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Kids Korner |
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| Westward Ho! Before airplanes and cars, 19th Century families headed to St. Louis to stock up for the adventure of their lives—an arduous covered-wagon journey to a new life in the West. Today St. Louis is a big, kid-friendly city with plenty of playgrounds, museums, roller coasters, an awesome zoo, and brand new major league baseball park. It’s also a place to learn a little history—while having lots of fun! Check out www.explorestlouis.com to see where you want to go first. |
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Did You Know?
- The Gateway Arch is 75 feet taller than the Washington Monument and more than twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty. The Arch celebrates Thomas Jefferson’s dream of a continental United States and St. Louis’ role as the starting point for pioneers heading west in covered wagons. Check out the view from the top—630 feet high—and the Museum of Westward Expansion (www.gatewayarch.com). Take a riverboat tour from the Gateway Arch Riverfront (www.gatewayarchriverboats.com).
- The St. Louis Cardinals moved into a new ballpark this year—Busch Stadium (www.stlcardinals.com). Pose for pictures outside the new stadium with sculptures of the Cardinals’ Hall of Fame heroes. You can also visit The Cardinals Hall of Fame and the Bowling Museum Hall of fame across from Busch Stadium (www.bowlingmuseum.com). Go bumper bowling and check out the Mark McGuire bench made from bats he actually used.
- Legendary explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, started their expedition in St. Louis in 1804. They are credited with opening up the West after President Thomas Jefferson signed the Louisiana Purchase, buying land west of the Mississippi from France and almost doubling the size of the United States. You can watch a movie about Lewis and Clark at the Odyssey Theater at the Arch at the St. Louis Science Center. See William Clark’s journal and a lot of other things from their expedition at the Missouri History Museum (www.mohistory.org).
- Route 66, the country’s most famous highway, started in St. Louis 80 years ago. Check out The Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, the world’s longest pedestrian bridge and Meramec Caverns—it’s five-stories high inside! The caverns actually served as a hideout for famous Missouri outlaws Jesse and Frank James (www.americascave.com).
- Six Flags St. Louis is older than a lot of your parents, but it is still growing and getting better. It’s celebrating its 45th anniversary this year with a brand new Bugs Bunny National Park for kids, complete with a three-story tree house. If you love coasters, you’ll go crazy over the new Superman Tower of Power—get ready for a 230-foot extreme free-fall. Gulp! Look on the website (www.sixflags.com) for more fun and special Internet-only deals.
- You can climb inside a giant beehive—well, a make believe one—at the special Secret Garden at the Missouri Adventure Children’s Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The Botanical Garden has the largest Japanese Garden in North America, and the kids can even feed the giant Koi (www.mobot.org).
- Missouri is named for an Indian tribe, but today there are no organized tribes left in the state. Organized as a territory in 1812, Missouri became the 24th state in 1821.
- Author Samuel Clemens grew up in Hannibal, Missouri. You know him by his penname Mark Twain and his stories about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. You can visit his home in Hannibal, on the Mississippi River, north of St. Louis (www.MarkTwainMuseum.org). Author Laura Ingalls Wilder also lived in Missouri. She wrote the Little House on the Prairie and other ”Little House” books in Mansfield where you’ll find a museum of her manuscripts (www.lauraingallswilderhome.com).
- Eagles mate for life. You can meet an Eagle as well as hawks, owls, falcons, parrots, and more at the World Bird Sanctuary where more than 150 animals live. It’s one of the biggest places in the world dedicated to bird conservation. It’s also a good place to picnic and if you’re lucky, feed the birds. Visit (www.worldbirdsanctuary.org).
- You can get up close with the penguins, puffins, gorillas and orangutans, bugs, and maybe even watch the zookeepers make their lunch at the Animal Nutrition Center at the St. Louis Zoo. There are more than 11,000 animals there! Make sure to check out the Children’s Zoo where you can swim with the river otters in a plexiglass tube. Take a ride around the zoo on the Conservation Carousel where the animals were carved to look like endangered species (www.stlouiszoo.org).
- There are seven different species of turtles found in Missouri including a red-eared slider, soft-shelled turtle, snapping turtle, box turtle, Mississippi map turtle, and “stinkpot” turtle. You can climb on giant ones—as long as 40-foot-long! OK, not real ones. But you’ll have a lot of fun playing on the big concrete turtles at the Turtle Playground just across I-64 from the St. Louis Zoo (http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/parks/forestpark/turtle.html).
- The ice cream cone was invented in St. Louis—at the 1904 St Louis World’s Fair when Ernest Hamwi, who served waffles at the fair, filled them with ice cream as an experiment. He later founded a company that became the country’s biggest ice cream cone maker. Iced Tea also was introduced at the fair along with hot dogs served in buns and Dr. Pepper.
What Other Kids Say You Should Do While In St. Louis . . .
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Meet: Jaxsen Helmkamp (age 7), and his brother Jansen Helmkamp (age 9), who live in St. Louis. They are the children of St. Louis System Administrator Ricky Helmkamp.
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They Say: People think there is not a lot to do in St. Louis, but you’ll find plenty of fun things to do when you arrive. There are a lot of attractions including great sporting events, good restaurants, and some of the best shopping malls.
Don’t Miss: Going to see several of our tourist attractions like the Gateway Arch, St. Louis Zoo, Forest Park, Science Center, City Museum, Grant’s Farm, and the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Don’t forget about the new Busch Stadium!
Don’t Go Home Without: Going to a St. Louis Cardinals game. We like the build a bear store in the new stadium because you can make your own Fred Bird there and take him home. We love the Cards!
Best Places to Eat:
- The Old Spaghetti Factory (on the Landing)
- Busch Stadium (the best hot dogs and nachos!)
- The Hill (a real Italian restaurant)
Best Places to Visit Outside of St. Louis: Lake of the Ozarks
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Kids, Tell Your Parents . . .
- You can download the St. Louis Family Attractions Card from www.ExploreStLouis.com, which will give you special discounts for family attractions. Also use the website to find special hotel packages and book rooms on-line. You can get a Missouri Vacation Planner at www.visitmo.com.
- There is a special playground in Forest Park designed for all children, including those with disabilities, located near the Missouri History Museum. The swings and seesaws are adapted for all abilities and there are even special stretching stations for youngsters with Cerebral Palsy. Faust St. Louis County Park has also added a new ADA-approved play area, adjacent to the popular Butterfly House. It’s the only permanent attraction like it in the Midwest where you’ll find a garden with butterflies native to Missouri (www.butterflyhouse.org)
- Go see the two-acre playground at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows with activity areas for all ages—even teens (www.snows.org).
You’ll Also Want to Visit . . .
- Monstro City playground at the City Museum. It was built in a giant shoe factory warehouse and is complete with multi-level “caves” to explore. Check out the water playground on the roof and the hands-on arts projects (www.citymuseum.org).
- Creation Station, the indoor playroom, at the Museum of Transportation where the kids can hop aboard a mini-locomotive and check out vintage cars (www.museumoftransport.org).
- Missouri History Museum, which is the only city this summer in the Midwest to host “Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World.” This is a great place for kids to learn how children lived in the Midwest in the past (www.mohistory.org).
- The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum where kids can create their own sound at the new Making America’s Music: Rhythm, Roots, and Rhyme (www.magichouse.com).
- Purina Farms where kids can pet farm animals and get all your questions answered about pets. Check out the 28-foot tall Victorian cat house where the resident cats live (www.purina.com).
- Grant’s Farm, a free attraction where you can see baby Clydesdales, antelope, buffalo, and more (www.grantsfarm.com).
- The St. Louis Science Center, where the Boeing Space Station will let kids see what it’s like to live in space (www.slsc.org) and the St. Louis Art Museum (www.slam.org), which is also home to the zoo and the History Museum.
- Swing-A-Round Fun Town (www.sarfun.com) is the place to go for Go-Karts, batting Cages, mini golf, and more.
See Past Editions of Kids Korner.
By: Eileen Ogintz, Author of Taking the Kids™
