This past weekend was awesome. I went with my friend Kenny and my cousin Ben to St. Louis on a little weekend road trip. The weekend was action packed and we were always on the move, which was nice because we were only there for a little over a day.

Here's how the trip started...

I woke up around 5:30am on Saturday and I was already packed and ready to go. I jumped in the shower and drove to pick up Ben, then stopped by Kenny's to pick him up. We were on the road by 6:30am heading from NW Indiana down to St. Louis. We took I-55 straight down and made a fairly short pit stop in Springfield. I had never been to Springfield, so this was all new to me. Of course I had the camera with me (no suprise to anyone) and started snapping shots of some of the historical buildings, like the Capitol Building, and the Old Capitol Building during the 'Lincoln Era'. We also saw where Abraham Lincoln use to have his law office with his law partner, and many other Abe Lincoln attractions. Unfortunately because we were pressed for time, I was not able to go to the gravesite or visit the Lincoln Presidential Library. We made a last stop at Subway before we left, then headed on the road to 'The Loo'.

The drive itself was fun because Kenny brought his video camera. Most of the people that saw us on the road probably thought we were a bunch of nuts, or just some crazy college boys having a good time, but we definately had some fun with the video camera! Mostly just trying to get people to wave to us and video taping ourselves acting stupid and going overboard with jokes.

As we got to St. Louis, I took the exit just before crossing the river and we headed to the shore. We were actually in East St. Louis, which isn't considered the most fabulous of cities. It reminded me a lot of Gary, IN. We took pictures of the St. Louis skyline and bridges and the arch and of course took out the video camera and got a lot of footage along the shore until....

...the cops showed up!!!

Now, keep in mind, we were three boys with video equipment, Indiana license plates, hanging out in a train yard, running around with our shirts off...harmless right? Well I guess not! The officer approached us and asked what we were doing. I explained to the officer (who was very nice) that I was a professional photographer and I take skyline pictures of cities. I showed him a few of the pictures from my camera and he asked to see all of our ID's. He took our drivers licenses back to his car and ran them through. Of course they came out clean and the officer explained why he had to check us. Apparently since September 11, anyone that is on that side of the river taking pictures or video tape must be looked into to see if we were terrorists or if we posed a terrorist threat. The main concern was the The Arch is a national symbol and recognized worldwide and may be a target to terrorists. The officer kindly gave us back our ID's and gave us suggestions on what to do if we came back at night to take the same pictures (which we did). He told us to just be sure that we always had our ID's on us just in case another officer stopped us later on. I was done taking pictures, so we finally headed over the river into the city.

From there, we checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Millenium Hotel Suites, which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone that goes to St. Louis. It was very reasonably priced, and it was located directly across from The Arch. It was a very classy 4-star hotel, and we all just loved it. We went up in The Arch after we checked in and even took the trip to the top. The view was amazing! Luckily for us, we had a fabulous day - 75 degrees and sunny!

We went and visited the new Busch Stadium, which was now completely finished, and just days from hosting its first home game. The field was amazing and I'll be excited to see a game there sometime!

The top of our hotel had a revolving restaurant that gives a 360 degree view of the entire city. It was very classy, so we felt out of place with our hats and t-shirts!!! We all got really good steaks and enjoyed the view and watched the sunset from the 28th floor restaurant.

We went back to the hotel room, I dumped the pictures I had taken from the camera and loaded them on to my laptop. Around 11:00, we went downstairs to the Martini Bar and had ourselves a couple drinks. There was a high school prom event also going on as well as a fraternity event, so we were people watching as we sat there. We started getting a little bored. The bartender brough over a stack of those small square bar napkins and we started having a little bit of fun. We wrote the numbers 10, 9, and 8 on the napkins, and made three sets for each of us. As people walked by, we held up one of the numbers as if it was a gymnastics competition. Everyone who walked by thought it was histarical and we quickly became the talk of the lobby. The bartender thought it was a riot, and everything was all in good fun.

We woke up the next day a little groggy from the time change (since we moved the clocks up an hour) and we got our stuff together and headed out. We took a last drive around the city before we left, then headed north. We made another pitstop in Springfield and ate Subway again, then headed home with the video camera in Kenny's hand. After I get the video transfered to digital, I'll post a video clip of some of the funny scenes. Luckily for us, we got out of Springfield and central Illinois in time to miss the tornados that came through! Apparently, they came just hours after we past through.

So back home we were. We made it home in about 4 1/2 hours! Everything went well, no one got arrested, I didn't get any tickets driving down, and all in all, it was a great time.

As usual, I have posted pictures that I took in St. Louis to the right. Some of the pictures are from Springfield also.

Thank you to all of those who have sent me feedback!

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jlaxsalinas@robertmorris.edu

This weekend wrapped up a string of mini weekend vacations that I have been taking throughout April and May. I went to Minnesota to visit my friend Katie and her fiance Josh at their place just outside of Minneapolis in Plymouth, MN. The weekend was action packed and we were on the move!

I have to wonder to myself sometimes if people think I'm crazy, especially lately. When I go on these mini vacations, I'm so on the move that I sometimes have to wonder if the people I am going to be with are going to be able to keep up. Sure enough, Katie and Josh were able to hang with me, although we were all pretty tired as the weekend wrapped up.

The drive from my house in Hammond to their place in Minnesota was about 460 miles, and get this...I drove the entire way by myself and never listened to the radio or CD's or anything! I drove in silence. I loved it! You would think that would be so boring, but I guess if I would have been that bored, I would have turned something on. I took I-94 from my house all the way to their place, so most of my time was spent driving through Wisconsin. I guess if I was REALLY bored, I could have counted all of the cheese stores or indoor water parks as I drove north. The drive was nice and easy and I never caught any traffic, suprisingly. When I crossed over the Mississippi, I was in St. Paul first. I went to the side of the river opposite of the city and took a few nice skyline pictures of the city. Then, it was off to Minneapolis. I had some time to kill before Josh and Katie got home from work, so I did my photoshoot of both Minneapolis and St. Paul before I even made it to my friends place.

Saturday, we enjoyed an early round of golf, and I am proud to say that I shot a 6+! Not bad for a guy who hasn't golfed in almost five years. We also went and saw United 93 at the movies. I wasn't sure I was going to feel about the movie, both before and after seeing it, but now that I've seen it, I would recommend others to see it also. The movie is well portrayed and is a story of courage and bravery. We also went and saw a Minnesota Twins game at the Metrodome. It was Minnesota vs Detroit and the Twins got the win. Santana through a 7 inning no hitter and there were a few great plays that made the ESPN clips later in the evening.

On the way home, I took a different route. Instead of taking I-94 all the way home, I left Minneapolis and went south on I-35 to Iowa. I was headed for the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA. For those of you who don't know what the Field of Dreams is (which should be very few of you), it is the baseball field that was built next to a house in the middle of a cornfield and is the field that the movie Field of Dreams was filmed (starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones). Of course, I got a ton of pictures from the site at about every angle of the field that I could get. Everything there looks the exact same and has been well preserved since the filming of the movie. There are a few slight changes:

1. There is now a white picket fence that goes around the majority of the white house in the film. The white fence use to only be in the front of the house. When the people began coming to visit the field, they would go up to the house, so later the owners built a fence to prevent that, since the house is still occupied by the original family that was there during filming.
2. There are overhead electrical lines that run from right field, over 2nd and 3rd base. These were not there in the filming of the movie. They were actually moved during filming and replaced afterwards.
3. There are two small shops that sell tshirts and other nicknacks and memorabilia. Those stands were not there during thr filming of the movie.
4. Being that it is only early May, the corn that makes the outfield fence is not grown yet. Me and some buddies are planning a return trip in August.

I would recommend anyone passing around or near Dyersville, IA (15 miles west of Dubuque, IA along US-20) to stop by the Field of Dreams. Admission is free and you have the freedom to run the bases, play catch, hit some balls, or sit on the bleachers and dream.

Also on the way home, I stopped in Galena, IL. What a cool town! I'm not really into shopping or anything, but the aesthetics of the town were fabulous. I never knew that Illinois had hills! So as you will see to the right, I have a few pictures of the town and surrounding areas.

The drive home was a total of 570 miles, bringing my weekend driving total to approx. 1030 miles! Thats a lot of time spent in the car!!!

I hope all of you enjoy the pictures that I have posted. I always love getting your feedback!

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jlaxsalinas@robertmorris.edu