Forest Park

Forest Park is called the "Crown Jewel" of Saint Louis Parks, and for good reason! It's huge, for one thing, at 1,293 acres, and the information for the park says that's 500 acres larger than Central Park in New York. It was opened in 1826 and was then central to the 1904 World's Fair here. The mansions surrounding the park are amazing, and I've heard most were built for the World's Fair to help house the wealthier visitors in attendance.

Those strolling or biking through the park will eventually come upon the Zoo, Art Museum, History Museum, Science Center, Muny Opera outdoor theater, tennis courts, two golf courses, boathouse restaurant and lakes, iceskating rink, and playgrounds. It's really fun, and we love living a block away!



We had a great time last saturday exploring more of the park. I made reservations to eat at the boathouse, which although it's kid-friendly casual dining, turned out to be a good thing! We learned the wait is typically an hour and a half, and although the sun was shining when we got there, it was pouring rain ten minutes later. Because we were reserved customers we were able to snag a table indoors to finish our meal - wonderful! Then the sun came out again and we decided to take a paddleboat out for a little lake tour.

The paddleboats are rented by the hour, which was just enough time for the kids. We paddled through three different connecting lakes and really enjoyed the cool causeways between. We saw a turtle, ducks, and various storks and egrets, I think. The kids liked paddling under the waterfalls, although obviously I didn't get any pictures! We also saw something large and unidentified to this day out in the middle of one lake. I thought it was a big fish, justin thought it might have been a huge turtle, but whatever it was it was big. We joke now about the monster in Forest Lake, but only when the kids aren't around. :-)

The Park is patrolled by mounted police, and there's good reason. Although we typically walk along the roads, I'm amazed every time we go by all the green space in the parks that's really inaccessible except on foot. The kids think the horses are fun, and I agree.

After leaving the zoo one day we decided to take the shuttle bus back nearer to our apartment. We'd walked to the zoo, then around the zoo, and the kids weren't going to make it on the walk back. My new shoes were telling me I wasn't going to make it either, so we had another adventure on the bus! The picture above is Erick at the bus stop. What we didn't realize is that the Zoo is on almost the opposite end of the bus run from our house, so we got a lovely riding tour of the park on the way back.

And this end of the park faces our little apartment. The building behind the kids is next to our apartment, but our building is only 5 stories so doesn't quite clear the treeline. The northeast end of the park is largely left unlandscaped except for bike and walking trails and bridges, so it's home to a lot of fun wildlife. We always see huge storks, ducks and fish on our way home, and it's interesting to imagine what the area would have been like when the first explorers came through. I assume it's much the same, but they weren't so lucky as to have the city treat the water for mosquitoes. :-)

We have yet to see the art museum, and I really want to go to a performance at the Muny this summer, so we're not done at the park. We did make it to the science center, but me without my camera, so I guess we'll just have to go again. No loss there, they have a pre-school astronomy show in the planetarium I'm excited to see. And it's all within walking distance! Gotta love it.