Babymoon in St louis, MO

This was our second time around ronggeng2 in St Louis (but first time with the baby). We had in mind a few places to visit: St Louis Zoo, Missouri Botanical Garden and Gateway Arch (at night). But it was so hot during the day and humid too. I could only walk for 3 straight hours and then need to get some food, and go back to the hotel for a rest/nap.

Saturday:
We left quite late around 10am. We thought that since the zoo is only 15 mins away from the hotel, it won't take us that long to get there (even with the traffic). I was so pumped up to see the animals. Heard from the Msians in KC that the zoo is awesome.
Well.. we actually got stucked in the traffic (bumper to bumper) after exited the highway because there were so many people headed to the zoo. And also the fact that it was Memorial weekends and the admission to the zoo is free. Took us 2 looonggg hours to find a parking spot, and by the time we entered the zoo, it was scorching hot!
Fortunately there were so many trees and shades around the zoo. And we brought energy drinks and snacks, so it wasn't that bad.

The first animal we saw was this large Macau. I remembered this bird from Irfan's book :)

Some of the animals were sleeping/resting around this hour. Not much action to see. But I was amazed to see some of the animals that I had never seen before, like how huge the hippopotumus is, jaguar vs. cheetah (I still couldn't tell the different), hyena (which I remembered from the Lion King) and how playful the grizzly bear is.

Amin loved to watch the elephants. He was amazed on how they used their trunks to smell, grab some grass and get the water to shower his body.

Sleepy grizzly bear.

Me at a fake cave.

We left the zoo around 3.30pm. We managed to cover half of the zoo only. Headed to Cafe Lazeez for lunch.
I ordered some fried chicken while Amin got a beef burger.

Sunday:
We planned to leave early this time. I still wanted to go back to the zoo and finished up the tour before going to the Botanical Garden. We saw giraffe, camels , snakes, birds, kangaroos, orang utan and many more. We also went to the souvenir store before we left.

Me trying these silly animal hats.

I was tired already by the time we left the zoo. I didn't feel like going to the Botanical Garden anymore since it is another large place with a lot of ground to cover. I didn't think I could make it 1/2 way huhu..

So we went to Hot n Sour for lunch and afterward we walked around at the nearby mall.

I got a fried rice while Amin ordered a kebab pita sandwich.

That night, we went to St Louis downtown to see the Gateway Arch at night. But they closed the sidewalk parking space, and the only way to park the car was at the parking garage. We didn't want to pay for the parking since we were just going to be there for a while and the place was quite dark. So Amin just drove around there, and then he drove around the city.

We stopped at the City Garden Park, which is a small art park in the middle of St Louis downtown area. It was so beautiful at night with all the lights and fountains. But by the time we got there around 10.15pm, the park was already closed.

Monday:
We left the hotel around 11am, heading back to KC. It was overall a very relaxing trip. Not sure when we would be able to go on another trip somewhere, but if this is the last one for this year, then I am perfectly content ;)