Other Fun Stuff

Lest you think we did nothing but swim, jump on the hotel beds, and climb up old cranes, I’d like to briefly share with you a few of our other activities.

Our hotel was just a few feet away from the Arch, so we of course walked over to see it. We could not, however, convince Satchel to take a ride to the top. I know I went to the top on my last visit to St. Louis (I remember hearing that Elvis had died on the radio if that gives you an idea of how long ago it was), and I don’t remember being scared, but I was certain that Satchel and possibly Jiro would be traumatized if we went. (Besides Warren had his pocket knife so we never would have made it through security.) Instead we opted to enjoy the view and walk along the riverfront for a bit.


We spent a whole day in Forest Park and only saw a tiny bit of it. We started off at the Zoo because everyone, including Zagat’s, kept saying how awesome it was. (I especially wanted to go because a friend told me they had a hairless monkey!) Oh, and another big draw was that it was free.

Let me just preface my upcoming remarks by saying that prior to leaving on our trip to St. Louis, the boys and I went to the Memphis Zoo on our first ever school fieldtrip. We had a blast—we rode the tram for the first time and the polar bears were putting on quite a show in the amazing new Northwest Passage exhibit. So by the time we made it to the St. Louis Zoo I think the three of us were a little zooed out. Plus it was HOT. (So hot that the poor hairless monkey, a long with every other monkey in the place, was in hiding.) We tried seeking comfort in the Herpeterium and the Insectorium, but the A/C was subpar at best. (I did notice that the gift shop was nothing less than frigd.) And damn if Warren and I weren’t still tired from the City Museum. (Hence the train ride.) Oh, and even though the admission is free, everything else costs a fortune. Parking was $9! The train was $4 each! A corndog was $5!

We decided to skip the Children’s Zoo, which might have been the most fabulous thing ever (& which cost another $4 per person) and head to the nearby Science Center because it was indoors. The Science Center was pretty cool—it had an IMAX and a planetarium and lots of little play stations like the San Francisco Exploratorium that we visited in November. We walked around for a bit and then ended up in the massive food court devouring a $4 bowl of watermelon. Once we were officially cooled off, we let the boys play in the outdoor science “playground.”

I would have loved to have gone to the art museum (and had brunch at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant inside) or walked along some of the many trails, but we were pooped and all the boys wanted to do was swim. I did insist on a brief stop at Turtle Playground for some photo ops.

Don’t the boys look thrilled?


Warren tried hard to make it seem fun.


Jiro was like, “Come on Dad! You are embarrassing me! I want to go swimming!”


Before leaving on Monday, we made a sojourn to the Missouri Botanical Garden. Warren wasn’t initially very excited about this, but when I told him about the Chihuly exhibit and the special Children’s Garden he came around. I was immediately impressed with the place. The Chihuly exhibit was everywhere—40% of it was mixed into the landscape and gave the whole place a very Willy Wonka feel. (Thankfully all of the pieces were well beyond the monkeys’ reach!)


The Children’s Garden was pretty cool—lots of places to climb and explore, but again, nothing compared to the City Museum. There was a little mini water park (similar to the Peabody Park sprayground) that the boys loved. In fact, there were water features throughout the gardens and the boys made sure they got as wet as possible. The Japanese Garden was enormous and lovely, but not nearly as lovely as the one in Memphis. (Warren and I were of course on high alert again and made sure Jiro got no where near the water.) There were also several lovely places to eat, which I thought was a nice touch. I would definitely want to go back here and explore some more.