Traveling from Puerto Rico to San Diego, California, with a trip to St. Louis, Missouri in between
San Juan to St. Louis
I barely rested at all Friday night, unable to fall asleep but then also waking up at 3:30 in the morning. Two of my classmates were also leaving early Saturday morning, so we took an Uber to Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport for our flights.
It was early. I was tired. But I was also excited to be flying again, heading across the entire continental United States to meet up with my family for a family reunion in San Diego, California. Once we arrived at the airport, I sent my bags through the USFDA checkpoint before heading over to the Southwest check-in counter to drop off my bags. Once they were checked I walked over to the security line, which at 4:30 AM wasn’t super busy, but there were still a decent amount of other passengers catching an early morning flight.
I boarded my flight around 6:00 and took off towards Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Gratefully, I grabbed an emergency exit window seat and was able to get another hour or so of sleep on the flight. I didn’t even have to change planes when we landed in Fort Lauderdale, and after the new passengers boarded we took off again to St. Louis, Missouri.
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Day Trip in St. Louis
We landed in St. Louis around noon, but I had almost six hours before my flight to San Diego departed so I decided to leave the airport to buy a normal priced lunch and explore the city. So, with a grumbling stomach, time to kill, and adventure on the horizon, I walked out of the airport. I crossed to the other side of the parking lot outside of the terminal to the St. Louis MetroLink station, bought a day pass, and waited for the train to arrive.
St. Louis MetroLink Light Rail
The St. Louis MetroLink consists of two lines, Red and Blue, that service 38 stations across almost fifty miles in the St. Louis area. The Red Line begins from St. Louis Lambert International Airport, with a station at each terminal, and meets up with the Blue Line, which begins in Shrewsbury, Missouri, at Forest Park. Both lines run through downtown St. Louis, including a stop at 8th and Pine Streets with convenient access to the world-famous Gateway Arch. They each cross the Mississippi River, and the Blue Line ends at Fairview Heights Station while the Blue Line continues further east to Shiloh, Illinois. This technically makes the St. Louis Metro the only light rail system in the country to cross state borders, which I found pretty cool. Ticket kiosks are available at every station, and my unlimited one-day adventure pass only cost $5.00. Find out more at metrostlouis.org.
St. Louis Lambert International Airport to Central West End Station
After waiting a few minutes for the train to arrive, I boarded the MetroLink to ride southeast into the city. I was surprised to find that all MetroLink trains offer free Wi-Fi, so I decided to take advantage and download a few more songs from Spotify during the trip. After about twenty-five minutes I got off at the Central West End station, near the Washington University Medical School, to look for a place to eat.
After walking through the campus I saw a local restaurant that caught my eye. I ordered a BLT sandwich from Pickles Deli to go, choosing to wait until I was back in the airport to eat it. The trip had taken longer than I had expected up to this point, both the Metro ride and finding a place to eat, so I was now officially in a race against the clock to get back to St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
Scootering through Forest Park back to the MetroLink
I stuffed my sandwich in my backpack, and walked towards Forest Park until I found a Bird scooter I could ride through the park. Forest Park is a 1,371-acre park in the middle of the city that includes four museums, a zoo, athletic fields and even a golf course. I rode past lakes, fountains, fields, and forest as I headed west on just a portion of the park’s more than 30 miles of trails.
Eventually I reached the Missouri History Museum, where I left the scooter and walked across the street to the Forest Park-DeBaliviere MetroLink Station. I only glimpsed a bit of what Forest Park and St. Louis had to offer, but I hope to return with a bicycle someday to explore the area.
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After validating my ticket I raced down the stairs just as the train back to the airport was arriving. Gratefully the security lines at the St. Louis airport aren’t as long as the lines in my hometown airport in Atlanta, so I was able to get to my gate quickly before the boarding process for my flight to San Diego began. I even had enough time to eat my BLT, so I declared my layover in St. Louis a success. A few minutes later I settled in to my seat for my final flight of the day journeying across the rest of the country.
St. Louis to San Diego
San Diego is a fun place to fly to, especially from the east. I watched as the Great Plains rose to meet the Rocky Mountains, and as green turned to brown as we crossed over to the other side of the Continental Divide. Then, all of a sudden, the desert gives way for the hilly terrain of San Diego. I was sitting on the left side of the plane, so I saw the metropolitan area of Tijuana, Mexico first as I looked out my window. San Diego International Airport is also very close to downtown and right along the shoreline, so when you descend the buildings seem close enough to touch as you fly right over them, and the water appears to be a closer landing area than the actual runway.
Relative Rescue For a Second Time
The last time I was in San Diego had been a few years ago as I was traveling from Phoenix to Kansas City. I got stranded there overnight because tornados in the Midwest meant that planes heading there weren’t allowed to take off, but the problem was I didn’t know a single person in the entire city. After enlisting the help of my extended family however, one of my aunts reached out to a friend who ended up letting me spend the night before leaving the next day.
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This time around, I was excited to actually get to intentionally spend a few days in San Diego, and to be with my family after spending the last few weeks in Puerto Rico. I walked out of the terminal to the baggage claim, and then after retrieving my bags waited for one of my aunts to come pick me up to drive to the hotel where our whole family would be staying for the week. I marveled during the drive up at the fact that I had flown from one ocean to another in just a couple of hours. It was amazing how aviation enabled my participation in both my study abroad program and my family reunion, with even a bonus trip in St. Louis in between.
Click here to read about my adventures during our family reunion in San Diego, California!
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