Before Liam begins his mission, we tried to squeeze a quick, random trip. Random it was!
Friday/Saturday - Dale Hallow Lake, KY
Sunday/Monday - Evansville/Santa Clause, IN
Tuesday/Wednesday - St. Louis, MO
Liam and Tipton were not excited about this adventure and showed it most of the time. It was hard to be patient and not want to strangle them over their attitude. I had to keep reminding myself that this was our last time together with the family, just us, for a long time. Something I understand may not be appreciated by them for many years.
DALE HOLLOW LAKE
This was a beautiful state park up in the hills of Kentucky. It was this camp resort that was on a huge lake. We actually didn't camp but stayed in the "resort" which was like a hotel. It was glamping. :) We got in our mini-golf, hiking (that Tipton and Liam refused to join), and a day on the lake. We rented jet skis! It was the highlight. Liam was a scary driver but I think everyone had a good time.
Our hotel hidden in the hills.
We were in both Tennessee and Kentucky at the same time!
Marshall had been complaining about the bugs (they were awful) and finally Daddy just sprayed it all over his face...then it got in his eyes. Marshall wasn't any happier. That's the unhappy look.
Synchronized, rock skipping!
After two days, we drove on to Indiana.
HOLIDAY WORLD
Now we were speaking the older boys' language. Holiday World is in Santa Clause, IN, and is a water park and theme park combined. I didn't get many pictures because we stayed in the water park area almost the entire time (I also had schoolwork.) I think we only saw Liam and Tipton for about 30 minutes of the day. They stayed in the theme park most of the time. It wasn't busy at all. The boys' favorite part about the park...free, unlimited soft drinks! They peed so much!
Holiday World was such a fun place. It had different themes like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Halloween. The water park had a safari theme. The rides in the water park were very family-friendly and unlike other water park rides. It was a great time! It makes top on our list of them/water parks.
ST. LOUIS
Our first stop was the zoo. St. Louis has an area where the World's Fair Park was once held, and they now converted it into a massive park with museums and a zoo. All are FREE admission! It was a massive zoo. The boys don't
love the zoo but it was still pretty cool and you can't complain when it's free.
It started to rain for a little bit and we had to take shelter to the closest building...the snake house. Not my favorite place! It makes me very queasy.
It was a nice visit after a day in the car. I took tons of pictures, the zoo was huge.
The next day we went to see The Arch. We wanted to go up, but with COVID restrictions reservations had to be booked far in advance and we couldn't all go up together. We had to pass. However, it was a very cool museum, and the arch is HUGE. Much larger than you realize.
The Arch Museum was underground with a very cool layout. It had a section on the Latter-day Saints that had to pass through Missouri. They even had a copy of one of the first Book of Mormons.
The national park is located right downtown. We were hoping to try and go to a Cardinal's game, but it was too late at night and we had a long drive the next day. So we looked at other options to do for the day...more parks. We headed to the home of Ulysses S. Grant. This was probably one of Jarom's favorite stops. This too was a National Park and we had a very informative tour guide.
Then right down the road, we went to another park owned by Budweiser. This also was previously part of the Grant farm and bought by the Anheuser Busch family. They created a massive park that has a mini zoo, restaurants, and the famous Clydesdale horses. They were the biggest horses I have ever seen. Their legs were as long as Liam! The highlight though...feeding the goats!
The goats were so funny and entertaining. Even the older boys couldn't resist getting in the gate and hanging out.
Afterward, Marshall said he wanted to be a farmer! That's lots of hard work. However, we agreed we would all love to have some goats.
Now we couldn't be in Missouri and not experience some BBQ. They are known for their St. Louis BBQ and though we don't usually do much of the "food experience" we couldn't pass this one up. We stopped at a place called Heavy Smoke BBQ in St. Peters, MO. I don't know how Jarom found it but it was delicious. They had all these different sauces to try too. The boys liked the blueberry BBQ sauce. Their main sauce was delicious too. The potatoes salad was YUMMY! We left that place completely stuffed!
It may not have been our top vacation in the history of the Smartt Family Vacations, but it was still a family memory to put in the books. One that will probably be our last for a long time with all the kids. I am grateful that we even get to enjoy these little trips and moments. Liam and Tipton survived, and we didn't kill each other. So long St. Louis!
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