St. Louis

March 07, 2018

St. Louis

We went to St. Louis this summer because it was in the path of totality for the 2017 Solar Eclipse and fell in love with the city. We drove from Grand Rapids, Mi and it takes about 6 hours. We stopped in Normal, Illinois to play at their Children's Discovery Museum for free. We get a membership to the ASTC through our local museum for $65 and it gets us access to over 350 science centers and children's museum. This was one of the freebees. The kids were ready to get out and stretch and we timed it so we could eat our a sack lunch there.

We decided to camp and found a very cheap camp ground just 15 minutes outside of the city. They had a pool, which we used everyday as it was hot. They also had a nice playground. It was defiantly lot camping but it was cheap and close to the city. We arrived in time to set up camp and make dinner.

The next day we crammed a lot in. We went to the Old Court House. They had a museum there with displays on west ward expansion, and it's a national park so the kids got a junior ranger badge there. The only bummer is that the badge is the same as the one at the arch. We spent less than an hour there and there are not a lot of interactive things to do there but it's free and it also the place where you buy your tickets to ride to the top of the arch. So it's worth a look around while you're there.

Next we went to the arch. The kids got the Junior Ranger Badge and then we rode to the top of the arch. The pods that you take to the top are pretty small but it's a really neat way to experience St. Louis.

Getting their junior ranger badge at the arch

Selfie in the pod taking us up to the top.

The windows are pretty small at the top.

The arch casts a cool shadow.

After the arch we went to the City Museum. This place is huge. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. We actually lost our 3 year old. Luckily, we had written our cell number on his wrist band and they have employees that look for kids unattended. Our kids absolutely loved this place. I would second their recommendation of either knee pads or pants and good shoes. There is a lot of crawling and climbing.

The 10 story high slide

The next day we went to Ulysses S. Grant National park. The kids got the junior ranger badge there and enjoyed seeing some of the cool things at his family's home and in the museum.

Then we spent the rest of the day at the zoo. The zoo is free but you can pay to do some extra experiences. We got the bracelet to do some of the extras. Our local zoo is reciprocal so we saved 50% on our extras. It was a hot August day so the air conditioning in the theater and the shade of the train felt amazing. The zoo was also very crowded with the eclipse the next day the city was just packed.

3D movie

Our 3 year old loved the train

The polar bear was fun to watch

The carousel is always a hit

feeding sting rays

The animal show was fun,

They had a nice aquarium you could walk under.

Right next to the zoo is the history museum. Westin fell asleep so Mike stayed in the car with him and I took the big kids in to play. It's free and they have an excellent children's play area. The museum wasn't busy and was really fun.

Our final day in St. Louis we went to Lone Elk Park. This place was very cool. They had elk just roaming around. There were also bison in a fenced in area that you could drive through. We watched the eclipse there and it was kind of magical. This place was not crowded at all there were only maybe 10 other families we saw the whole time. This place was free too.