Here for Adventure
All this just ten minutes from home? WE felt worlds away.
#amyshereforthis
The car came to a stop on the busy downtown street and Joel maneuvered it into a parking spot. We got out and grabbed our bags from the trunk, making our way down the block to the big, old building with “International Shoe Company” inscribed in large letters on the front. Big glass doors pushed open into the spacious lobby. At the check-in desk, we were informed that our room wasn’t quite ready so we settled into a couch in the lounge, grabbing drinks from the bar. The lobby was buzzing with chatter from the bar and guests making their way in and out.
Soon our room was ready so we took the elevator up to the seventh floor and wound through the hallway to our room. The immediate reaction? “Everything here is beautiful.” One half of the room was taken up by the bed and a beautiful writing desk. The other half contained a leather chair, couch and the prettiest mini bar I’ve ever seen. Two large windows with views of downtown were framed by green velvet curtains. The bathroom was covered in patterned tile work. “Where are we?! All this just ten minutes from our house?!” We felt worlds away.
***
I love celebrations. Birthdays, holidays, themed parties, even those “national so and so” days that people just seem to make up on social media. I love to celebrate. With that in mind, it should be no shock that I wanted to mark the occasion of my husband Joel’s 30th birthday with a big celebration.
It’s not every day that someone turns 30. Well, actually, someone probably does turn 30 every day now that I think about it, but it’s not every day that someone you love turns 30. Especially your husband, assuming you only have one husband. Honestly, the number of husbands you have is none of my business, I’m just operating out of cultural norms here. As for me, I do only have one husband and he did turn 30 just the one time. That one time was last month and so I was rather excited to go all out and celebrate the incomparable Joel Grass.
I knew I wanted to have a party with friends at our house, but this momentous occasion seemed to warrant more. We needed to go on a kid-free adventure. A date night? That’s good, but maybe not celebratory enough? A cross-country road trip? Too time-consuming. A European vacation? We have literally none of the resources to make that happen. Sky-diving? Too scary. Cross everything off our bucket lists? We don’t even have bucket lists. What could we do?
Then a thought came to me. What if...we didn’t leave St. Louis at all? We could stay at home, sure. I love our house. But there are always chores to be done and who wants to do chores during a 30th birthday celebration?! Could we stay somewhere in St. Louis where other people do the chores for us? A hotel, perhaps?
it’s fun to be an explorer in your own city.
#amyehereforthis
With this in mind I took to Instagram, as you do. I had seen a lot of buzz around a new place downtown called The Last Hotel. I perused their account and tagged photos. When I checked out the website, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that not only was this place beautiful, ten minutes from our house, and extremely Instagrammable. It was affordable too!
I booked a room for the Sunday night before President’s Day and arranged for the kids to stay with my mother-in-law. I told everyone I know except for Joel because I’m terrible at keeping secrets. Eventually, the secret came out to Joel too and he had about a week to prepare and get excited for our non-getaway. Sunday afternoon came around and with our babies hugged and kissed goodbye, we giddily packed bags and locked up the house.
To start off our kid-free time, we went to lunch and then spent a beautiful afternoon meandering around the Missouri Botanical Garden. Our family spends a considerable amount of time at MoBot, but Joel and I are rarely there without children so we took our time making our way through the garden and its buildings. After that, we headed downtown to check into the hotel. Following check-in, we wandered back down to the lobby for dinner at The Last Kitchen. Joel and I split the toasted ravioli, a salad, and a margherita pizza. It is now almost a month later and I’m still thinking about that ravioli. There’s nothing I love more than a St. Louis classic re-imagined in a delicious way. You’ve got to try their toasted ravioli.
After dinner, we thought about going across the street to the Selfie Room because it sounded sort of exciting and we were spontaneous and kid-free, after all. Plus I’ve always wanted to a try a ring light. A quick Google search informed us on a price of $30/person, so we went up to The Last’s windy rooftop for a few minutes and settled for our own selfie. It was blurry. Maybe we should have paid the $60. From our rooftop selfie adventure, we walked to Bridge, settling into the cozy atmosphere for drinks before calling it a night. Upon returning to our room, we took advantage of the ultimate hotel luxury: watching tv in bed. Joel turned on and episode of Friends and I was asleep within minutes.
“Fun and rest can be found right in front of you if you look for it. If we go outside of our normal places, we can feel like tourists in our very own city.”
#amyshereforthis
On Monday morning, thanks to blackout curtains and God’s grace, we slept in before going for a run downtown together. Running is something Joel and I both love, especially when we can do it together. Much like sleeping in though, running together is a rarity in our life with small children so we took our time snaking through the Arch grounds and back across downtown. After that, we got ready for our day and packed up. We checked out of the hotel and enjoyed a lovely late breakfast at Cafe Osage. Upon finishing breakfast, we headed home to play ping pong on our dining room table for the last hour before our kids got home. It was a delight. Soon our kids arrived back home filling our house with noise and movement once more.
In this brief 24 hours away, Joel and I learned some things about ourselves and where we live. It’s fun to be an explorer in your own city. St. Louis is growing and changing all the time and we generally go to the same places that we already love in order to maximize date nights. Staying at The Last Hotel and wandering around downtown felt different, but also familiar. I primarily wanted to celebrate Joel and enjoy time with him, so staying in the city we already love was pretty fun.
Our weekend was a reminder that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to go on an adventure. It was a reminder that fun and rest can be found right in front of you if you look for it. That if we go outside of our normal places, we can feel like tourists in our very own city.
There’s magic here in St. Louis and we just have to be on the lookout for it. I like visiting new cities, but I’m always eager to come back home. So this time we didn’t leave. We don’t have to “make the most” of everything in this life, which is a pressure we often feel. There’s nothing wrong with going, but there’s a lot of value in staying too.
In this world that is all about soaring to new heights and living everything to the fullest, what if we just didn’t? What if we challenged the notion that bigger is better and were more content right where we are? What if we made adventure where we are instead of viewing it as a far away destination?
#amyshereforthis
In this world that is all about soaring to new heights and living everything to the fullest, what if we just didn’t? What if we challenged the notion that bigger is better and were more content right where we are? What if we made adventure where we are instead of viewing it as a far away destination?
I think St. Louis is a great place to start.