The Penultimate Post
Oct. 25th, 2006 03:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamagotchaWe were supposed to pick up Cord at the Amtrak station around 10:30pm, and I had been mucking around with a very slow 'net pipe until 8pm, so we decided to go out for pizza first.
Clay spotted one from the freeway, and it turned out to be a local favorite. Of course, the second game of the Cards/Tigers game was on, but nobody seemed to mind Linc running to and fro (along with a couple other kids). Very relaxed joint, great game on the tube, and terrific pizza to boot. They had something called toasted ravioli for a appetizer... not my cuppa, but I'm glad I tried it.
It took a few tries to locate the train station, but it was successfully found about two minutes before Cord's train rolled in. We gathered him up and rolled back to the cabin, letting him finish off Linc's cheese pizza (Linc wasn't part of the welcoming committee, having fallen asleep between the pizza place and the train station). Clay read the next chapter of "The End," and we retired for the evening.
The next morning was a little hard for everyone to get started... very cold, and the boys just wanted to play with DSs and laptops and such, while I was hoping for a shower and a hot breakfast. A few snide remarks and pot slams aside, we were all finally full of oatmeal (despite Linc dumping the container of oats just before cooking them) and cocoa. The thing Cord wanted to see the most was the huge arch you can see from anywhere in the St. Louis area, so that was first on the agenda.
It wasn't too difficult to navigate our way to this huge landmark. It turns out that this is a federal site, and so we were treated to the whole search and metal detector procedure. It's the Jefferson Memorial (to Westward Expansion, or something like that, but everyone calls it the arch), and we made it just as a tram was getting ready to go up to the top. The "cars" of the tram are very tiny, and the four of us were squished in with two other folks in a space no more than 6 feet in any direction. It was pretty claustrophobic, but it only took about four minutes to sail up to the top of the arch.
Linc loved it so much, he immediately filled his pants. We took the next car down.
There were several other exhibits going on inside, under the arch. The only free one was a pretty good collection of photos, quotes, and items from the Westward Expansion itself, including a video that used the word "cordelling"! Linc was getting pretty tired, though, so we decided to head to our next destination... the plan was that Linc would conk out, and Cord would hang with him while Clay and I toured the Holocaust Museum.
On the way out, the boys were goofing off at the base of the arch:
Leaving the arch, you could see a blaze of trees along the park... I think perhaps I've finally managed to capture a taste of the colors I've been seeing all week:
We noticed a street called "Clayton," and stopped for a photo with the original... it turned out to be the intersection of Clayton Drive and Clayton Street! Today we saw a Claytonia Street, too...
Traffic and construction caused us to get to the Holocaust Museum with only an hour left of exhibition time before they closed. Still, Clay had expressed a desire to visit this place ever since he came across it in a guidebook. I have a hard time at these kinds of places... as a journalist, a mother, an American of German descent, all of these things cause me to have very visceral responses to this horrific time of history. But I told Clay I'd do it with him, and I did. It was an excellent exhibit, except for certain annoying audio clips that tended to repeat the written material (Clay noted that it was much better to absorb this information in silence, and I agreed with him). We didn't get a chance to see all of it, but I was able to glimpse enough of each of the last few parts to get a feel for the flow of the entire exhibit. I certainly learned a lot about the roots of the Holocaust, although it's still mind-boggling to consider that things went on for as long and as horribly as they did unchecked.
We were somber when we left, and found Cord and Linc happy in the parking lot. Linc fell back asleep as we drove around looking for a store, and we stumbled on a World Market, a stand-alone market featuring tons of goodies from all over the world. Mostly, it was separated into aisles representing two or three countries each. Cord was delighted to see drinks and foods he recognized from Japan, I got some Scotch oats for breakfast, and we got Clay and Linc some treats too.
Back to the camp, I whipped up some macaroni and cheese and salad for dinner while the boys ran around. Cleaned up, read Snicket, talked a little in the dark with the boys as Linc rolled around and fell asleep... I'm glad I have teen boys I can talk to. They're great kids, and I'm lucky they still want to gallivant around the US with me like this!
Next morning, the plan was to go to the zoo and then do the science center in the afternoon. But between a very late scrambled-egg-and-cheese breakfast and a frosty morning, we didn't get there until about 11am. Here's a sculpture we met just as we got to the corner of the St. Louis Zoo (this is only one half of it!):
and this is the "cool z" sign that Clay really liked, just outside the entrance gates:
I couldn't possibly do justice to this zoo. It was clear right when we got in that this was going to be a full-day visit, and as it was, we managed to close the place down (we thought it was open until 7, but it actually closed at 5, and we got chased out by a security guard!).
We first encountered a very cool sea lion sculpture/fountain right inside the gates (I like this picture not just for the sea lions, but for the fall colors AND the nifty hats the boys are wearing!).
We rode the little train around the zoo, and got flashes of tempting critters all over the place. Cord wanted to start with the "river edge" exhibit on the west side, so that's what we did. This is a great example of what we've been seeing in the zoos we've been visiting lately... a walk-through environment with lots of interactive bits, things to discover, stuff that's not necessarily shoved in your face or didactically spelled out for you. The only downside is that this zoo allows smoking, and we had a group that was drifting ahead and behind us that had several chimneys in it. It was overwhelming, and we finally had to sit down and give them a chance to play through first.
The best part of this section, I thought, was the hippos. Like the polar bears in Memphis, they had an underwater display that showed just how graceful these huge animals are when swimming. We got a front-seat view of fish dealing with fresh hippo dung (Linc LOVED the fish in this exhibit... maybe I should think about another aquarium?), and I caught a hippo mid-yawn:
There was a nifty children's zoo as well. The first exhibit there was a goat brushing yard.
Cord didn't want to go in, but he made friends with a goat anyway:
This area included a see-through tube slide that ran through the otter exhibit! I took many otter pictures but not many came out well... still, here's some:
There was also an otter sculpture I loved, and got Cord to take a pic of with me (notice the otter shirt!):
After that, an insect house... hey, Linc, that's not a radioactive spider you've got there, is it?
Cord and Linc checking out the butterflies in the gorgeous butterfly dome (the butterflies are feasting on thawed frozen chocolate bananas):
Our "Safari Pass" got us onto the "Endangered Species" carousel. Even though we were the only folks there, the ride operators were cheerful and friendly and funny. Even my big guys got into it!
Linc just wanted to sit on a bench, though, so I didn't get to ride the otter:
We made it to the penguin exhibit in time for the feeding, and peppered the keeper with questions. There were at least four types of pengies there, and a swimming pool viewing area that was about chest-high, so you were eye-to-eye with the surface-swimming birds! They even had a puffin exhibit there, and a little female mallard had snuck in. Or maybe she was a foreign exchange student...
They had a motion-simulator ride, featuring a Halloween-themed rollercoaster film called "Superstition." I was doubtful about Linc doing it, but the ride operator took a look at him and said he'd do fine... sure enough, he settled in against me and enjoyed it so much that he asked to do the "bumpy road" again with Clayton! (Once was plenty for Cord and me). Ya think ya know a person!
We also toured a huge aviary built for the 1904 World's Fair and restored just a few years ago, the "antelope house" where all the ruminant critters were working on their dinners (and we were about 4 feet away from them, including a beautiful okapi and the very graceful giraffes, plus these gazelles that had impossibly long and thin necks), these lovely soft-blue long-tailed cranes (the national bird of South Africa), the big cats... there was a bird house that closed, but I did catch a shot of this totally cut dude (see, gang? pecs = pecks... you work out, you get the chicks!):
Right when we spotted four more otters scrambling around and roughhousing together (two were 7-month-old pups), we were discovered by security... the zoo had closed! Our map said it closed at 7, but apparently that's summer hours. I did get one good shot:
I had wanted to stop for water and fresh veggies/fruit on the way back to the camp, but a traffic jam into the setting sun sparked a roaring headache. The boys wanted to stop at a game store close to the camp, and it turned out that they were starting a Magic tournament in about ten minutes! I decided to let the boys do it, because poor Clay had been shorted of his other tourney last Friday. Linc had fallen asleep during the traffic jam, and I thought I'd use his late nap to type this up. Nope... the cabin key was (and still is) lost in the depths of the van, and I used most of his nap trying to find the damned thing (the campground owners opened it up for me). The tourney ran over late, and Linc ran around the place in his jammies until the final round was done (they were actually pretty cool about it, and he didn't damage anything... I was the tired one).
It rained a bit overnight, and it's warmer but wet now... gotta repack the entire van (and find that blasted key), then we're going to try to get to the Science Center and then homeward bound! No Snicket last night... I hope we'll finish it off on the way home...
I imagine this is the modern equivalent of boring people with your vacation slides, so if any of you are still with me, thanks and I hope you're not sound asleep!
Clay spotted one from the freeway, and it turned out to be a local favorite. Of course, the second game of the Cards/Tigers game was on, but nobody seemed to mind Linc running to and fro (along with a couple other kids). Very relaxed joint, great game on the tube, and terrific pizza to boot. They had something called toasted ravioli for a appetizer... not my cuppa, but I'm glad I tried it.
It took a few tries to locate the train station, but it was successfully found about two minutes before Cord's train rolled in. We gathered him up and rolled back to the cabin, letting him finish off Linc's cheese pizza (Linc wasn't part of the welcoming committee, having fallen asleep between the pizza place and the train station). Clay read the next chapter of "The End," and we retired for the evening.
The next morning was a little hard for everyone to get started... very cold, and the boys just wanted to play with DSs and laptops and such, while I was hoping for a shower and a hot breakfast. A few snide remarks and pot slams aside, we were all finally full of oatmeal (despite Linc dumping the container of oats just before cooking them) and cocoa. The thing Cord wanted to see the most was the huge arch you can see from anywhere in the St. Louis area, so that was first on the agenda.
It wasn't too difficult to navigate our way to this huge landmark. It turns out that this is a federal site, and so we were treated to the whole search and metal detector procedure. It's the Jefferson Memorial (to Westward Expansion, or something like that, but everyone calls it the arch), and we made it just as a tram was getting ready to go up to the top. The "cars" of the tram are very tiny, and the four of us were squished in with two other folks in a space no more than 6 feet in any direction. It was pretty claustrophobic, but it only took about four minutes to sail up to the top of the arch.
Linc loved it so much, he immediately filled his pants. We took the next car down.
There were several other exhibits going on inside, under the arch. The only free one was a pretty good collection of photos, quotes, and items from the Westward Expansion itself, including a video that used the word "cordelling"! Linc was getting pretty tired, though, so we decided to head to our next destination... the plan was that Linc would conk out, and Cord would hang with him while Clay and I toured the Holocaust Museum.
On the way out, the boys were goofing off at the base of the arch:
Leaving the arch, you could see a blaze of trees along the park... I think perhaps I've finally managed to capture a taste of the colors I've been seeing all week:
We noticed a street called "Clayton," and stopped for a photo with the original... it turned out to be the intersection of Clayton Drive and Clayton Street! Today we saw a Claytonia Street, too...
Traffic and construction caused us to get to the Holocaust Museum with only an hour left of exhibition time before they closed. Still, Clay had expressed a desire to visit this place ever since he came across it in a guidebook. I have a hard time at these kinds of places... as a journalist, a mother, an American of German descent, all of these things cause me to have very visceral responses to this horrific time of history. But I told Clay I'd do it with him, and I did. It was an excellent exhibit, except for certain annoying audio clips that tended to repeat the written material (Clay noted that it was much better to absorb this information in silence, and I agreed with him). We didn't get a chance to see all of it, but I was able to glimpse enough of each of the last few parts to get a feel for the flow of the entire exhibit. I certainly learned a lot about the roots of the Holocaust, although it's still mind-boggling to consider that things went on for as long and as horribly as they did unchecked.
We were somber when we left, and found Cord and Linc happy in the parking lot. Linc fell back asleep as we drove around looking for a store, and we stumbled on a World Market, a stand-alone market featuring tons of goodies from all over the world. Mostly, it was separated into aisles representing two or three countries each. Cord was delighted to see drinks and foods he recognized from Japan, I got some Scotch oats for breakfast, and we got Clay and Linc some treats too.
Back to the camp, I whipped up some macaroni and cheese and salad for dinner while the boys ran around. Cleaned up, read Snicket, talked a little in the dark with the boys as Linc rolled around and fell asleep... I'm glad I have teen boys I can talk to. They're great kids, and I'm lucky they still want to gallivant around the US with me like this!
Next morning, the plan was to go to the zoo and then do the science center in the afternoon. But between a very late scrambled-egg-and-cheese breakfast and a frosty morning, we didn't get there until about 11am. Here's a sculpture we met just as we got to the corner of the St. Louis Zoo (this is only one half of it!):
and this is the "cool z" sign that Clay really liked, just outside the entrance gates:
I couldn't possibly do justice to this zoo. It was clear right when we got in that this was going to be a full-day visit, and as it was, we managed to close the place down (we thought it was open until 7, but it actually closed at 5, and we got chased out by a security guard!).
We first encountered a very cool sea lion sculpture/fountain right inside the gates (I like this picture not just for the sea lions, but for the fall colors AND the nifty hats the boys are wearing!).
We rode the little train around the zoo, and got flashes of tempting critters all over the place. Cord wanted to start with the "river edge" exhibit on the west side, so that's what we did. This is a great example of what we've been seeing in the zoos we've been visiting lately... a walk-through environment with lots of interactive bits, things to discover, stuff that's not necessarily shoved in your face or didactically spelled out for you. The only downside is that this zoo allows smoking, and we had a group that was drifting ahead and behind us that had several chimneys in it. It was overwhelming, and we finally had to sit down and give them a chance to play through first.
The best part of this section, I thought, was the hippos. Like the polar bears in Memphis, they had an underwater display that showed just how graceful these huge animals are when swimming. We got a front-seat view of fish dealing with fresh hippo dung (Linc LOVED the fish in this exhibit... maybe I should think about another aquarium?), and I caught a hippo mid-yawn:
There was a nifty children's zoo as well. The first exhibit there was a goat brushing yard.
Cord didn't want to go in, but he made friends with a goat anyway:
This area included a see-through tube slide that ran through the otter exhibit! I took many otter pictures but not many came out well... still, here's some:
There was also an otter sculpture I loved, and got Cord to take a pic of with me (notice the otter shirt!):
After that, an insect house... hey, Linc, that's not a radioactive spider you've got there, is it?
Cord and Linc checking out the butterflies in the gorgeous butterfly dome (the butterflies are feasting on thawed frozen chocolate bananas):
Our "Safari Pass" got us onto the "Endangered Species" carousel. Even though we were the only folks there, the ride operators were cheerful and friendly and funny. Even my big guys got into it!
Linc just wanted to sit on a bench, though, so I didn't get to ride the otter:
We made it to the penguin exhibit in time for the feeding, and peppered the keeper with questions. There were at least four types of pengies there, and a swimming pool viewing area that was about chest-high, so you were eye-to-eye with the surface-swimming birds! They even had a puffin exhibit there, and a little female mallard had snuck in. Or maybe she was a foreign exchange student...
They had a motion-simulator ride, featuring a Halloween-themed rollercoaster film called "Superstition." I was doubtful about Linc doing it, but the ride operator took a look at him and said he'd do fine... sure enough, he settled in against me and enjoyed it so much that he asked to do the "bumpy road" again with Clayton! (Once was plenty for Cord and me). Ya think ya know a person!
We also toured a huge aviary built for the 1904 World's Fair and restored just a few years ago, the "antelope house" where all the ruminant critters were working on their dinners (and we were about 4 feet away from them, including a beautiful okapi and the very graceful giraffes, plus these gazelles that had impossibly long and thin necks), these lovely soft-blue long-tailed cranes (the national bird of South Africa), the big cats... there was a bird house that closed, but I did catch a shot of this totally cut dude (see, gang? pecs = pecks... you work out, you get the chicks!):
Right when we spotted four more otters scrambling around and roughhousing together (two were 7-month-old pups), we were discovered by security... the zoo had closed! Our map said it closed at 7, but apparently that's summer hours. I did get one good shot:
I had wanted to stop for water and fresh veggies/fruit on the way back to the camp, but a traffic jam into the setting sun sparked a roaring headache. The boys wanted to stop at a game store close to the camp, and it turned out that they were starting a Magic tournament in about ten minutes! I decided to let the boys do it, because poor Clay had been shorted of his other tourney last Friday. Linc had fallen asleep during the traffic jam, and I thought I'd use his late nap to type this up. Nope... the cabin key was (and still is) lost in the depths of the van, and I used most of his nap trying to find the damned thing (the campground owners opened it up for me). The tourney ran over late, and Linc ran around the place in his jammies until the final round was done (they were actually pretty cool about it, and he didn't damage anything... I was the tired one).
It rained a bit overnight, and it's warmer but wet now... gotta repack the entire van (and find that blasted key), then we're going to try to get to the Science Center and then homeward bound! No Snicket last night... I hope we'll finish it off on the way home...
I imagine this is the modern equivalent of boring people with your vacation slides, so if any of you are still with me, thanks and I hope you're not sound asleep!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-25 04:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-26 12:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-25 04:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-25 04:32 pm (UTC)I think that things like the holocaust museum are difficult, but more important for it. I may leave places like feeling sad, but not questioning my decision to go in the first place. Its a wonderful way for your homeschooled kids to learn important material, too.
Nice pictures. It looks like a good zoo.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-26 12:12 am (UTC)HI
Date: 2006-10-25 04:38 pm (UTC)Re: HI
Date: 2006-10-26 12:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-25 09:27 pm (UTC)And didn't I tell you about my experience with the police at the arch? They're frickin' paranoid. The dude made me take off my sunglasses and look into his eyes while telling him that I had no drugs in my purse.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-26 12:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-26 01:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-25 11:59 pm (UTC)KC would be lucky if you could write for any outlet in the region.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-26 12:18 am (UTC)I had to think about whether I would go looking for a job here, even though I knew I was only here for a few years. I decided against it, although I did xerox a bunch of clips to submit to the Star to get some stringer assignments. Still haven't done that... but it's a possibility.
You wouldn't happen to have any contacts at the Star or the Pitch or something, would you?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-26 12:56 am (UTC)I couldn´t see you writing for the Pitch though, you write too well for them!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-26 02:05 am (UTC)And *garshk* that's a cute picture of that pile of otters.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-26 02:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-30 06:09 pm (UTC)