Kevin left U-M to take a job at Washington University in St. Louis in 1996, returning to Ann Arbor in 2000. During those four years, we had a lot of good times in and fell in love with St. Louis. Unbelievably, though, our last trip there was September 2001. I remember staying with Kevin's friend Keith, eating Pointer's chicken pizza and watching Michigan football lose yet another September game (this time at Washington). It's hard to believe that we let 10 years go by before returning.The Easter holiday offered the perfect opportunity to head back there, if only for one day. We typically head to Kevin's parents' house for Easter and did so again this year. We arrived Friday and got the boys all settled and then hit up St. Louis all day Saturday. We got some of that chicken pizza and ate it on Wash U's Brookings Quad. We made our way around campus with Kevin saying every two seconds "well, THAT wasn't here before" and scored some new gear at the bookstore.
We drove through Kevin's old neighborhood and also drove past all the places we used to hang out (Forest Park, Union Station, Cathedral, etc.). We then headed downtown for the Cardinals game. It was the first time we would see the new Busch Stadium so we splurged for some good seats. We had to endure a brief rain delay but that just afforded Kevin some time to finally get the Cardinals hat he's been wanting! Although the Cardinals did lose to the Reds (the rivalry grows), we did see a Pujols HR. After the game, we headed down to the riverfront to take way too many pictures of the Arch and to check out (again) the high water mark from the flood of 1993. That still freaks me out!
Well not totally a St. Louis tradition, we did have to hit up the Cheesecake Factory on the way home for a piece of Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake. It was an interesting day, a day filled with lots of good memories but also some regrets. We felt like those four years flew by and we didn't enjoy St. Louis quite enough. But, we'll try to make up for that by taking the boys there for our 2012 summer vacation - we know they'll love it just as much as we do.
