Honeymoon- Day 3

After another round with the defective shower, and a breakfast of homemade lemon-blueberry muffins we packed, Patrick & I headed to the St. Louis Zoo. Parking was expensive so we walked after parking along a street about a .5-1 mile stroll away. We left our water bottle in the car since we were worried about it being confiscated at the gate, but apparently there is no gate, admission- nothing. (We left our water bottle in the car at the City Museum too, to find that there was no inspection. Granted if we had brought it, Murphy's Law says the story would be different.) The day was lovely and around 70 degrees, so Murphy's Law also suggests it is unsurprising that I had very dark blue jeans on, a gray cardigan, a black shirt, and no sunblock (yup- I got burned) since most of our honeymoon was projected to be cold, wet weather and that was all I had packed. Kind of kept the day from being comfortable and my attitude from being as upbeat, but we still enjoyed seeing the animals. A few are pictured below!

This snake cage was in a corner, so Patrick took a picture on one side of the glass of me looking through the other side.

Both the male and female lion are behind us, if you look more closely.

The brochure we got said what times certain animals got feedings, so we could watch if we wanted. We arrived not long before the sea lion feeding, which was really awesome. We asked the worker afterward if this particular sea lion always liked to sit here for her feedings (I think her name was something like Zeek). He said they promote organization/order, so she always sits on this rock. (The others were sort of treading water in their own places throughout the pool.) I think all of them were around 15 years old. If you click on this photo, you'll notice the fish in mid-air above Zeek's mouth. After picking up the fish, she liked to toss it in the air and catch it!

We needed a snack, so we stopped at a Ben & Jerry's ice cream treat stand for a bite to eat!

This penguin pen just had a waist-high wall separating us. They were sooooo close, I could have pet the thing were I a little taller and less obedient!

There was a momma & baby giraffe (one came to visit the sidelines here) and an ostrich in this cage.)

The hippo swam by the wall of glass- got the picture just in time, and luckily none of the million kids crowding me got their heads in the way of this shot!

Momma & baby elephant (its butt!) in the background!

Before leaving, we got a picture together in front of a cute fountain. That would have been awesome if it was a real elephant, but alas, no.

Not long after we arrived at the zoo, we got lunch in a cafeteria on the grounds. When we went to pay for the food, we realized Patrick's credit card was unaccounted for. We suspected it may have been left at Schlafly's the night before when he paid for dinner. However, when Patrick called the restaurant to check, he was told he'd have to wait 'til the evening to find out, since the manager wouldn't be in until then. That's pretty stressful, but since that seemed the only logical explanation, we tried to stay calm the rest of the day.

After the zoo, we traveled to St. Charles (about a 30 minute drive NE of St. Louis) and checked in to a brand new Holiday Inn in an industrial district. The grounds weren't impressive (non-landscaped land/ unfinished parking lot), but the hotel was really clean/nice. We picked a random restaurant on the main street of the historical downtown area to eat dinner, where I ordered a drink that tasted really, really strange, and had to ask for something else as a replacement. But luckily the food was quite delicious, and the weather was still mild enough to walk to a little cafe/bistro to get cheesecake-to-go for dessert. We almost stopped for a ghost tour by the historical society, but decided to just go back to the hotel since we didn't have coats and could tell it would get chilly (plus we'd probably be a little scared). :) But we watched Monsters vs. Aliens and Skyped with my family in the hotel before my sister Courtney left for BASIC training the next day, so it was a fairly relaxing night. Oh- and Patrick was able to call again about his credit card, and found out it was indeed there, thank goodness!