The St Louis Trip

We took a quick day day trip to St Louis this past Christmas week.  The reason to go was for the purchase of a beautiful canoe through a Craigslist transaction.  We turned it into a mini-vacation that included a few museums.

Our first day was the Science Center.  It was amazing,

and just perfect for our crew of kids.  

  Number 2 Kiddo really liked the hydraulic excavator assembly.  He caught on real quick.  It must be all those heavy equipment videos we've watched in the past.

Chillin' out while watching a space video.

The next day, we visited the City Museum near the downtown of St Louis.  This is certainly a parent's worst nightmare, with little tunnels, caves, and tight spaces to navigate through.  But it was also a ton of fun for the kids.

There area a few museum-ish things, but they aren't as much fun for the kids.  Was this building a bank in its former glory?  I don't know.

More and more climbing.  We arrived at this museum early in the morning, and left right at closing time of 5pm.  We were all pretty bushed.  Our knees and backs ached.

On our last morning, we went to the zoo.  It was a cool and breezy day, and we took multiple rides in the carousel.  Kids had their favorite animals.  Kiddo #3 is on his river otter.

And here is Kiddo #1 on her favorite wart hog.

After the zoo, I met a new friend as we worked our canoe transaction.  He helped us tie the canoe to the top of the Honda van, and made sure we were safe to travel.  I wish we could have spent more time to talk and learn from him.

After a very breezy and gusty trip home through the flat plains of Illinois, we made it home safely.  And here is the beautiful blue canoe.  It is made by Swift (out of Canada).  

The model is called the Winisk.  I reckon it's named 

after the river in northern Canada, eh?

It is very well constructed, and has been meticulously maintained for the last 17 years.  It is in immaculate condition as these pictures show.

 This kevlar canoe is 17.5 feet long weighs in the 53 to 55 pound arena.  It looks very comfortable and I can't wait to try it out in the spring.

What beautiful crafsmanship.  Just look at this scalloped portaging yoke.  It looks like a piece of art!

Overall, I'm very pleased.  It was the perfect ending 

to a fun St Louis trip!