Days 4 and 5 were spent in St. Louis, Mo. This was a planned stop to see the Missouri Botanical Garden, which is one of the best in the world. I was not personally excited for this stop, but Stacie was, and when we went there I was really blown away. Check out Stacie’s post and pictures to see more.

We also made a late evening trip up into the Gateway Arch, which was also surprisingly awesome. The trip to the top was interesting and the view amazing, especially because we could see right down into the Cardinals game, but it was even better because there were NO LINES! Traveling in the off-season has some huge benefits.

After St. Louis we boarded a train and headed for Chicago. The train was supposed to be a fun, different way to travel and was WAY cheaper than a car, but the trip ended up being massively delayed and we did not get into Chicago until 11 at night, which was not ideal.

We were greeted into Chicago with massive thunderstorms, which were fun for the first day or so, but then got old. They kept us inside most days and before we knew it we were on our last day in the area. We spent Sunday at my cousin Chrissie’s house on a beautiful summer day. We longed by the pool, ate and drank too much and caught up with the family, it was a fantastic way to wrap up our stay.

Our flight to D.C. the next morning left O’Hare at 6 AM, so we had to get up around 3:30 to ensure we would arrive on time. So we went to sleep as early as we could, happy to know we were heading out for our first real stop of our world tour.