Meet me in St. Louis, Louis!

Chem Family just returned from a whirlwind weekend in the Gateway City with GIH's extended family. But while I'm still early in the blogging process, should probably introduce the players:

CMG: Me, the ChemMomGoddess, mid-30s and slightly blonde
GIH: My Goddam Idiot Husband. Also a chemist.
SDG: Sweet Decent Guy, GIH's rarely-seen alter-ego. So rarely, in fact, that I don't think I've mentioned him to anybody in the past year. But that's a story for another time.
HH: Daughter #1, age 3-1/2, nickname "The Handful"
LB: Daughter #2, age 11-months (where does the time go?!), nickname "Midget"

So, like I said, we went to St Louis. Two days in the car, two days of family fun. Thank God for the video player. But I am a little tired of They Might Be Giants "Here Come the ABC's" at this point. Only things on the schedule were the zoo, the arch, and swimming in the pool. Of course, the Handful's favorite part was the swimming. Plenty of time to enjoy cultural experiences later in her life, right?

Highlights:
1) Our room had the most AMAZING view of the Arch! We stayed at the Radisson downtown, which I chose from my guide book because it offered suites. Turns out the suites were in the corner rooms. Ours faced the arch and was on the 27th floor. I'd attach my own picture, but it's easier just to grab this one from the Internet. That's legal, right?
2) Entire tab picked up by my MIL and FIL. Yes, that's three rooms for three nights apiece. Plus all meals and ticket costs. Must have cost at least $2K. Which sounds like a lot to me for just a weekend, but it made MIL happy.
3) A fabulous meal at Jake's Steaks on Laclede's Landing. We had our own private room, free appetizers (thanks to my BIL getting coupons from the hotel). I even had a glass of wine!

Lowlights:
1) Cardinals might not have been in town, but that didn't mean nothing was going on. The Race for the Cure took place in downtown StL on Saturday. We thought we were oh-so-smart for taking the Metro from downtown to the Zoo that morning. Realized our mistake when we arrived at the station amidst the mob of pink; took us an hour to get from downtown to Forest Park. Arrived at zoo at 11:30; so much for making it just a morning excursion.
2) Tried to swim Sunday before lunch but was too cold (outside on the 30th floor, go figure.) Came back to the room, tried to nurse Midget but she wouldn't have anything to do with me. So I sulked a bit and then decided to have some Chardonnay with my lunch. Almost got into it with waitress who brought me a glass of something red, Cabernet, I guess. Now really, how stupid do you have to be to make this mistake? And what she said to me was "well, we didn't have the Chardonnay so I brought you this." Honestly, if she'd brought me anything else white, I wouldn't have known the difference.
3) Having to deal with my own petty jealousy over the fact that I was in St Louis for 2 days while my sis was jet-setting off to Hong Kong for two weeks! First class, too; that really gets my goat.

Lessons learned:
1) Swanky hotels are really not designed for families with babies. Better off at a Residence Inn. Also, supposed to remember to pack basic safety supplies, like outlet plugs.
2) When taking public transportation to the zoo as a group (here group means 6 adults, 4 children under 5) ... don't bother with your own strollers. Just rent the ones at the zoo.
3) When left on his own, GIH/SDG really CAN pack the car by himself. I usually take over this task because I am super-picky about how it gets done. But I guess you don't have to be related to my father to do a good job at this!
4) FIL the Cubs fan will get *really pissed off* if you buy the kids something with a Cardinals logo on it.