Meet me in Saint Louis

Last month we took a long weekend trip and drove to Saint Louis so Chris could run in the St. Louis Rock n Roll marathon.  Since Chris and his parents had never been before we thought we'd make it into a mini vacation.  We drove up Friday morning and hit the outlet mall right outside of Saint Louis. After spending the afternoon shopping we headed to our hotel and then went to the convention center so Chris could get checked in for the race.  When we got finished with the running expo we got some dinner and then did a little bit more shopping.  We finished the night at Schafly's brewery with drinks with Chris's coworkers.  I'm not a beer fan at all but I will say that the Pumpkin Ale was to die for!!

Saturday we woke up early and drove to Grant's Farm.  It is owned by Anheuser-Busch and that's where some of the Budweiser Clydesdales are stabled.  We were hoping that we'd be able to book one of the Clydesdale tours but they were all sold out.  We did get to go into the stables and see the horses and pet them.  We also took the tram around the grounds and got to sample some free beer.  When we finished with Grant's farm we drove to the Budweiser brewery to take one of the free tours of the facility.  Since we didn't pay for one of the more extensive tours, the tour that we took was really basic. After the tour we ate at restaurant across the street that used to be an old police station.

The young Clydesdale is the size of a regular horse!  

This kangaroo kept trying to get a leaf off the tree.

You were able to eat in several of the jail cells and they were using this one for a wedding reception.

We wrapped up the afternoon with another trip to the running expo and then headed to dinner at Charlie Gitto's so everyone running the race could carb load.  I will say that if you plan on eating at Charlie Gitto's make sure and make a reservation a week before.  We had to eat at 4:45 and the owner was really rude about it.  Other than that the food and service was amazing.  Our drinks were never below full at all times.  We wrapped up the evening with a visit to a local chocolate bar.

Sunday was the race and I'm going to skip that part of the day because I'll do another blog entry about that later.  After the race we went to City Museum and I wish that we would have had more time to explore it before they closed.  We did get to go down the 10 story slide and I crawled around in some of the caves.  At one point I thought I was going to get stuck and they would have to call the fire department to get me out!! But thankfully I was able to squeeze my way out! We ended the night with eating some traditional Saint Louis style pizza and of course we had Ted Drewes frozen custard for dessert.

One of the various slides at City Museum.

Monday we woke up early and checked out of our hotel and headed over to the arch.  We wanted to get there early so we'd be one of first groups up in the arch.  If you're going to be in St. Louis it's totally worth going up in the arch.  The views are gorgeous especially during fall.

If you're claustaophobic then you might not want to go up in the little pod that takes you to the top!

View from the top of the arch.

After we finished our tour of the arch we headed back to our car which was parked in the Hyatt hotel parking garage.  I was walking over a metal storm grate when the next thing I know I'm laying sprawled out on the ground!  My foot was the perfect size to fit through one of the grates.  I felt so bad because Chris had to drive home because my ankle was all busted up. It's been 3 weeks and I my ankle is still healing up.

Life's a beach

The best thing about going on a beach vacation is if you don't want to do anything, you don't have to!  We had planned on taking 2-3 excursions but our television blow up a week before our vacation so our excursion budget was cut in half.  We ended up spending the majority of our time laying at the beach.  Which I was totally content with.  As long as I had a book to read and someone to bring me something to drink I would have stayed there our whole vacation.

We did do a few activities like kayaking and painting pottery.  I tried getting Chris to do Latin dancing but he decided he would rather paint instead.  It worked out for me because I really loved it. We painted for 2 days and I was really surprised at how well our pottery turned out!  We tried doing some of the activities at night but they all started at 9:30 and we were so exhausted from being outside that we went to bed early most nights.

They had us pretty busy most nights with all of the wonderful food to eat.  One night we had a private candlelit dinner along the beach to celebration our anniversary.  The next morning we woke up to breakfast delivered to our room prepared by the chef.  After that we had a couple's massage along the beach.  This was our last day and we headed back to the beach to relax.  After 30 minutes I looked over at Chris and he had a look of pure boredom on his face.  After another 30 minutes he still had the same look so I asked if he wanted to do an excursion and he said yes.

View from our private table for our candlelit dinner.

We had booked an excursion to go parasailing but it was cancelled because it was too windy.  The booking agent asking if there was something else that we wanted to do and he suggested swimming with the dolphins.  This is something that I've always wanted to do for as long as I can remember.  I know that Chris has never wanted to do this but he decided to do it for me.  I was so nervous about it but I had a blast!  The dolphins were so friendly and they loved being touched.  We paid extra to do the foot push which I was worried I was going to face plant it into the water but I was really proud of myself because I actually got pretty high!  We did buy the pictures that they sell but thankfully with Chris's negotiation skills we got a huge discount!!  If you ever travel to Mexico make sure and haggle! I definitely loved being at the beach but I think Chris and I have decided if we go back we'd want to go somewhere else like Jamaica or Aruba where the beaches are a little bit better.

We woke up early before breakfast to watch the sunrise.

Beach Bum

After the last several vacations that we've been on I told Chris that this year I wanted to take a beach vacation.  I've been trying to get him to go to the beach for 12 years and this is the first year that he's agreed.  We told some of our really good friends about it and they told us to use their travel agent from Beach Bum Vacations.  We emailed her and she emailed back with a few suggestions of places that meet our budget and needs.  We decided to choose the smaller resort that she sent us and it worked out perfectly!  Normally we are always on the go on our vacations, we're out the hotel doors by 7 in the morning and we don't return until midnight sometimes.  So I was really looking forward to a relaxing vacation.

The resort we ended picking was El Dorado Seaside Suites which is located in Riviera Maya, Mexico.  It's an hour outside of Cancun and 30 minutes from Playa Del Carmen.  The good thing about booking our vacation through Beach Bum Vacations was that she took care of everything from booking our flights, shared transfers to the resort, and asking for an upgrade to a beach view room.  Since we also went during our anniversary window we also qualified for $750 anniversary/honeymoon package.   This included free WiFi, champagne waiting in our room, a candlelit dinner on the beach, a couple's massage on the beach and breakfast prepared by the chef delivered to our room.

Views from our balcony.

I'm so glad we choose this resort over some of the other ones because of its size.  There are tons of huge resorts down there but the smaller size was perfect.  Granted, it did feel like a long ways from the airport but I think that it was worth the drive.  I never felt that there were tons of people and you could walk everywhere without having to take a golf cart. I loved that it was an all-inclusive adults only resort too.  It was nice to be able to choose from 7 different restaurants for dinner and if we didn't feel like going anywhere we could order room service any time.  All of the food that we had was really good and we never had to wait long for it to arrive.

After reading several reviews of the resort on TripAdvisor I was really worried about the beach area.  They had to put in artificial reefs a few years ago because a hurricane came and destroyed part of the beach.  I was worried that it was going to look really ugly but I found that it really didn't bother me at all, especially in the area of the beach where we spent most of our time.  I loved that we had a beach waiter/waitress who always made sure that we had plenty to drink.  Pedro really took care of us and even made me special drinks.

Every morning they rake and pick up all the seaweed.

We never had any issues finding a place to sit or a bed to lay on.

I'm basically using this post to review the resort in case anyone else is interested in staying here.  If you're considering staying here I'd highly recommend it.  They definitely spoiled us and the service is amazing! I'll post some more personal pictures in another blog post.

Make sure and leave a tip for your maid and they will make you towel art.