St. Louis Vacation Day 2: A rainy day in Forest Park.
Today we had just one thing on the agenda: visiting Forest Park. It's a huge, 1,300 acre park in the middle of the city containing a zoo, art museum, a theater, and a bunch of other cool stuff. It's basically the Central Park of St. Louis, except that it's even bigger than Central Park is -- too big to see all of it, but we tried. We had a nice, filling hotel breakfast of biscuits with gravy and sausage, scrambled eggs with cheese, and oatmeal with brown sugar (while watching news coverage about the closing ceremony at the Paris Olympics yesterday), then set off.
I wished later that I'd parked somewhere else than I did. I found a parking place early at the planetarium, and we decided to leave the car there and walk, not knowing how much parking there is elsewhere. So this meant two long walks past the big golf course, which we both got really sick of. But besides the golf course, some of the attractions that we saw...
~ The Jewel Box, a greenhouse surrounded by really pretty flowerbeds, fountains, and ponds with lily pads. Nearby was a bench almost completely hidden beneath a trellis so overgrown with vines that it was almost creepy. Everything was very picturesque, and Sara kept comparing it to the island she has in a game on her phone.
~ The 1904 World's Fair Pavilion and a really beautiful fountain and series of waterfalls outside it. Nearby was also a section of the sidewalk made of bricks with messages from donors/supporters of Forest Park. Sara was determined to find one with a reference to Meet Me in St. Louis, and she finally did! It said, "Forest Park is right here where we live, right here in St. Louis."
~ The Anne Albrecht natural playscape. This was something that I'd heard about and was curious to see. It was a littel hard to get to because I'd printed out maps of forest park beforehand, but it made one section look like a flat, crossable meadow that was actually a forest (and the one of the only places in the park where I saw poison ivy - we stayed well away). It was a bit more spread out than I'd like, but I did have fun climbing on all the rocks and logs. There was a group of kids there named Ella, Lucy, Imogene (pronounced the British way), and Martha (who wandered off and got lost for a while).
~ The boat pond. We decided to rent paddle-boats and take them out on the lake... and this was the one time all day when it decided to rain HARD! It started almost as soon as we hit the water, and I got completely soaked, but I'd already paid my rental money for the boat (the young woman in charge of boat rentals called everybody "my loves"), so we stuck it out. The park's policy is that you can boat in the rain and don't have to turn back in unless there's thunder and lightning. Paddle-boating is strenuous and I'm terrible at steering, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to stay out for the full hour that we rented for, but I would've probably stayed out longer if not for the rain.
~ Pagoda Circle. We went there and sat on a bench under a tree with a really pretty view of the pagoda and ate the snacks we packed after boating. One thing that we never did was find a nice dry spot to sit and read our books. I wish we had because I brought Village Affairs and toted it around in my purse all day (and it was a little the worse for wear from all the rain). My purse was much lighter after eating the snacks!
We walked back to the planetarium for a star show. I a walked right into a path of poison ivy beneath a pine tree, and I freaked out when I saw it all surrounding me. Luckily it wasn't a tall patch and I was able to get out with just one leaf brushing against my foot. (You can bet I went back to my car and sanitizied that foot thoroughly with wet wipes.) At the star show, we saw different constellations from night skies all around the world. It was pretty cool, and I loved seeing night skies without all the city light pollution, but the planetarium was absolutley packed with kids, and I couldn't get out again fast enough. We got back in the car and drove to see the zoo.
We were only in the zoo for about two hours (3-5, when it closes), but we still managed to see a lot of it. The giraffes and zebras and leopard were so amazing to see live, and their enclosures had great views of them. We also walked through the flight cage from the 1904 World's Fair, and it had an impressive variety of waterfowl and flying birds. One of the young chimpanzees in the chimp house was very lively, and we sat and watched him climb and swing and play with toys for a while. We bought postcards to mail to Abram and Lydia at the gift shop, and Sara bought a Christmas ornament of a sequined red panda and got into it with the old lady working the cash register.
One thing on my list that we didn't get to see were the waterfalls in the northwest corner of the park. I realized too late that I kinda underestimated how big Forest Park really is. But I don't mind much because we saw some amazing waterfalls in other areas of the park.
We were both so hungry and still pretty wet by the time the zoo closed, so I found a Steak n Shake nearby, and we dined in. We had onion rings, cheeseburgers, and thick, creamy mint chocolate chip (me) and peanut butter (her) milkshakes, and they were amazing and hit the spot! It rained pretty hard again on the drive back to the hotel, but I still got us back to it okay.
Distance walked today: 5.7 miles!
I wished later that I'd parked somewhere else than I did. I found a parking place early at the planetarium, and we decided to leave the car there and walk, not knowing how much parking there is elsewhere. So this meant two long walks past the big golf course, which we both got really sick of. But besides the golf course, some of the attractions that we saw...
~ The Jewel Box, a greenhouse surrounded by really pretty flowerbeds, fountains, and ponds with lily pads. Nearby was a bench almost completely hidden beneath a trellis so overgrown with vines that it was almost creepy. Everything was very picturesque, and Sara kept comparing it to the island she has in a game on her phone.
~ The 1904 World's Fair Pavilion and a really beautiful fountain and series of waterfalls outside it. Nearby was also a section of the sidewalk made of bricks with messages from donors/supporters of Forest Park. Sara was determined to find one with a reference to Meet Me in St. Louis, and she finally did! It said, "Forest Park is right here where we live, right here in St. Louis."
~ The Anne Albrecht natural playscape. This was something that I'd heard about and was curious to see. It was a littel hard to get to because I'd printed out maps of forest park beforehand, but it made one section look like a flat, crossable meadow that was actually a forest (and the one of the only places in the park where I saw poison ivy - we stayed well away). It was a bit more spread out than I'd like, but I did have fun climbing on all the rocks and logs. There was a group of kids there named Ella, Lucy, Imogene (pronounced the British way), and Martha (who wandered off and got lost for a while).
~ The boat pond. We decided to rent paddle-boats and take them out on the lake... and this was the one time all day when it decided to rain HARD! It started almost as soon as we hit the water, and I got completely soaked, but I'd already paid my rental money for the boat (the young woman in charge of boat rentals called everybody "my loves"), so we stuck it out. The park's policy is that you can boat in the rain and don't have to turn back in unless there's thunder and lightning. Paddle-boating is strenuous and I'm terrible at steering, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to stay out for the full hour that we rented for, but I would've probably stayed out longer if not for the rain.
~ Pagoda Circle. We went there and sat on a bench under a tree with a really pretty view of the pagoda and ate the snacks we packed after boating. One thing that we never did was find a nice dry spot to sit and read our books. I wish we had because I brought Village Affairs and toted it around in my purse all day (and it was a little the worse for wear from all the rain). My purse was much lighter after eating the snacks!
We walked back to the planetarium for a star show. I a walked right into a path of poison ivy beneath a pine tree, and I freaked out when I saw it all surrounding me. Luckily it wasn't a tall patch and I was able to get out with just one leaf brushing against my foot. (You can bet I went back to my car and sanitizied that foot thoroughly with wet wipes.) At the star show, we saw different constellations from night skies all around the world. It was pretty cool, and I loved seeing night skies without all the city light pollution, but the planetarium was absolutley packed with kids, and I couldn't get out again fast enough. We got back in the car and drove to see the zoo.
We were only in the zoo for about two hours (3-5, when it closes), but we still managed to see a lot of it. The giraffes and zebras and leopard were so amazing to see live, and their enclosures had great views of them. We also walked through the flight cage from the 1904 World's Fair, and it had an impressive variety of waterfowl and flying birds. One of the young chimpanzees in the chimp house was very lively, and we sat and watched him climb and swing and play with toys for a while. We bought postcards to mail to Abram and Lydia at the gift shop, and Sara bought a Christmas ornament of a sequined red panda and got into it with the old lady working the cash register.
One thing on my list that we didn't get to see were the waterfalls in the northwest corner of the park. I realized too late that I kinda underestimated how big Forest Park really is. But I don't mind much because we saw some amazing waterfalls in other areas of the park.
We were both so hungry and still pretty wet by the time the zoo closed, so I found a Steak n Shake nearby, and we dined in. We had onion rings, cheeseburgers, and thick, creamy mint chocolate chip (me) and peanut butter (her) milkshakes, and they were amazing and hit the spot! It rained pretty hard again on the drive back to the hotel, but I still got us back to it okay.
Distance walked today: 5.7 miles!