Month: May 2025

Today is our last day in St. Louis. We checked out of our AirBNB and went to Gateway Arch. Linda and Annabelle had arrangements for a tram ride up the arch. They went inside while Andy stayed outside with Buster. The girls rode up the tram and saw Andy below the arch in the middle of the lawn below them.

After the arch, we went to Taco Bell for lunch. We left St. Louis with one more stop planned on the way home. We wanted to see Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. Starved Rock seems a lot like Devil’s Lake. It’s not far from Chicago and it’s a very popular park with lots of traffic.

We did two trails at Starved Rock. The first trail went up to the top of Starved Rock. Native Americans from the area were under siege and perished on Starved Rock, which is where the name came from. French Canyon trail was the other trail we hiked. Both trails were short but sweet. The view of the canyon was amazing.

Today we went to the St. Louis Zoo after breakfast at the AirBNB. Luckily we found street parking within a reasonable walk. The zoo here is impressive, especially because it’s free. We only planned to spend a couple hours there. So we did not see everything. We saw two different parts of the zoo. One was River’s Edge with Asian elephants, hippos and hyenas. We were very impressed by the elephant exhibits. The other part we saw was The Wild which had apes, polar bears, grizzly bears and penguins. While we were at the zoo we also happened upon a stingray touch tank. Annabelle and I went inside and Belle got to feed a stingray.

After the zoo, we went back to the AirBNB to let Buster out. Then we drove to the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station. The aquarium had a variety of exhibits which were all pretty solid. It’s a lot smaller the the Shedd in Chicago. One part that punched above it’s weight was the area with touch tanks. They had the typical star fish, stingrays and such. But they also had a tank where you could touch jellyfish. Linda and I also had fun pointing out the fish we saw scuba diving to Annabelle. Annabelle and Linda fed stingrays here too. It was cheaper to feed them at the aquarium than at the zoo.

Our next stop was Gateway Arch. We arrived just in time to get Annnabelle’s passport book stamped as the gift shop closed. We walked through the museum but did not have much time to take in the exhibits before close. I was glad we got to see the place when we did. On our way out we saw another variety of stamps and added another to Belle’s passport book. We went outside and walked around the arch. We went down to the river to see the view from the bottom of the steps.

For dinner we went to Kampai for sushi. Annabelle likes sushi a lot. But she only wanted to eat the California roll. Linda and I had a variety of sushi. We tried their Kampai special roll which had lobster in it. The food was good. Annabelle got to sit next to a sushi roll squishmellow. While she enjoyed her time there she was disappointed she couldn’t take the squishmellow home with her.

Today we went to the City Museum. The whole family walked down there together. Linda bought admission ahead of time. You get a wristband so you can come and go throughout the day. The City Museum has a lot of things to climb on and through. Some of it is tubes like you typically expect. Other times the tubes are made of metal rods space a couple inches apart. They have a lot of slides there too. Some slides go from one floor down to another floor.

The City Museum is several stories high. They have attractions on the roof top too, even a Ferris wheel. Annabelle and Linda climbed around a lot. Most of the tunnels and places to climb are difficult for a large adult to get through. Often times there is an alternative way to get up using stairs without ducking too much. So that’s how I stuck nearby them.

Outside there are tunnels going from the third story down to the ground. The tunnels lead out to two different airplanes which are connected with a tunnel in between them. They have a castle too. Inside there was a dark area as if you’re going through a cave. They have a very large pencil as well as a large pair of underwear which is a little weird.

We walked home and went to The Fountain on Locus for lunch. Linda and I both had a Cuban sandwich. We also had ice cream sundaes. After lunch we spent a half hour at the World Chess Hall of Fame. The first floor had an art exhibit. One room had black lights above and two tables with chess boards. Annabelle and I played a game of chess. The second story had a variety of different chess boards. The top floor had a kid’s area.

After that I dropped Linda and Annabelle off at the City Museum. I parked the car. Buster ate his dinner and I let him out. Then I walked down to meet Linda and AB. We explored some more of the City Museum. We stuck our hands in a fish tank and the fish ate the dead skin cells off our hands. We also saw axolotls in one of their tanks. Another part of the museum was a skate park. I walked home, showered and drove back to pick them up again at 9 pm close.

We drove into St. Louis yesterday night. We got there and basically went to bed. We’re staying in an AirBNB not far from the City Museum and the Aquarium.

We started our first day with a trip to Grant’s Farm. The first thing we saw were the Clydesdales. Then we took the tram tour. We got to feed baby goats a bottle of milk. We did two bottles between Linda, Annabelle and I. The goats drank the milk pretty quick. After that we hung around and Annabelle brushed the goats for a while. The next attraction was a building full of parakeets. The birds would land on us and some bit us.

Then we ate lunch. I had a brat with German potato salad. I thought it was pretty good for a tourist attraction. Budweiser gives everyone two free beers when they visit. So I had two Michelob Ultra NA beers. After lunch we saw the national historic attraction for Grant’s life. Grant was a general in the civil war. Later he was president. While he owned a slave he had an important role in ending slavery. He did set his slave free.

After Grant’s Farm we drove through the Lone Elk Park. We chose to drive through rather than doing a hike. We did drive everywhere we possibly could. We saw a couple lone whitetail deer. We also saw several elk. A couple times we saw two elk together and another time we saw a big group, probably six or eight of them. A lot of raccoons greet the cars as they drive through. People must be feeding them. There were supposedly bison in the park. Unfortunately we did not see any.

We ate Chinese takeout from Corner 17. Linda actually went to this restaurant when she was in town for a work trip. After dinner we went to see the Cardinals game. We got a picture with the mascot. Annabelle spent time climbing through the play structure in the children’s area. Unfortunately that was the only free kid’s attraction. You could also pay to throw pitches. They had an arcade too, but we didn’t go there to play those games.

The Cardinals won their game which was nice to see. After that, we came home and called it a night.