The Progeny
Swimming with Dogs
Well, here it is...the first outing to Pine Lake, this year.
For those who don't like to access Picasa albums (42 pictures, here), I'll try and put up some individual pictures, tomorrow.
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| 2009 Pine Lake, first visit |
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posted by Ma Hoyt | 5:07 PM
5 Comments:
Weeding out pictures can be quite a job but I enjoy looking at yours. My sister and I took my niece and nephew (ages 9 and 10) to Saint Louis last week and I'm trying to choose 200 images for the photo album we are giving to them (3 digital cameras were in use). We crowded so many sights and activities into the week that it is really difficult...Forest Park, the zoo, the History Museum, Science Museum, the Arch and Museum of Westward Expansion, pedal boats, Ted Drewes, Route 66, City Garden, hotel swimming pools, Saint Louis University where Blake is going to graduate school, and more. So many things are free in Saint Louis that it is hard to stop for bed time. Thanks again for regularly sharing pictures...I am especially fond of flowers and nature.
Free stuff in Saint Louis? Sounds like I'm gonna hafta visit :-)
I'm glad you guys had a fun day!
Water frisbee is SUCH a good idea!
Apparently several years ago, Saint Louis poured a great deal of money and effort into revitalizing Forest Park, the site of the 1904 World's Fair. The zoo and all of the museums located there charge no entrance fees. There are fees for specific portions of the facilities, but even many of those are waived at times - for instance, the first hour the zoo is open stingrays may be petted, carousels mounted for rides, and petting zoo animals enjoyed free of charge. Since there is no admission charge, we went on two separate mornings in order to see all the animals.
There is a parking fee for the Gateway Arch but no museum charge and we chose not to go to the top--turns out the kids didn't even want to when they saw it.
A new sculpture garden with fountains intended for playing in and sculpture made for climbing on opened in July in a two block area of downtown Saint Louis. My nephew convinced us that taking children there at night would be a great idea. I must admit that we felt reasonably safe by parking close and just being aware. Other families were out enjoying the colored lights and unpredictable water and policemen were walking the park also. If we were incredibly stupid, God was gracious. We had a lot of fun!
Forest Park and Tower Grove Park (another old park established in the late 1800's) provided great spots for picnics and dragging tree branches about.
We did choose to spend just under $40 to rent pedal boats at Forest Park because you could go from the lake, through canals and under bridges, to the Grand Basin area and around the fountains. With my bad knees, I sat in a rocking chair at the boathouse with a book while my sister and nephew did the work :p
The biggest expense was finding a decent hotel in an area we felt would be more family oriented and safe since Blake has only lived there since early July. He is living in a transitional area to be close to Saint Louis University for his graduate studies in historical theology. I was surprised at how many beautiful buildings and plantings I saw.
Paige and I flew into Saint Louis a few years ago, rented a car to drive to Urbana, IL, and then spent one night near the airport. We saw the arch but that was about all we had time for. I didn't realize that I would enjoy the city so much.
Earlier in July, Belinda and I helped Blake find some used furniture for his apartment by shopping the thrift stores while he studied German. Before returning to Texas we splurged by going to see "Meet Me In Saint Louis" at the Muny, an 11,000 seat outdoor amphitheater in Forest Park (we bought tickets but they actually give away 1500 seats each night). I would highly recommend a trip to Saint Louis if you can manage it sometime.
I'm amazed Blogger allows me to expend this number of words in a "comment" :)
Wow, thanks for all the helpful info, Rhonda!
I'm going to print this out so I can have ready access to it...as long as it doesn't get lost on my desk, ha ha.
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