Once again we slept in a little. We got up about 9:00, had a good breakfast. We talked to the concierge about what to do. He suggested the Budweiser tour (even though we had kids and weren't big drinkers he said it was fun...and free). My Dad and Grandpa (he has passed away) are big beer fans, so I thought it might be fun to go on the tour. We got to see a few of the Budwesier Clydesdale horses.
After looking at the horses we went into a room that had a couple of the old wagons that used to parades and stuff.
The tour took us through how and where they make their beer. We went into several different buildings and several different floors. To see one part of the process we had to take 6 continuous flights of escalators. This, of course, was Marc's favorite part of the tour.
At the end of the tour they took us to a room where we could have up to 2 free beers (Marc had 1 and I had none), free soda pop, and free pretzels. Even though we are not beer drinks, it was neat to see the process they take to make their beer.
After the tour we headed to the arch.
Daddy had to take this cute picture of Marc "pushing" the arch up.
We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes for our turn to go up in the arch. As we waited they came by and gave us cards to tell us what part of the tram we were to sit in. Marc was the keeper of our Red #5 cards.
The ride was 4 minutes up and 3 minutes down. They say that if you are claustrophobic not to go in the tram (which is more like an elevator) becasue they cram 5 people into 1 pod. This is a sample they have next to the ticket counter so you can see if you will freak out.
Once you get up there it is really cool. You can feel that the floor is slanted (since it is an arch). There are little windows for you to look out.
We have been in the Sears Tower, which we think is taller, but it was really cool to think about the fact that you were standing in the top of an arch 630 feet off the ground!
After some dinner we decided to walk around and explore some. This is a fountain that was across the street from our hotel. The building in the background is our hotel. Our hotel was inside of Union Station.
While we were walking around we found another fountain.....but the water was pink. Someone told us that the weekend we left was the weekend for their local Relay for Life walk, so that is why we think the water was dyed pink.
After wandering around outside the hotel, we decided to explore Union Station. Inside Union Station there is a mall, a Hard Rock Cafe, Landry's Seafood Restaurant, and a few other things. We found a train car in the mall, so we took a picture.
We also found a spot where they had painted a part of the wall to look like the platform in Harry Potter.
Inside of Union Station there were paddle boats you could rent and go around the small pond inside the building. Samantha sat between us and kept wanting to help Daddy steer the paddle boat. When Marc put his hand back on the steering handle, Samantha hit him untilk he moved his hand. I guess I better hide the car keys. ;)
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Just in case you haven't been there before.....there is a big tree house with a table and dishes for tea parties. Samantha didn't quite understand the concept of pretend. Everytime Grandma gave her a "drink" she really wanted a drink of something. Marc had a lot of fun playing restaurant.
There is also a large sandbox (they call it a rock quarry) where they have shovels and pails and stuff but there are also "bones" burried in the sand box that the kids and use brushes to uncover. Samantha wasn't sure what to think. She liked wiggling her toes in it, but when we sat her down in it, she wasn't quite so sure.
There is water in the shape of the Great Lakes. They have lots of different boats for the kids to push through the water. When it is hot, Marc likes to just get wet. It was cool this morning (low 60's) so he wasn't allowed to, he was not happy.
The kids had fun...I think Grandma did too. We were poor little Samantha out.
