With budgets smarting because of fuel prices, Are We There Yet? tours is offering several day trips - staycations, if you will - by motor coach this summer and fall that don’t stray far from the St. Louis area.
* The “Salute to Lee & Grant” trip on Aug. 9 - this Saturday - is $68 and will travel to the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park for the generals’ special exhibit, with lunch at Meriwether’s. The tour also will visit Grant’s home of White Haven, and end with a tour of Jefferson Barracks. Pickups are in Vandalia and St. Charles.

• A tour of St. Louis on Sept. 23 is $69 and includes lunch at Patty Long’s new Point of View restaurant on the 30th floor of the Laclede Gas Building, a visit to a downtown loft, a ride on the Metro Link and a pint of beer at Tigin’s Irish Pub. Pickups at St. Charles and Kirkwood.

• A tour on Oct. 11 will cover Vandalia and Bowling Green to eat lunch at the Rose Restaurant, visit the Vandalia Historical Society and get a nickel cup of coffee at Vandalia Drug. Other stops include the only African-American school in the state on the National Register of Historic Places and a visit to Bankhead’s Chocolates, which just installed an ice cream parlor. The cost is $66, with pickups at Florissant Valley Community College and the commuter lot in St. Charles.

• On Oct. 12, a tour will head to Octoberfest in Hermann for lunch and wine tasting at Stone Hill Winery, and shopping at the arts and crafts festival. The cost is $68 with a pickup at Florissant Valley Community College.

Call 314-304-3508 or e-mail stltourgirl@mac.com.