Forest Park

We've promised our kids that we'd take them on a boat ride in the lake at Forest Park near the St. Louis zoo for three years. Since this was probably our last trip to St. Louis before we move (other than the one where we drive through as we're moving) we decided this had to be the trip. B and I had gone on a boat ride a couple of years ago for our anniversary.

We started the day at the zoo. We were envisioning horrible crowds since it was Memorial Day, in Missouri, at a free zoo. We were lucky (sort of) though because it was raining. It wasn't crowded. We got slowly drenched, but it was mostly just a stead drizzle. And we got to see a baby camel. I love baby animals. Baby X enjoyed the penguins most and finally mastered the sign for bird.

We also paid extra to ride the train... another promise we'd made to the kids. $5 a person (except for Baby X)!!! But I guess I shouldn't complain since admission to the zoo is free.

We also paid extra for the new sting ray exhibit. I'd pet sting rays before at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, or somewhere of the sort. So I thought the kids would enjoy it. Buddy assured me that he wasn't going to touch one, but he'd like to see them. PS thought she'd maybe touch one. Buddy ended up loving it and after about 10 minutes of just watching them, he decided to touch them and ended up petting quite a few. PS was much more scared and only barely touched a couple.

Then we headed to the lake and the boat ride. B's mom was meeting us at the lake to sit with Baby X while we took the two older kids on the boat. By now it had stopped raining so we thought we'd have to hurry over there before a line formed for the boat rentals. When we went for our anniversary we had to wait quite awhile for an available boat. We didn't need to hurry. There was only one other boat on the lake and it was heading in as we headed out. B picked a row boat rather than a paddle (or is it pedal) boat so that our kids weren't falling out the back while we went. After about 15 minutes it started to rain. The guy in charge of the boats told us if it was under 40 minutes we could get a rain check and that if it started to rain, to stop under one of the bridges. We had just passed under the last, and best bridge when it started to rain so we turned around pretty quickly but it seemed to be letting up so we kept going. By the time we got to the final (and worst) bridge it was pouring, but the bridge was just a metal grate that did nothing to keep us dry so we decided to just head all the way back to the dock rather than sit still getting wet when it could just get worse. Needless to say, we got a rain check. And drenched. And the kids got in a huge, horribly embarrassing (the dock is also a fancy restaurant) fight over their umbrella while we waited for B to get the car.

We ate our "picnic"provided by B's mom in the car as we drove to my old roommate Karen and her husband Nate's home to visit with them. Karen is from western Kansas and they moved to St. Louis last summer. We've been trying to meet up over the last year and hadn't managed it yet. It was fun to visit with them and see how much their kids have grown. I babysat their oldest when she was just a baby and I was completely clueless about kids.




We ended our day by seeing the outside of Ulysses S. Grant's home and getting stamps for our National Parks passports (and using their bathrooms). Our kids have been to Grant's Farm before with Grandma and Grandpa M but B and I hadn't and it was sort of on the way home so we drove past so we could see it.