Road Trip Diary Day 5 St. Charles MO

Today was the first day that we let ourselves sleep in. Between all the hard-driving and the champagne last night, we needed it. We didn’t plan to do much in St. Louis, considering we stopped here only to see some good friends that just relocated here. We had already seen the Arch on the way in, so we decided to skip that and wander to the downtown St. Charles area and were pleasantly surprised.

Our day started off with Starbucks and the Beastie Boys (a potent combination) as we drove out to downtown. We were both pretty juiced up by our conversation the night before and our dreams started to get bigger. It’s like hearing the server’s story the night before tore down some of our mental barriers about what we couldn’t do and opened new doors. Before we knew it we were in downtown St. Charles and we set off for a stroll. We’ve always loved a good walk and it was a great way to get some clarity.

St. Charles was a quaint little downtown area. Main St. was filed with little specialty shops that sold teas, hot sauces, and household knick knacks that seem to be a favorite for every tourist. We learned that St. Charles was the original Capitol of Missouri for a short while. We visited the old Missouri River rail yard along the aptly named Riverside Drive. There wasn’t too much to see but Lauren and I enjoyed the day and each other’s company. The town streets were pretty quiet and the atmosphere reflective.
Towards the end of our walk we wanted a snack and came across the best little bakery. It was a place called Grandma’s Cookies. For less than five bucks Lauren and I had the most delicious cookies we can recall and a pint of milk.
We felt like grade school kids having an afternoon treat. After our snack and taking a few minutes to cool off from the summer heat we went back out and continued our scenic walk.
After checking out downtown we went back to the hotel to play with the doggies a bit and get ready for dinner. We found Zoe sleeping in her chair (the princess as usual) and Punkin waiting to greet us at the door. After a short nap and doggie time we went out to visit our friends for dinner.
We had a great evening playing with their new baby girl and had some good conversation. The excellent meal of stuffed pork loin was prepared by the “in-house” chef, and was accompanied by a few of the local craft beers. It’s always a wonder to me that with real friends, while you may have not seen them for years, the conversation picks up like it just left off the day before. After too short of a stay we packed it up and went back to the hotel so we could leave very early the next day to Colorado.