Thanksgiving Vacation

For Thanksgiving, we road tripped from Denver to Saint Louis for a week of fun and time spent with my partner’s family. I had never been to Saint Louis, and I have to admit, the city itself isn’t particularly exciting unless you love old, decrepit buildings (which I actually do). Still, there is a lot of interesting stuff to do.

Admission to the zoo is free, and street parking is free. You have to pay for certain exhibits, but nothing my kids wanted to see was outside of the free areas. The science center is also free. We paid for parking there, because we didn’t want to have to walk too far in the cold, but you can apparently find free street parking. The IMax theater inside the science center charges and seems to operate like a normal theater, but my kids aren’t interested in that. Plus, there are some interesting (free) parks with climbable sculptures and space to run.

Then there’s the Saint Louis City Museum. General admission (ages 3+) is $12, but it’s completely worth it. There is an enormous play structure just inside the doors, and one outside as well, that is what I wished all play structures were like when I was a kid. It’s not made of colored plastic tubes with matching slides and foam-padded floors. There are tiny, dark crawl spaces, metal climbing structures, an enormous whale, and a three-story slide. The outdoor play area is monstrous and built mostly of metal with crawling tubes made of rebar where kids can look down on their parents.

I will tell you from experience, if you choose not to follow your kids through the play structure at the City Museum, you may not have any idea where they are for 30 minutes or more at a time. They will probably only come back to tell you about something exciting they did or found. But it seems like the staff is used to that. The wristbands you receive at the counter have a space to write your cell phone number, in case your kids get lost. And one staff member announced, “if you don't know where your kids are, its because you didn't go with them. Be patient. They'll be back. They have until 5 PM to be away from you.” At first, the idea of letting them run free, without me, in a mostly-hidden structure full of other children made me panic, but I honestly felt like my kids were pretty safe there. But if you’re concerned, like I was, plan to either crawl through with them or bring people who can.

Another great experience for my kids was Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. They didn’t know what frozen custard was, and were resistant to the idea of having something that is “like ice cream, but not” but it was delicious. They have an incredible selection of flavors and a tiny (unadvertised) cup size for little kids. For me, it was particularly enjoyable because the place has been around since 1929.

All in all, every one of my girls agreed that they had A LOT of fun in Saint Louis, and they want to go back. The free admission to the zoo and the science center is almost enough to make me want to live there... almost. But, on the way back through Denver at the tail end of our trip home, I remembered how clean, new, and enjoyable my city is. I made the comment, “You know, I think Denver is for spoiled 20-somethings... and I’m okay with being one of those people.” I spent a lot of my childhood in places that looked basically like Saint Louis, but smaller. As an adult, I love where I am.

Just to keep you updated, as this is being posted, we are working on moving into our new house! We closed on a nice little house with a great yard on Thursday, and convinced our wonderful friends to help us move the large furniture from our 3rd floor apartment this weekend. I’ll update you on that part of our lives next weekend.