The above picture was on our little table at the bakery on Delmar where we got bagels. I have a whole new perspective on the perils of family trips once I became the sole responsible adult. The man at the counter asked the kids if they were playing hooky and I answered, "We're from New York," (if said in the right tone people seem to assume that we have different days off or something) at the exact time The Boy said, "Yes." Which made the man say, "Wow. When you guys play hooky you don't mess around." Yeah, like to the tune of an entire year... After breakfast we walked across the street to a cool art shop and bought two pads of water-color paper and two little water-color paint kits. I had great visions of my little artists planting it in front of a habitat and creating... As it turned out, they just wore their backpacks full of supplies for nothing, as the zoo was a bit bigger than I anticipated
On to the zoo. Being as the kids and I determined that if we saw something cool on this trip we were going to stop to check it out, I pulled into a neighborhood that we had passed the night before -- I had seen lights twinkling amongst leaves and bricks. It's called Parkview, bordered by Skinker and Park Forest, and is without a doubt the most beautiful neighborhood I have ever seen -- beautiful homes and enormous trees that make you feel like you've entered something protected and sacred. I did not know such neighborhoods existed. I Googled it and apparently most of the houses -- the majority three-story brick -- were built in 1915/1916 and the community is a part of the National Historic Registry. May it always be preserved.
The zoo is darling. It was a beautiful Fall day and a plus to visiting these places while playing hooky is that there are no crowds. In fact, when we visited the enclosure where we got to pet the goats we were the only goat gropers there. Fortunately, there was an employee who happened to be on the World's Fair Historic Society Board, and so was able to chat with me about some questions that I had about what was left from the fair... You cannot imagine how impressed she seemed every time I referenced the Judy Garland movie, Meet Me in St. Louis (I think the phrase: "Did you glean that information from the movie, too?" might have been asked of me a couple of times... which made me feel really smart.) While perhaps not rich in history, the movie is fun -- I watched it a lot as a kid and we watched it as a family the night before we left... the kids liked the little sister who sings the song about being drunk and leaves the fake body on the train tracks on Halloween.
The bird aviary/flight cage is one of the last remaining structures from that 1904 fair. The Smithsonian built it and planned on taking it back to the National Zoo in DC after the fair, but the residents of St. Louis rallied and bought it. It was the impetus for creating the St. Louis Zoo. I took this picture from the little train that circles the zoo. Is there anything better than a train at a zoo -- getting to see the animals while sitting on one's behind?
The zoo is part of Forest Park, which is where the fair took place. In the park is the zoo, a Museum of History, a planetarium, and Museum of Art -- among other things. And all of it is free. We will definitely have to go to the museums on another trip. This time we just passed by and I took a picture of the main building of the Art Museum -- which is the only building (outside of something on the Washington University campus) that still exists from the fair.
The World's Fair Pavilion was built from the proceeds from the fair in 1909. It overlooks the park where the fair took place, and it was conceived as a place where folks from the city could go and socialize and remember all that St. Louis offered to the fair, and all that the fair offered to St. Louis. At least that theme of pride of place and accomplishment and hosting was accurate in the movie!
Ding, ding, ding went the trolley.
After driving around the park we went back to Delmar and ate at a place that specializes in gourmet macaroni and cheese, checked out an old trolley that they have parked, saw a picture of Chuck Berry ("He's the one who sings the other version of Route 66... only he doesn't look like that anymore."), and went into a really cool vinyl store where we each picked out a record for The Dad. I will have to say that The Girl's selection: The Korean Orphan Choir singing Christmas Music is definitely the crown jewel. Judd the Red Chicken picked out a bongo drum delight, and I went with some songs from Hawaii.
Back to a different side of Forest Park where we parked at the planetarium. It's connected via a skybridge that goes over the freeway to the free Science Center.
At the Science Center we learned about the importance of keystones.
And that it's hard to be a hamster.
I read something on a sign that made me think: it said that as climates change plants and animals must do one of three things -- adapt, migrate, or become extinct. As my kids grow up I understand for the first time how strange it is for parents to watch their children become independent. This is the first trip we've ever been on when my little guy and gal think it's okay to completely wander off and follow their own interests. I've had a lot of conversations with The Boy about how he's becoming his own man, but that brings with it some new responsibilities. The bathroom situation has been torturous. At each stop I've had to weigh out whether the environment seems safe to send him into the men's room alone, or see the humiliated look on his face when I make him come into the women's. I consider parents that I knew when I was young -- my own, my friends', people I babysat for -- and I thought how as we all got older and unconsciously changed the climate of our family they had to chose -- either to change with us and stay relevant, to kind of migrate into their own worlds as we migrated into ours, or to become rather nonexistent. It is something that all plants and animals do... as Mr. Rogers would say, it's simple and deep.
We then drove downtown and checked into a new hotel that would put us closer to the next day's activities. We asked the concierge to recommend a restaurant and we walked out in a gentle rain to Bailey's Grange -- where they have excellent food and homemade ice cream.
While sitting there, upstairs next to a window, the heavens opened and the rain came down in torrents. Once again, we found ourselves practically alone in a restaurant. The atmosphere was beautiful and we felt so cozy and relaxed and free. They had a full page of speciality sodas, so seeing sarsaparilla and root beer listed in different categories, and determined to finally put it to rest which one we preferred, we ordered one of each and three glasses and had a taste test. The Boy and I voted sarsaparilla; The Girl root beer. And then we all got the giggles when we read on the sarsaparilla bottle that it's the "granddaddy of all root beer." What the what?
We ran back in the pouring rain.
