Auld Lang Syne – 2018
Ringing in the New Year with friends
I’ll keep this post short and simple. For New Years Andrew and I decided we had to take advantage of the sorta long weekend (Andrew got the Monday and Tuesday off, and I got the Tuesday off). We made the 4 hour trek across Missouri to St Louis and met up with one of our friends Sara (who lives in Northern Illinois – but St Louis served as a great half-ish way point!) and her boyfriend Jubal.
This trip was more or less a repeat of our trip in June, but with different friends and much different weather! We started off our visit to the best museum in the country – the City Museum! … which is less of a museum and more of a giant jungle gym death trap made out of old construction materials complete with a 10 story slide! If you make it there, our favorite slide (we deemed the ‘drop slide’) can be found just behind the entrance opposite the giant whale, although it is a little bit of a tight squeeze to get back out once you’re at the bottom, but totally worth it.
The next day we decided to hit up the zoo (free). Despite the near freezing temperatures, the animals were surprisingly active, especially the penguins! Another highlight of our trip was a visit to the brewery lights at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery complete with a free beer, a photo with a Clydesdale and of course lots of lights! (There was ice skating too, but the rink was small, and the area crowded so we opted not to partake.)
Our New Year’s Eve night itself was pretty chill, in the morning we checked out the Science Museum (free) which was a little overcrowded with small children, but otherwise nice. They had a neat ‘game’ section where we were able to play with some VR technology and play ping pong in a tube instead of on a table. After the museum we got lunch at Favazza’s located on the hill (basically little Italy of St Louis). Our waiter was everything you would expect of an Italian waiter and the food was amazing too! After a quick stop at the liquor store and Target we rang in the new year with an extensive game night in the hotel lobby. Not a bad way to close out the year if you ask me (and a lot cheaper, and less traffic compared to going out).
Total trip cost = $465.83
*cost includes gas, lodging, food and activities