Sonya's Blog - Day 20 - Forest Park
Sonya’s Blog - Day 20 - July 12 - Exploring Forest Park in the Heat
Holy Smokarooni was it hot today, when we got in the truck after walking around Forest Park it was 37 degrees C and so muggy. Crazy hot.
Today we decided to visit Forest Park, which is a large park in St. Louis. It was the site of the Pavilion for the World Fair in 1904. The Zoo, Science Centre, Art Museum and History Museum are also in Forest Park. We first headed to the Visitors Centre to get a map of the park and decide where we wanted to walk around. We had Kizmet with us so we were not going to any of the museums or anything, they are all free around there. We walked around for a bit and checked out the lagoon, fountains and sculptures. We then headed to the Boathouse because they have a little cafe there and you can bring your dog in if you sit on the patio which overlooks the lagoon. They have dog water bowls everywhere and little bags of organic dog treats for your dog, we loved it there. They had a good menu and we all got something different. It was tasty and we were in shade so it was a nice respite from the sun. Kizmet loved her dog treats and then had a nap under my chair.
Picture of Forest Park, the dude in the sculpture was some guy who came up with the modern structural well being or something like that. It was too hot to concentrate and remember all the details.
We then decided to head back because it had gotten so hot and was not really enjoyable waking around in the heat. On the way back to the RV I wanted to drop off the recycling as we had stumbled upon some bins, so we detoured through downtown. We came upon a street near Union Station that had huge slip and slides down it and a fire truck at one end with the hose on dumping water on the slides. It was a huge festival called Slide the City, so we stopped to check it out. It was about 4 blocks of sliding and everyone had an inner tube. Unfortunately you needed a ticket and they were sold out, but they do them all across the States so we will check it out. This is the first year that St. Louis has done Slide the City. We watched for a bit and because we were right beside Union Station we went to check it out. It is much larger than Kansas City’s Union Station, but not as pretty. The cool part was in the courtyard, where the trains used to pull into the station, that are had been converted and had a pond, restaurants, shops, etc.
Here is a picture:
Tash was pretty grumpy by this time because she was so hot and we were making her walk all over creation and she was done. So we headed back to the truck and went back to the RV, dropping off the recycling on the way! It hasn’t been easy recycling in the States, and never really is, but we have been doing pretty good. It is just not as easy to locate and there does not seem to be a huge emphasis on it in the States. Ah well, we are happy that we have had pretty good luck so far and have managed to recycle most of our recycables.
Once we were back at the RV we chillaxed for a bit. The boys went to the pool and Tash and I read our books. Blake then did some work on the bike rack to try and reinforce it so that we can put all the bikes on it again. I continued to read:) Then Blake came in and it was already 6 and I was still reading:) So he heated up supper, luckily we had leftovers. Then we were going to go to the Botanical Gardens for their Lantern Festival, but it was pretty late and we wouldn’t have had enough time there for the price of admission. So we watched a show instead and then I read some more! Not quite done my book, probably finish tomorrow night. Wish I could read in the car, Tash is so lucky that she can read in the car - so jealous!
We are off to Chicago area tomorrow, we are actually staying in Union which is an hour outside of Chicago. There was no closer campground, all of them were an hour outside the city. We can drive a bit and then catch the train in, so hopefully that will work out.