Thursday - Shaw's Garden (Missouri Botanical Garden)

Missouri Botanical Garden - Shaw's Garden

Basic Info

Garden

Admission: City and County residents $4; Other $8, kids 12and under free

Free Parking

We have a membership so our admission is free

We started by checking out the summer exhibit - Extreme Treehouses

Then we went off to explore other parts of the garden

Then it was time to head to the Children's Garden

Admission $3 for kids between 3 and 13 - No charge for anyone else

Wednesday - Swimming and Ted Drews

Ah, summer is officially here!

We started the day with a trip to the pool.  One big downside to living in the city is the lack of a public pool.  All of our options are seriously pricey.  Luckily we have Grandma Betty to get us into her pool.  They have a toddler swim where they open just the baby pool up for the little ones for an hour and a half before the pool opens.  Super!

Our favorite cousin Baby Leigh

Nothing says summer in St. Louis like Ted Drews.  It's like our ice cream shop except it's not ice cream. It's a much more delicious concoction, frozen custard.  It's thicker, richer, creamier, and way worse for you.  Pure goodness.

Oh my goodness, please excuse my messy car

Tuesday - The Zoo!

Anyone who has ever read this blog before knows that the Zoo is our favorite place in town. It's a top rated Zoo and it's free.  It doesn't hurt that we live five minutes away.      

St. Louis Zoo

Like Grant's Farm, Zoo parking is also $11.  However, there is plenty of free parking around it in Forest Park and our favorite place, across Highway 40 near Turtle Park.  For a short walk over the bridge, we save $11.  All of the main animal attractions inside are free, but it's no surprise that there are plenty of extras that can add up quickly.  If you're willing to get there early (the first hour the Zoo is open, so 8am in the summer), you can enjoy many of these free as well.

First we hit Stingray Cove, now featuring sharks.  This exhibit is normally $3 per person so we saved $6.  That's great since Audrey is still a bit nervous about petting them.                                                                   

                                                                                                                                   

Gus was pretty facinated 

Next we enjoyed free admission into the Children's Zoo (normally $4 a person).

After that we headed up Historic Hill to the Red Rocks area because all of Audrey's favorites are up there (giraffes, camels, and big cats).  Personally I prefer The River's Edge where the elephants and hippos live, but we went there last week

By the time we headed back down, it was getting really hot so we stopped in the new Zootenial exhibit.  It was pretty neat.

Can you believe they used to give elephant rides to the kids?

Phil the Gorilla who died in 1958 - and they stuffed him

We go to the Zoo a lot so we never try to see everything in one day.  Gus was ready for his nap.  Time to head home.