Mini Vacation 1

For our lovely three year anniversay, we took a little mini-vacation.

We usually alternate between Chicago and St. Louis for these little trips. This year, after much hemming and hawing and thinking and planning we went ahead and decided on St. Louis. Close to MY "neck of the woods". When we go to MY town, I drive. I leave the Chicago driving to Mike. And then I lean my seat back and stare at the headliner...

Anyway, we booked our hotel on Priceline. I neglected to call back and ask for any specifics (as in, King bed, non-smoking (since I'm a non-smoker now).

After "one beer" on Thursday night before leaving (where a great time was had by all, I think) - we woke up later than anticipated on Friday morning to leave for our trip. As it turns out, that was a blessing in disguise because - for the second time in a week, St. Louis got smashed by storms. Half a million people in the area were without power. We were the lucky ones that did have power while we where in St. Louis. We arrived to find two people stuck in the parking garage elevator. We heard shouting as we were gliding down to the earth and couldn't figure it out what was going on. A disgruntled customer? A fight? Just as we stepped out the elevator we heard even more shouting: "You guys need to get that f---ing thing fixed." (Wave of hand, snap of fingers.) You give 'em hell, girl!!

I tell Mike: "We will not be riding in that elevator. Ever." Mike christened it the "death elevator".

We end up following the gentleman who had been riding in the death elevator. As we were walking, he proceeded to tell us of the goings on in Illinois that day that we somehow had missed while driving through. Whew!! Thank you! Thank you five (or was it six?) pitchers of beer!!

I assumed everyone in my family was fine (they'd call me, right?) and we headed into the hotel lobby. Holy $hit!!!! We lucked out and arrived in St. Louis the very weekend of the National PartyLite convention!!! Gaggles of ladies abound!! My husband had no idea what PartyLite was. "Is it for kids?" he asked. I explained to him that they have these great candles that liquify...Really. Does it matter? To him probably not. What matters to him is that he finds 50 women in line for his Starbucks inside his hotel.

We check in and I see a PartyLiter go storming off grumbling: "@#$%. They've overbooked this hotel...grumble...grumble" So, as I'm checking in and notice my room number - I don't say a word.


Just in case you don't believe me and think that I took a random photo of some "other" room - I took this photo, too.


Inside the room, I notice that we have double beds. No big deal really. Mike doesn't find it worth complaining about and neither do I. There are people without power!! There are PartyLiters without rooms!! We settle in and Mike goes downstairs for a smoke. I shout after him: "Take your cell phone! What if you get stuck in an elevator!?!?!?"

So, I'm lounging around reading some St. Louis attractions magazine thingy and I get a call from Hubbo. He's stuck. In an emergency exit. He saw groups of ladies trying to get on the elevator and went down the stairs. Only he couldn't get out. Finally, someone came by and opened his door from the other side. Poor guy!!

In the meantime, I'm taking photos of two of my favorite things about St. Louis:

Ahhhhh, I love St. Louis!!!

To be continued....