Sara visits!

Sara flew in on Monday to spend a few days. I was so excited to host my first official STL visitor! Of course we headed to the Arch first. It was a beautiful day but the Arch was PACKED with people. I guess I haven't seen the July vacation crowd there before. We went up to the top of the Arch, although Sara didn't enjoy the elevator ride up very much. It is in these teeny tiny pods, and takes several minutes of going up, then racheting over and going up some more.

Here's a picture of Sara with the Arch in the background.

A view of the Mississippi river and the Illinios river side. Note the trees that are STILL under water from the flooding.

Here's a view of downtown STL from the Arch.

The next day we went to Grant's Farm. This was the homestead of President Grant, and is maintained by the Anheuser Busch company. There are many animals, the original cabin that the Grant family lived in, and the Clydesdales that are the Anheuser Busch tradition.

Pretty macaws!

A Giant Tortoise racing towards us! I can't wait to see these in the wild when we go to Galapagos Islands next year.

Baby deer...

Baby Clydesdales...

Two eagles that I swear looked like they were carrying on a conversation.

This is a capybara, which is the largest known rodent species. They are basically very large rats!

Our visit to Grant's farm was disrupted by my car decided that it was time to blow the AC compressor. So, we had to wait on a tow truck and stand around in the parking lot on a VERY hot day. Fortunately, the car was pretty quickly back in commission and we were on our way to the Budweiser brewery for their tour. Here's one of the many buildings at the Budweiser brewery plant. This isthe original brewery and has several historical buildings, including an old public school right there on the property!

Big grown up Clydesdales, one of the ones that draws the carriage.

Budweiser carriage in the stable. This stable was not your typical stable, but includes stain glass windows and a solid brass chandelier that was displayed at the St. Louis World's Fair! These are some very well maintained horses!

We had a great time with Sara and she got to see several of the local sites, as well as have some great food at area restaurants. She and Mark's dog, Lucy, became the best of friends...hopefully Hailey won't be too jealous!