Spring Break

ST. LOUIS STYLE!

Owen had his first spring break trip, enjoying a few days to unwind from the grind of kindergarten in St. Louis.

ST LOUIS ZOO

We left home on Sunday morning, arriving in St. Louis around 2 pm, giving us three hours at the St. Louis Zoo.

Owen kicked off the zoo visit on something bug-related, just like he did at last summer's visit to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha.

Little did we know the sculpture was just about as big as the real creatures we'd find inside!

After the insect house, we got to the meat of the visit.

In many ways, seeing animals wasn't our priority (although we would get to that later). Job number one, according to our #1 engineer, Owen, was to ride around the park on the train.

We had lots of fun on board, especially when we went past the waterfall (which felt wonderful on an unseasonably hot, 80 degree, March 20 day), although the ride didn't give us the views of the animals the Skyfari in Omaha did.

With some noteable exceptions, particularly the tiger below.

We got off after one circuit of the park with an hour to spare to see a few of the animals up close. The bears were a favorite, as were the penguins.



A last-ditch march through one final section of the zoo to see the elephants amounted to nothing but seeing giant piles of elephant poop. Photo not included.

You're welcome!

We did run across a particularly agressive pachyderm on our way out, though.


It was a smashing ending to a happy day!



CITY MUSEUM
Monday began with a trip to the City Museum. Owen and Maya's Auntie Meg had visited there at the end of 2010 and couldn't say enough.


And, indeed, it's an amazing place, kind of what you'd expect if that granola-looking, Tolkein-reading gang that was operating your local college coffeehouse -- you know, the one with all the dead ferns in the window -- had all gone off and picked up engineering degrees, and were thengiven access to a scrap yard and tons of grant dollars.

There were discoveries at every turn. Owen started off in the ball pit.




But in no time was climbing to new (and slightly terrifying) heights, two to three stories above the ground.

At the end of these long tunnels were particular delights, including slides, broken down fire trucks and airplanes, and climbing gyms.

Maya also enjoyed all of the amazing discoveries.

After a break at the hotel, we went over to the Delmar Loop area to check out the old trolley, the St Louis Walk of Fame ...

... and enjoy some treats, including bubble tea (a first for the kids) and gluten free pizza.

One final stop of the night was Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, a St. Louis institution that was recommended by practically every one of our friends.

THE ARCH

We began our final day at leisure. We ate breakfast at our hotel then drove over to a nearby park I had seen in Clayton, Mo., on my morning run. It was a wonderful playground and the kids had a great time making new friends and burning up some of their energy.

After lunch, it was off to the Arch.

Owen couldn't make up his mind whether going to the top would be scary or not, but the two-hour wait to ride up and the kids exhaustion from the morning play made the decision to make this a quick visit an easy one. We looked through the Lewis and Clark exhibit gallery and took some photos around the arch, then packed everyone into the car and began the drive home ...

... with one little detour. We dropped Amy off at a different hotel in the St. Louis area on our drive home. She needed to go down there to train some employees, so she made the arrangements to stay on a couple of days to get that done, and will be traveling home on Amtrak on Thursday.

We'll be looking forward to seeing you then, Mom.