Meet Me in Saint Louie....part One

Well we are back from our vacation and I am happy to report we had a (mostly) FABULOUS time!!!! I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!!! And I just have to brag on the city of St. Louis for a moment! It is such a clean, tourist friendly, easy to navigate and hospitable city!!! It has always been my favorite city but after a 3 day vacation with two toddlers I will be singing it's praises forever! LOL!

So there are lots of good stories to tell, some good, some bad. I figure I will start with the bad just to get it out of the way...save the best for last ya know...I will probably have to lump these in seprate posts because you know how I like to jabber on and on. So as time permits today I will try to sum up my vacation in several posts.

We left the house Friday morning headed for the St. Louis Zoo. After about 2 1/2 hours of driving we finally hit the city. Construction detours turned us around and we ended up waaaaay off course. God bless truck drivers! I stopped at a 7/11 and asked a driver for help. He laughed at us, redneck white folk who can't navigate the city...."How da hell you end up down here?" I just laughed right along with him. We were on the far south side of the city! But thankfully it didn't take long to get back to where we needed to be, he gave us great directions! So I guess it wasn't all that bad, but I have to say part of me was thinking "If this is how the vacation is starting...Oh Boy!"

Finally we arrived at the Zoo, and as far as Zoo's go, it is very nice, clean and entertaining. However I did find myself pitying these captive animals. Many of them look they would chew the wrong end of a shotgun off if they could....if animals can get depressed, that is what I saw. A majestic brown bear just paced back and forth for hours, panting and hanging his head. He looked as if he once was glorious to behold, and now patches of his fur were missing and he looked so sad I wanted to hug him...if he wouldn't have considered me a 4 course meal. So many of the animals just looked miserable and defeated. I felt a bit guilty standing there oggling them and trying to excite my kids about them as they stared back at us with blank looks and hopeless disregard. We spent a few hours there and then checked into our hotel and headed for the pool.

This is where the story gets bad...the single most memorable event of our vacation and it has nothing to do with my family or our many adventures. When we arrived at the hotel pool there were a few other families swimming and some adults in the whirlpool. I saw the most beautiful little baby boy with his Daddy sitting by the edge of the pool, he was maybe 4 months old. He had an older brother in the pool swimming (I am assuming he was brother, he was probably 12). Then I noticed this older lady over by the hot tub. She was in and out of the hot tub and she scowled much of the time. Her husband and son were frolicking in the pool having a great time along side us, but she just scowled. I remember feeling sorry for someone who could be that miserable with a hot tub sitting right beside them....

The daddy of the baby began to slowly pace around, bouncing his son and whispering sweet notions to him as he kissed and loved on him. It warmed my heart and made me miss having babies of my own. But I noticed he had a worried look on his face. He was watching his older son very closely and seemed to be willing him to get bored of the pool so they could leave. It took me a while to see the big picture of this scenario, but once I did I was just sick! Sick, sick, sick!!!

See what I saw was a loving father, spending quality time with his kids, perhaps letting mommy take a nap or a shower back in the room. I saw a doting dad who showered his kids with love and praise and laughter. What the scowly woman saw was a big scary black man, with big muscles, covered in tattoos. He had on very nice, designer swim trunks, as did his kids, so I am sure she assumed he was a drug dealer. His fancy blackberry phone must have been stolen or bought with dirty money and he probably had his 12 year old peddling crack on the grade school play ground!

See what I didn't notice for a while is that every time the 12 year old got in the hot tub....she got out! And she never once set foot in the pool with us. She also kept a close eye on the father...as if he was gonna whip out a 9mm pistol with an infant on his hip and rob her of her L.L. Bean flip flops and her Panama Jack straw hat. She never cracked a smile even as my children, who are damn near irresistible, flashed her smiles and waved at her......I started to get the big picture here and I was scrambling in my mind to find a way to make the father and his children feel comfortable. I talked to the little boy a bit, but finally Dad insisted that they leave....I could tell by the look on his face that he had had enough of the suspicious glares and the blatant disgust from this woman.

After they left......SHE GOT IN THE POOL, all smiles and sunshine...waving at my kids and giving us that approving look you give a happy family who is splashing and giggling. It took everything I had not to go over to her, hike up my leg and pee on her!! Must be the bitch in me, canine instincts!!! I bet she wouldn't want to be swimming with my white ass either if I used her for a fire hydrant. I was so disgusted.....I said something to my husband about it too....It might have been loud enough for her to hear...I might have felt bad about calling her an idiot...I might have hoped she hadn't heard me....I might have hoped that dirty look was aimed at my trashy tattoo and not my intelligent observation of her ignorance..........but then again....nah! The bitch deserved it!!!

I don't know that I have ever witnessed anything so blatantly prejudiced in all my life. Even my ignorant ass redneck relatives wouldn't have acted like that. I thought we gave up the fear of sharing swimming pools with 'colored folk' in 1960....maybe I am the ignorant one.

P.S. I am doing ok, thanks for the support ya'll! I'll keep you posted on my mental healthy....maybe I will find some kind of 'crazy meter' widget! LOL!