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The Group at City Museum - You've Gotta' Go There!

This is my final post on Girl Scouts and planning a trip. My eighth grade troop and two other leaders recently hit the road for our Big Trip! Click here for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th posts.

Friday night, we swam in the hotel pool (and the girls took a Jacuzzi break) and stayed up late watching movies. The cooked-to-order omelets and breakfast buffet the next morning were a huge hit. So much so that since we had eaten late, we wound up not needing lunch. We gave each of the girls a $5.00 limit to spend on snacking while shopping and then had an early reservation for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory after our trip to the Gateway Arch. The dinner at Spaghetti Factory was a highlight for many of the girls, and after that, we headed to the single coolest place I've ever taken my children - The City Museum. This was my daughter's and my 4th visit, but we never tire of it, as it is continually metamorphosing itself into something new. The addition of the whole outdoor climbing area within the last few years has solidified this attraction in my book as an A+. (Note that you will need QuickTime to view these moving photos. They are very much worth the effect.) My other adult leaders and I even climbed all the way up into the airplane at the top of the structure. Too cool.

Visit my other site to hear about some of the crazy tales of our trip.

We returned to our hotel a little before midnight (!) on Saturday, but fortunately, it was the night that we would switch back over from Daylight Savings, so we gained an hour of sleep. That made getting up to have our yummy breakfast once again and heading out to Mass at St. Louis University's beautiful St. Francis Xavier College Church for 10:30 Mass a little less difficult. After Mass, we had a (brief) stroll across campus back to our caravan (emphasis on the van...) and headed to Forest Park for a trip to the St. Louis Zoo. The only item that was on our original agenda that we were unable to accomplish was the Science Center. We had to punt that one, much to the disappointment of many of the girls. I can tell you from personal experience that it is a very nice science museum; not as good as the Exploratorium in San Francisco, in my family's opinion, but that one is truly hard to top.

Unfortunately, we didn't plan quite enough time for simply traveling with a large group. Numerous potty breaks, items left behind and later than planned arrivals at meeting points throughout the weekend made for delays in our schedule. That's definitely a "note to self" for next time. I should have known better. We were 15 minutes late to Mass, and I joked that I wasn't certain if it still "counted" or not. Arriving at the start of the Homily (Catholic people's sermon) was embarrassing at the least. Ah well, water under the bridge.

We ended our adventure with a trip to the famous Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard stand at Hampton and Chippewa. An "anonymous donor" from the troop had given us enough money to fund custard for our whole group. This was a great way to end our fun time. On the way home, we stopped for one more yummy dinner (one group went to Applebee's and another to Cracker Barrel.). The girls reveled in being able to order whatever they wanted on the trip, and I don't blame them. It was just plain fun.

I'll end here with one last bit of advice. We could have done what we've often done in the past and asked parents to provide some of the food for the trip. However, we decided to make ours an "all-inclusive" trip. We did suggest that each scout bring a little spending money in case she wanted a souvenir or extra soda (or as it turned out in our girls' cases, Starbuck's coffee). Other than that, every meal and snack was covered in the $75 cost to the girls. The troop footed the rest of the bill with our funds raised from last year. It's even looking as if we'll be able to provide a small refund to the parents for our overage. The cost covered gas, parking, hotel accommodations, all meals (including three dinners), and snacks for the trip. It also paid for admission to all of our activities (The zoo was free but had a $10/car parking fee.). I loved the "all-inclusive" part since we requested that the girls come to school Friday morning prepared to leave for the trip. Parents had to have their scouts' luggage in the parking lot after drop-off at school, and this worked very well. No last-minute packers or forgotten sack dinners to worry about.

I'd love to hear where any of you may have taken your Girl Scouts over the years. And once again, if you are the mother of a daughter and looking for an amazingly rewarding volunteer gig -- look no further. Girl Scouts is where it's at!