We decided to spend the first part of our day in Forest Park. This was a beautiful section of the city filled with way more to do than we had time. Aside from the tranquil setting, the best part was the zoo and all the museums located here always have free admission. We started with exploring the Saint Louis Zoo. As we walked down the curved pathways lined with tall, lush greenery Adam and I were reminded of Disney's Animal Kingdom.
We most enjoyed seeing the elephants. It was Ella and Lily's first time seeing elephants in person. We lucked out as they were extremely active and there was even a baby along with three adults. It was mesmerizing to watch them twisting and turning their trunks to move around the hay and grass scattered about. They were mostly lifting it up and eating it, but one of the adult elephants must have been hot and threw a huge pile all over it's back, which the girls thought was hilarious. Lily loved the elephants so much she couldn't leave without using the gift money she had to buy an adorable elephant puppet.
We also had good timing as we came upon the bear. As we approached he was playing in the stream cascading through the middle of the habitat. As we watched, he stayed by the glass, giving us an opportunity to see him up close as he moved about the rocks.
We made our way out of the zoo and walked over to the Saint Louis Art Museum to eat lunch at it's restaurant, Panorama. This turned out to be a decision none of us would regret. Upon entering, the reason behind the name was immediately evident as we were greeted by the gorgeous view through the full length rectangular windows lining the entire back wall. Their very reasonably priced menu had several delicious options we were all happy to have. All of us thoroughly enjoyed our lunch while our waiter Calvin took impeccable care of us.
Since we wanted to head over to the area by the St. Louis Arch, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, we were running out of time. We saw as much of this museum as we could, which truthfully didn't even scratch the surface of all that was on display. The huge Monet Water Lilies painting was a sight to see.
The one security guard couldn't get over how much the girls looked like Punky Brewster and she kept bringing other guards over to see them. A humbling moment came from a guard who had no idea what she was talking about since he was born in 1993. The grand architecture of the museum itself was worth seeing. We got to see works by Van Gogh, Matisse, Degas, Cezanne, Picasso and then some. They had a Marc Chagall painting (pretty sure this was my first time seeing his work in person) and we had fun finding the hidden faces and goats. One of my favorite moments was when Lily asked me with a giggle if I saw the painting with the two kids falling in love. There was an enormous painting of a man's face that caught our eye. The write-up next to it explained that the artist used photographs of his friends and family and replicated them with no detail left out, down to the pores on the face. It got to the point that it was time to go but Adam realized Ella and I weren't quite ready. So he and Lily went to get the truck and we got to see a bit more. One of the things we came across was a gorgeous silver soup tureen shaped like a giant turtle that was used for turtle soup way back when.
When we were all together again in the truck we wanted to move on, but felt like we couldn't leave Forest Park without driving around to see some of what we didn't get to. We came across the World's Fair Pavilion that had fountains and a waterfall wall that we just had to get out to check out. Even though there were signs saying no wading there were several people there doing just that and the girls had to join in.
We moved on knowing that we would have to come back for another vacation. Once we arrived in the area by the Arch we were pleasantly surprised the Taste of St. Louis was going on. There was live music and several local restaurants offering delicious libations and small bites for sale. One of the sponsors was Pearl Vodka, a company local to St. Louis. One drink I couldn't pass up was a Strawberry Basil Vodka Margarita (made with Pearl Vodka instead of Tequila). It was delicious and refreshing. We each picked a small bite to buy and sat in the tent by the live music to eat. Before moving on, I needed to get my own Pearl Cucumber Vodka with Tonic water (Adam's drink purchase).
We went into the Old Courthouse and the girls received the Jr. Ranger workbooks. Adam paired up with Ella and I worked with Lily to complete the assignments needed to earn the badge. One of the activities Lily and I were working on took us on a scavenger hunt to find various details of the building. We couldn't find the turtles in a railing inside so we stepped just outside. Our eyes scanned the black wrought iron fence that surrounded the building and down at the bottom of the gate there they were. The remarkable talent and craftsmanship we were witnessing at that moment gave me a strong sense of gratitude towards those who came before us for their high level of creativity, hard work and the preservation of it all (and to the Jr. Ranger program for helping us to notice it). Both girls finished what was needed and we went to the Park Ranger for them to say the oath and get their badge.
At this point it was around 6:30 so we had to start our 10 minute walk to the base of the Arch so we would be on time for our 7:05 tickets. As we got closer to the Arch you could literally feel the sheer magnitude of it. Once inside the base we went over to the Park Ranger to get the girls the Junior Ranger assignment here. We got into line and were assigned to tram car 3 for our assent to the top of the arch. A warning was given to duck as we entered through the 4 foot high doorway. When the doors opened it revealed the tiny little pod with 5 white stools surrounding the perimeter. It was a 4 minute ride to the lookout at the top, 630 feet in the air. The lookout was a narrow corridor broken into several sections on each side with a step up below the sloped, carpeted walls. We laid on our bellies on the slope and peered through the little horizontal windows. Everything looked so minuscule below. When looking out the windows on the right we could see the Mississippi River and well beyond. We switched sides so we could look out towards the city. We had an incredible birds eye view of the Old Courthouse, the Cardinals Stadium and the beautiful city buildings. We went back and forth between sides a few times before we got back in line to come down. We took the 3 minute ride (gravity shaved a minute off) down in Tram 4.
Once in the base again the girls finished their Jr. Ranger assignments and took their second oath of the day to receive this badge. We were all fascinated as we watched the 30 minute movie that shared the story of the magnificent feat of building this monument, which included actual video of the construction process. Our favorite part was watching the last piece getting put into place. One of the more interesting facts we learned was they had figured there would be 13 deaths amongst the construction workers during the project. Amazingly it was completed without a single person sacrificing their life. By this point it was well after 9pm and we went back to the RV. All day Lily couldn't wait to take a swim in the pool at the campsite. Since it provided the rare opportunity of swimming 24/7 (most others close by 9pm) we all quickly changed into our bathing suits and finished our day with an hour long swim. Around 11pm we all took fast showers and off to bed we went.
