Sabbatical Part 7: The Voyage Home: St. Louis, Columbus and Cleveland
After our stop in Texas to visit one of M's friends, we were on the home stretch. The next destination was St. Louis. We'd stopped briefly for lunch in St. Louis on the way to New Mexico, but M wanted to make a longer visit to the city where she attended graduate school.
Monday, September 26 - Little Rock to St. Louis, MO. ~350 miles.
After a long and not terribly interesting drive to St. Louis, we checked into our AirBNB and met M's friend Marjorie and her dog Acorn for a takeout dinner in a local park as it got dark. M knows Marjorie's family, so after dinner we stopped by her parent's house to say hello and show off Birdie.
Tuesday, September 27
We slept in. Then we got up and went to the Missouri Botanical Garden. Fortunately, in the month since we'd last been in San Francisco it had cooled off substantially, so we had a very pleasant morning wandering the garden, including lunch at the on-site restaurant. The Botanical Garden is delightful. There's a very impressive children's garden that far outpaced the very nice one in Albuquerque. There's a test garden that showcases an incredible variety of plants suitable for local gardens. The Japanese garden was very nice, and had a bridge where you could feed the koi, which Birdie really enjoyed. There was a Turkish garden that felt much like my time in Spain. All-in-all, the Missouri Botanical Garden was quite possibly the nicest attraction we visited on our trip and I highly recommend it.
That night we had dinner again on the patio at The Boathouse.
Wednesday, September 28 - St. Louis to Columbus, OH. ~420 miles.
We met Marjorie for breakfast on the patio at Winslow's Table, which is the kind of hippie breakfast place that every credible college town should have. M had fond memories of it from grad school, and they did not disappoint. Sometimes, you can go back.
In order to tire Birdie out as much as possible before embarking on what would be the longest day of driving since our first day, and the longest stretch of consecutive driving, we took her to St. Louis Zoo in Forest Park. Regrettably, large parts of it were closed for some work, but we still got Birdie good and tired out looking at sea lions, assorted quadrupeds, bears and penguins. As a bonus, it's also free to enter.
And from there, it was a long and largely uninterrupted drive all the way to Columbus, Ohio, where we planned to stop for a few days to visit M's family. We stopped for food (Wendy's again) and gas. Otherwise, we only left the interstate in Indianapolis to bypass some construction. After a very long day, we arrived at an AirBNB near M's parents. We'd actually stayed at that AirBNB previously, which made it the only AirBNB we've ever had reason to stay at more than once.
Thursday, September 29
We joined a portion of M's family at the Columbus Zoo for the morning. From there we had lunch on the same restaurant patio that we'd been to on our first day of the trip. After naptime we went over to M's sister's house and played in the backyard before enjoying takeout on their screened porch.
Friday, September 30 - Columbus to Cleveland, OH. ~143 miles.
M's parents and sister joined us for breakfast at the Sunny Street Cafe in Dublin. On a side note, if I recall correctly the first time I met M's family was at a different location of the Sunny Street Cafe on December 31, 2017 en route to New Year's Eve in Cincinnati. The date I'm sure about, the restaurant location I'm less sure of.
And from there we drove home on the 37th day of our trip. I didn't actually go back to work until Tuesday, October 4, but most of the intervening time was spent getting our house back on order, or discovering hornets, and doesn't really merit further discussion.
Total Stats
We bought three more tanks of gas, taking our final total to 19 for the trip.
We got takeout four times and ate on four patios. Trip totals: 20 patios and 18 takeout meals, which is not too shabby for how long our trip was.
We stayed in two AirBNBs for four nights. Our trip totals were now 12 AirBNBs for 18 nights, accounting for half of the 36 nights we didn't sleep in our own house. The other 18 were spent housesitting.
I had previously been to each of the ten states we visited on this trip before, but I did sleep overnight in Arkansas, when previously I'd only eaten there. M had never been to Arkansas, so she crossed that off. Birdie, of course, went to ten new states, but will likely remember none of them.
Monday, September 26 - Little Rock to St. Louis, MO. ~350 miles.
After a long and not terribly interesting drive to St. Louis, we checked into our AirBNB and met M's friend Marjorie and her dog Acorn for a takeout dinner in a local park as it got dark. M knows Marjorie's family, so after dinner we stopped by her parent's house to say hello and show off Birdie.
Tuesday, September 27
We slept in. Then we got up and went to the Missouri Botanical Garden. Fortunately, in the month since we'd last been in San Francisco it had cooled off substantially, so we had a very pleasant morning wandering the garden, including lunch at the on-site restaurant. The Botanical Garden is delightful. There's a very impressive children's garden that far outpaced the very nice one in Albuquerque. There's a test garden that showcases an incredible variety of plants suitable for local gardens. The Japanese garden was very nice, and had a bridge where you could feed the koi, which Birdie really enjoyed. There was a Turkish garden that felt much like my time in Spain. All-in-all, the Missouri Botanical Garden was quite possibly the nicest attraction we visited on our trip and I highly recommend it.
That night we had dinner again on the patio at The Boathouse.
Wednesday, September 28 - St. Louis to Columbus, OH. ~420 miles.
We met Marjorie for breakfast on the patio at Winslow's Table, which is the kind of hippie breakfast place that every credible college town should have. M had fond memories of it from grad school, and they did not disappoint. Sometimes, you can go back.
In order to tire Birdie out as much as possible before embarking on what would be the longest day of driving since our first day, and the longest stretch of consecutive driving, we took her to St. Louis Zoo in Forest Park. Regrettably, large parts of it were closed for some work, but we still got Birdie good and tired out looking at sea lions, assorted quadrupeds, bears and penguins. As a bonus, it's also free to enter.
And from there, it was a long and largely uninterrupted drive all the way to Columbus, Ohio, where we planned to stop for a few days to visit M's family. We stopped for food (Wendy's again) and gas. Otherwise, we only left the interstate in Indianapolis to bypass some construction. After a very long day, we arrived at an AirBNB near M's parents. We'd actually stayed at that AirBNB previously, which made it the only AirBNB we've ever had reason to stay at more than once.
Thursday, September 29
We joined a portion of M's family at the Columbus Zoo for the morning. From there we had lunch on the same restaurant patio that we'd been to on our first day of the trip. After naptime we went over to M's sister's house and played in the backyard before enjoying takeout on their screened porch.
Friday, September 30 - Columbus to Cleveland, OH. ~143 miles.
M's parents and sister joined us for breakfast at the Sunny Street Cafe in Dublin. On a side note, if I recall correctly the first time I met M's family was at a different location of the Sunny Street Cafe on December 31, 2017 en route to New Year's Eve in Cincinnati. The date I'm sure about, the restaurant location I'm less sure of.
And from there we drove home on the 37th day of our trip. I didn't actually go back to work until Tuesday, October 4, but most of the intervening time was spent getting our house back on order, or discovering hornets, and doesn't really merit further discussion.
Total Stats
We bought three more tanks of gas, taking our final total to 19 for the trip.
We got takeout four times and ate on four patios. Trip totals: 20 patios and 18 takeout meals, which is not too shabby for how long our trip was.
We stayed in two AirBNBs for four nights. Our trip totals were now 12 AirBNBs for 18 nights, accounting for half of the 36 nights we didn't sleep in our own house. The other 18 were spent housesitting.
I had previously been to each of the ten states we visited on this trip before, but I did sleep overnight in Arkansas, when previously I'd only eaten there. M had never been to Arkansas, so she crossed that off. Birdie, of course, went to ten new states, but will likely remember none of them.