Greetings from St. Louis! It's a chilly, overcast day, but we are having a great time anyway. We arrived yesterday afternoon about 3:30 p.m. and checked in to our B&B (pictured above). It's called Napoleon's Retreat and it's very near LaFayette Park, which was the original city park of Old St. Louis. It's an old historic neighborhood, and the building we are staying in was built in 1880. The street is beautiful, and we are within blocks of several great restaurants, including the place where the wedding reception will be held tonight, even though we totally didn't plan it that way.
For dinner, we ate at a cute little Italian place called Ricardo's. The walls were painted to make it look like you were eating outside in a Tuscan village, so it was a fun place, and the food was really good. We walked down the street to a place called Bailey's Chocolate Bar. Vicki, I may have to bring you here for your birthday next year. It was UNBELIEVABLE! Jeff and I shared a hot fudge brownie with carmelized bananas, Bailey's ice cream, chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, hot caramel, and whipped cream. :)

This morning we slept in until almost 9:00, something I haven't done since I can't even remember. My body took Bryant's place and woke me up at 5:00, but I rejected it and went back to sleep. We had blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast and then were off to the Gateway Arch. We had tickets to ride the tram at 11:00, and we almost didn't make it because we failed to read the fine print that suggested arriving 30 minutes early to get through all the security measures. Whoops!

Once we arrived, we went down a set of stairways until we were in a very small, claustrophobic hallway. The ticket lady told us to stand in front of door number 8. When the door opened, we were faced with a scene straight out of Mork and Mindy. We literally climbed into an egg with three strangers, in order to begin our ascent to the top. This was not the most comfortable thing I've ever done, and I think our three companions felt the same way.

After a few minutes, our egg cracked back open and we exited into an even more claustrophobic stairway. The top of the arch is just a little hallway with windows on either side, so you can see the Missouri River and Illinois out one side and downtown St. Louis on the other, including the new Busch Stadium, home of the World Series winning Cardinals.

After coming back down, we wandered around the Museum of Westward Expansion for a little while. Lots of reading, but some interesting things to see. Then we headed out to the Old Courthouse, which is where the famous Dred Scott court case began back in the 1800's. The Rotunda of the building is amazing, and it's neat to stand in a place with such historical significance.

Afterwards, we went to find the bakery that my friend Ericka (whose wedding we are here for) has owned for the past year or so. I'm SO PROUD of her for having her own bakery. She started off making cookies and cakes out of her home kitchen, and she now owns her very own bakery and has actual employees. This is just so cool. Her bakery is called the cakery, and we very much enjoyed getting to see it and taste some of her cookies while we were there.

We had lunch at a Mexican place called Arecilia's, and now we're back at the B&B watching some football before getting ready to go to the wedding. It's been an incredibly relaxing and fun weekend, and I can't wait to see my beautiful friend begin a new life tonight. Congratulations Ericka and Kevin!