Adventure Day 3 (Missouri)

Today we explored St. Louis. Here are the places we went to today:

Museum of Transportation – with AAA discount, we only paid $4 admission. They had a wonderful collection of old cars (Bobby Darin’s old car, 57 Chevy, and a Dusenberg with goat skin) and lots of trains (including the world’s largest snow plow train). I like to imagine what it would have been like to travel around the country in a train like wealthy people travel today in their private jets. We even watched three men repair part of the train tracks. They were training drivers of the trolley so it wasn’t open for rides today.

Laumiere Sculpture Park – Park that was free and filled with interesting sculptures. My favorite was the giant eyeball.

Walmart – We stopped there to buy me popcorn and a small tripod for my camera. It will come in handy so we can take some pictures together. I also found postcards for only .25. I have found that Walmart is a great place to find souvenirs that are reasonably priced.

We left there and went to find the Venice Café for lunch. It was a neat looking place and very colorful but it wasn’t open for lunch. It looked kind of hippie-ish but lots of reviews on the internet recommended it. Oh well, maybe on our next visit.

Our next stop was the Hard Rock Café in Union Station to buy our bottle opener magnet. Luckily they gave me a pass for two hours free parking so we walked around Union Station. It was like a mall with a food court (where we ate lunch) but there was also a Memories Museum that had artifacts about the history of Union Station, trains, and St. Louis. It was a fantastic exhibit that was free.

When we left there, we headed to Forest Park to look for the World’s Fair Pavilion. The World’s Fair was held in St. Louis in 1904. There were so many cars but we found a place to park along the road and walked up to the Pavilion. It was a pretty building. After that, we walked over to the St. Louis Zoo which was in Forest Park. It was a huge zoo and the best part was that it was free. It was the largest zoo, next to the San Diego Zoo, that I’ve ever been to and well worth seeing. We walked through the 1904 Flight Cage that was in the World’s Fair. The Smithsonian Institute wanted to move it to Washington DC after the World’s Fair but St. Louis wouldn’t let them.

After the zoo, we drove to St. Charles which is where Lewis and Clark started their exploration. This was the state’s first Capitol. The city is located on the Missouri River. The city had a historic Main Street filled with shops and eating places.

After this, we looked for something to eat and finally agreed on Taco Bell. Now we are back at the hotel resting our sore feet and stuffing our faces with junk food! Tomorrow we are on the road again.

More pictures on Flickr: Click HERE