We looked at maps of the city and found that St. Louis is supposed to have one of the best zoos in the nation. Near the zoo was also an art museum with Egyptian mummies and a wall sized original of Monet's water lilly painting.
We figured out how to get there using the city transportation, and set off. - It was starting to rain. We took the shuttle to the airport, took the Metro across town, and took a bus for the rest of the trip. The kids thought the metro was cool. - What we didn't know was that the thunderstorm was increasing. It was pelting rain like only storms in the Midwest can do. We found out later there was a tornado warning out. If we had been locals, we would have been sitting in a basement somewhere.
But as it was... I am truly the daughter of my mom. I refused to spend a day in a new city without seeing something of it. - Mom the kids out-voted me on seeing the Lewis and Clark sites! Oh well.. next time we are stranded there, maybe.- (The adventures of this day reminded me of getting stranded with the kids and my mom on the butte in Idaho a couple years ago, and almost having to call the search and rescue to get down.)
When the bus let us off at the stop we found we found the zoo gates were locked. We ran through the storm around the zoo's perimeter until we found the gift shop open. I had Sylvia on my back, and we were running uphill. When we dove inside the doors, it was suddenly silent. We were huffing and puffing, but dozens of people were just standing in the lobbey staring at us like we were aliens. We tried to wring out our clothes as much as possible before entering the building further. We then went into the restrooms, and I had the kids strip down and wring their clothes out over the toilets and get dressed again. We then stood under the hand-dryers until out hair stopped dripping.
We couldn't have been any wetter if we had fallen in a swimming pool. Luckily, it was warm in St. Louis. It was humid and in the 60's. We only had our snow boots and snow coats (which we had left at the motel, because it was soooo hot.)
We tried to see some of the animals when the rain let up. Sean bought us umbrellas, which were soon destroyed by the winds. We went to the primate house, and saw how beautiful the zoo must be if it was not a torrential downpour. It would be a nice place to visit some other season.
Here we are, soggy, in front of some local primates.
Sea lions are my favorite animal, and we happened to pass them in our mad dash back to the gift shop. So, we stopped for a moment to look and get a picture. By this time everyone was getting cold and shivering.
We walked up the hill to the art museum, which turned out to be the most wonderful hour of the day. I loved looking at their wonderful collection of paintings. Sylv fell asleep in my arms, so I could look around as long as I had strength to carry her.
Sean showed us what the different images on the Egyptian coffins meant, since he studied that long ago. It was very fascinating.
The boys looked at the medeival daggers and weaponry before we left. It was a place to rest our weary souls.
I think the blessing of visiting St. Louis was to remind me of the importance of art in our chaotic world. Instead of feeling like I was in survival mode, my soul felt joy for the first time. I am now trying to think how to make art more a part of our busy home life. Last night, I played the piano after the kids went to bed... and it didn't even wake them up. The music was soothing to me after a busy day. I wil remember the relief and blam of the St. Louis art museum for a while to come.
Then it was back to reality. Back into the rain to wait for a bus, to take the metro, to take the airport shuttle. We made it back to the motel, and had mostly dried out. After dinner, and renting Kung-Fu panda in our room, we went to sleep happy, knowing we would be home the next day.
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