Don't Move Twice!

When you are considering where to stay so you can see all the sites you should consider staying with us.  We offer the perfect location so you will not have to move more than once! 

One check in and you can see our local sites all with-in 15 minutes drive:  St. Louis Zoo, Arch/Riverfront, Forest Park, Six Flags are just a few.

Also if you want to see (Downtown St. Louis) or (Old Town St. Charles) we sit right in between both of them so you can spend a day in both with out packing up to stay somewhere else.  These Cities are big draws to families because they can see (Art Exhbitions, Ice Shows, Rodeos, Concerts, Broadway Style Shows, and the Rich Cultural History both cities have to offer).

We’ve had more and more guests telling us that they are staying with us due to NOT having to pack again and still being able to see everything our area has to offer!  So if you’re trying to figure out how to maximize your time and not have to go to multiple hotels to do it… check in here and take one less worry from your plans.

Change the Time

Spring forward...Fall back....

It's ingrained in our consciousness almost as much as the A-B-Cs or our spelling reminder of "i before e...." And it's a regular event, though perhaps a bit less regular than the swallows coming back to Capistrano.

Yet in those four words is a whole collection of trivia, facts and common sense about Daylight Saving Time.

Beginning in 2007, Daylight Saving Time is extended one month and begins for most of the United States at:

2 a.m. on the Second Sunday in March

and lasts until

2 a.m. on the First Sunday of November.

The new start and stop dates were set in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Daylight Saving Time - for the U.S. and its territories - is NOT observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and by most of Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona).

Daylight Saving Time Saves Energy

One of the biggest reasons we change our clocks to Daylight Saving Time (DST) is that it reportedly saves electricity. Newer studies, however, are challenging long-held reason.

In general, energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV.

In the average home, 25 percent of all the electricity we use is for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs, VCRs and stereos. A good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock ahead one hour, we can cut the amount of electricity we consume each day.

Daylight Saving Time "makes" the sun "set" one hour later and therefore reduces the period between sunset and bedtime by one hour. This means that less electricity would be used for lighting and appliances late in the day. We may use a bit more electricity in the morning because it is darker when we rise, but that is usually offset by the energy savings in the evening.

In the winter, the afternoon Daylight Saving Time advantage is offset by the morning's need for more lighting. In spring and fall, the advantage is less than one hour. So, Daylight Saving Time saves energy for lighting in all seasons of the year except for the four darkest months of the year (November, December, January and February) when the afternoon advantage is offset by the need for lighting because of late sunrise.

History of Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time is a change in the standard time of each time zone. Time zones were first used by the railroads in 1883 to standardize their schedules. According to the The Canadian Encyclopedia Plus by McClelland & Stewart Inc., Canada's "[Sir Sandford] Fleming also played a key role in the development of a worldwide system of keeping time. Trains had made obsolete the old system where major cities and regions set clocks according to local astronomical conditions. Fleming advocated the adoption of a standard or mean time and hourly variations from that according to established time zones. He was instrumental in convening an International Prime Meridian Conference in Washington in 1884 at which the system of international standard time -- still in use today -- was adopted.”

Daylight Saving Time has been around for most of this century and even earlier.

Benjamin Franklin, while a minister to France, first suggested the idea in an essay titled "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light." The essay was first published in the Journal de Paris in April 1784. But it wasn't for more than a century later that an Englishman, William Willett, suggested it again in 1907.

In 1918, in order to conserve resources for the war effort, the U.S. Congress placed the country on Daylight Saving Time for the remainder of WW I. It was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919. The law, however, proved so unpopular that it was later repealed.

When America went to war again, Congress reinstated Daylight Saving Time on February 9, 1942. Time in the U.S. was advanced one hour to save energy. It remained advanced one hour forward year-round until September 30, 1945.

From 1945 to 1966, there was no U.S. law about Daylight Saving Time. So, states and localities were free to observe Daylight Saving Time or not.

This, however, caused confusion -- especially for the broadcasting industry, and for trains and buses. Because of the different local customs and laws, radio and TV stations and the transportation companies had to publish new schedules every time a state or town began or ended Daylight Saving Time.

By 1966, some 100 million Americans were observing Daylight Saving Time through their own local laws and customs. Congress decided to step in end the confusion and establish one pattern across the country. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S. Code Section 260a) created Daylight Saving Time to begin on the last Sunday of April and to end on the last Sunday of October. Any area that wanted to be exempt from Daylight Saving Time could do so by passing a local ordinance. We’ve Had DST in one form or another ever since.

Hotels With Free Wifi

It's ridiculous that in 2011 we still have to have to pay for wifi in public places.

And hotels are some of the worst culprits. The most expensive luxury hotels tend to be the ones more likely to charge for wifi while budget hotels give you free access.

We found a list from Wifi Free Spot that lists every major hotel or chain that offers free wifi. Here are a few notable hotels where you can score a free connections. With some exceptions, they're nothing fancy, so free wifi could possibly be the only true perk:

• Fairfield Inn
• TownePlace Suites
• Best Western
• Country Inns and Suites (select locations)
• Courtyard Marriott
• Days Inn (select locations)
• Econo Lodge
• Hampton Inn (free in the lobby)
• Holiday Inn
• Red Roof Inn
• Super 8 Motel
• W Hotels

The 10 Most Downloaded Free iPad Apps Of All Time

iPads are the way to travel now.  No longer do you have to pull the device out of your bag as you go through security in the airport and for portable or short-term use you just can’t beat their convenience.  Add all those reasons in with the fact that you can still get more apps from apple than any other provider and why wouldn’t you use one for travel?

Apple recently released a list of the top ten free iPad apps downloaded from the App Store.

Just because you spent serious cash on an iPad doesn't mean you need to spend even more to take advantage of various games and utilities for it.

Have a look and see if anything suits your needs.

1.   Solitaire is the definitive one-player card game. Play it anywhere you go.

2.  The Bible app is exactly what you'd expect it to be. Choose different translations, search words and phrases, or just read from it.

3.  iBooks is Apple's exclusive online bookstore and eBook reader. Start reading differently.

4.  Use Remote to control your iTunes library over wifi. Adjust volume and change songs effortlessly.

5.  With Fandango, you can read reviews and buy movie tickets before you ever get to the theater. Stop waiting in line!

6.  Yelp finds establishments near you and provides you with user reviews. Make an informed decision for your next impromptu dinner date.

7.  Use Google Earth to help you arrive at your destination, or simply browse interesting satellite photos of the entire surface of the world.

8.  Movies by Flixster sets you up with trailers, showtimes, and critic reviews of new movies. Know what you're getting yourself into the next time you head to the theater.

9.  Search Google by voice, check your email, access your calendar, and more with the Google Mobile app from everyone's favorite search engine.

10. Pandora builds a radio station customized to your liking and streams it to you for free.

Watch out for these Car Seats

As we have many traveling families staying with us and as a parent myself this article in USA Today stood out to me as something to take note of:

Half of children's car booster seats can't ensure a proper fit with all safety belts, an insurance industry-funded safety group says in a report out today.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said six were so bad that it recommended parents avoid them.

Booster seats, which are recommended for children who have outgrown forward-facing child seats, are designed to raise kids up so adult-size safety belts fit properly.

"Not all boosters are doing that well," says Anne McCartt, the institute's research chief.

Children ages 4-8 in booster seats are 45% less likely to be injured in a crash than those using only seat belts.

Booster seats were rated based on how well they fit the roughly 20 million 4- to 8-year-olds with the lap and shoulder belts in a wide range of vehicles.

IIHS says its ratings are important because it's impossible to tell which booster seats are better just by comparing prices or features.

Although IIHS says booster seats have improved in the three years it has been testing them, it is concerned that those requiring parents to check the fit still outnumber the good ones. Of 83 seats tested, 41 got a "check fit" rating because they don't consistently fit well with belts and 36 were rated "best bets" or "good bets" by IIHS.

"A lot of parents don't understand that the purpose of the booster seat is to ensure the vehicle safety belts fit the child, because if they don't there is a potential for injury," says McCartt.

Child-safety advocate Joseph Colella calls it "a very significant regulatory shortfall" that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration doesn't evaluate booster seats based on how well they position seat belts, as "that is their primary function." Colella, of Traffic Safety Projects, says while IIHS' ratings put pressure on manufacturers to improve belt fit, it should be required, not voluntary.

Four booster seats made by Evenflo and two by Dorel's Safety 1st brand were rated so poorly that IIHS recommended consumers not use them. They are: the Evenflo Chase, Express, Generations 65 and Sightseer models and Safety 1st's All-in-One and Alpha Omega Elite. IIHS said the seats don't "provide proper belt fit."

If seat belts aren't positioned properly, children can hit parts of the vehicle in a crash and even be injured by the belts, which can slice into internal organs.

Dorel spokeswoman Julie Vallese notes five of the company's other seats were "best bets" and says it stands by all of its seats, which "have been proven to protect children" in the real world.

In a statement, Evenflo also pointed out that four of its other seats were "best bets" and one was "good," but still called the study "misleading." The company said IIHS used a "generic testing method," and noted it has sold 10 million booster seats in the last 10 years and doesn't know of any injuries due to improper belt fit.

Underscoring booster seats' effectiveness: IIHS said states that raised requirements for booster seats to cover children through ages 7 or 8 had 17% fewer fatal or debilitating injuries to booster-seat-age children.

IIHS singled out the Canadian company Harmony Juvenile Products as a "standout" in booster-seat design because all five of its seats were "best bets." The first inflatable booster seat, the BubbleBum, also got the top rating.

Booster seats that can be used with or without their high backs were tested both ways and often had different ratings. Fourteen of these "dual-use" boosters were "good" or "best" when backs were used, but got a "check fit" rating when backless.

"The best protection is not provided by 'a booster' but by 'the right booster' for the child and the vehicle," says Colella.

Packing Tips

Knowing how to pack a suitcase is essential to being a good traveler. Ever wonder how to pack light and still stay in style, my suggestion is to pick a basic color that you enjoy wearing and then add two other accessory colors and when you do this it will look and feel like you have several different outfits, for the males it is easy just a different shirt or tie and they are set.

The first think you want to do is start making a list of all the different items you will need for your trip, mentally take a note of all the activities and places you will be visiting and what you will be doing there so that you can gather all the items you will need for them. Pack a couple of plastic coat hangers in your bag, it seems like they never have enough hangers in the hotel rooms, if you pack plastic ones they weight almost nothing and are very handy to have.

When packing liquids remember they can expand under pressure, so never fill to the top and/or take some out if it is a new container. Toiletries should be as small as possible, and packed in sealable plastic bags for protection against spillage.

Pack each outfit in its own large re-sealable plastic bag, the rolling method works well for this packing style. If you have bulky items like for skiing use space bags that suck out all the air, you can fit so much more in your suitcase. The only word of caution here is that you want your suitcase to be packed firm so the contents won't shift and also you want to keep in mind to pack so your clothes will unpack wrinkle free.

Guard against lost luggage woes by packing your plastic bag(s) of toiletries in your carry-on bag, along with your most valuable items, and one change of clothes. Put all of your camera and computer items together in one carry-on bag, it will be easier during inspection, and then easier to put it all back together again after inspection.

Be vigilant in removing metal and in packing your carry-on. You also need to be aware of metal and batteries etc in you checked luggage, as that sometimes sets off an inspection alarm and may delay your luggage, it is easier to carry these items in your carry on so they can inspect them during your personal check in, rather than delay your checked in luggage.

No matter what type of bag you are packing, you will want to avoid spilling any liquids on your clothes or equipment and when you arrive at your destination unpack your bags as soon as possible after you get into your hotel room.

Youth Athletes and Diet

We have quite a few youth groups stay at our hotel and I quietly root for them to do well at their tournaments.  I Know that the team getting the proper fuel to make sure they keep their energy levels up is a trick all unto itself.  One that is even trickier with teen athletes.  Here is some great advice on how to maximize their energy from the food they get!

Eat Extra for Excellence

There's a lot more to eating for sports than chowing down on carbs or chugging sports drinks. The good news is that eating to reach your peak performance level likely doesn't require a special diet or supplements. It's all about working the right foods into your fitness plan in the right amounts.

Teen athletes have unique nutrition needs. Because athletes work out more than their less-active peers, they generally need extra calories to fuel both their sports performance and their growth. Depending on how active they are, teen athletes may need anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 total calories per day to meet their energy needs.

So what happens if teen athletes don't eat enough? Their bodies are less likely to achieve peak performance and may even break down rather than build up muscles. Athletes who don't take in enough calories every day won't be as fast and as strong as they could be and may not be able to maintain their weight. And extreme calorie restriction could lead to growth problems and other serious health risks for both girls and guys.