the zoo was the pinnacle of the trip, it wouldn’t have mattered to them whether we went straight home after today. It is free and very big, broken into five or six smaller regions with different attractions and exhibits. We still managed to see everything of interest in a three hour stay. Some of my favorite animals I saw there were the Takins, which only live in Western China, a Snow Leopard, Okapi’s, a Green Anaconda (a truly massive specimen), a Malayan Sun bear and the Silverback Gorilla’s acting so human it was almost scary. There were many more animals not found in Maine zoos and the amount of critically endangered animals was both heartening and worrying. We left the zoo around 4pm and headed for dinner. Paul and my dad left straight for the stadium at four as a hopeful Paul eagerly planned on getting autographs. My mom, Finn, and I ate at a brew pub in the hotel and had wonderful food, but a bit overpriced like most hotel restaurants. When we arrived at our seats at Busch Stadium, right before the national anthem, we discovered Paul and dad were not there. When they finally did arrive moments before first pitch they claimed it was the first time they had been to their seats. It was worth it though as Paul got his Cardinals hat signed and a picture taken with a Cardinal’s coach. Paul had gone into the large crowd by himself and waited the two hours patiently and he was ecstatic. I was happy for him even though I was disappointed my dad didn’t remember to give Paul my hat to have autographed as well. It’s ok though it’s too nice of a hat to be ruined by pen ink anyway. The game went by a lot slower than the Giants game but had more action. It was another pitcher’s duel and the final score was 3-2 Dodgers. I was most excited to see player phenom from Cuba, right fielder Yuisel Puig. He had one booming hit and also showed off his incredible arm, gunning down a player at the plate. Our seats were just behind the right field wall, a huge improvement from the Giants game but the crowd was slightly more lackluster, though bigger. After the game, Finn and I helped ourselves to massive frozen yogurts on our way home and back at the hotel, watched Rocky 3, sadly, the first time I had seen a Rocky movie. Our rollout couch was comfortable and I dreaded camping the next day but it was a jam packed day and coming home was starting to feel more and more realistic.

Editor's Note:
Paul was very excited for the Cardinal's game. As Silas has stated, Paul and I skipped dinner to get to the field early. Fortunately, the stadium was within walking distance of to the hotel and we were dropped off on the way there. We arrived an hour and a half prior to the game and went right down to the Cardinal's dugout. Unfortunately, the Dodgers were already in to their batting practice and there no Cardinal players to be seen. We did get great views of Don Mattingly, Mark McGuire and Davey Lopes, all Dodger coaches but meaningless to Paul. Just prior to gametime, the Cardinal mascot came over to give Paul a fist bump and First Base Coach, Chris Maloney, of the Cardinals came out and signed Paul's hat and took a picture with him. He was very excited. The night would only have been better if the Cardinal's won.