November 10: Busch Wildlife

So, today's adventure included learning that I need to figure out how the new 94/364 interchange works at Midrivers Drive! We were driving along down 94, on our way to Busch Wildlife, when I looked over and saw my parents' church to the right. I pointed it out to the kids. Then I realized, wait, we aren't supposed to pass the church! We are on on 364! We got off at K and continued on our way. I had been wanting to try out the new extension, so it wasn't a bad thing. (Though, I still want to go all the way to the end of it soon.) I think it actually turned out to be a better route in the end. 

It was a beautiful day to be out in nature. We didn't have a lot of time, but we spent some time at one of the lakes. Saw some waterfowl, a few caterpillars, some camera shy lady bugs, etc. Though we didn't have much time today, we have spent some fun days in at Busch, fishing, geocaching, taking nature classes, tagging Monarches, etc. It's a nice place to have near by! 

August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area

November 9: Bonus Cake

Bonus cake at St. Peters Home Depot

November 8: West and North County

We had a little bit of time this morning for exploring so we decided to finish off our West County itinerary that we started last week.

 One of the cakes that we found today had a little adventure of its own. The Frank Lloyd Wright house cake disappeared this week - stolen. My brother sent me an email with article on Thursday. I was disspointed because a) it's sad someone felt they needed to steal it and b)we had had planned to find it last week and didn't have time and now it was gone! This morning, I awoke to a new email informing me that the cake was back! Whoever stole it decided to return it, damaged but still returned. That was our first cake of the day. I decided we better grab a picture while we could!

Frank Lloyd Wright House

You can see the damage in this picture...

Cake damage

The house. Apparently you can get tours with an appointment. We will be back!

 

St. Louis Post Dispatch Article when the cake was stolen.

St. Louis Post Dispatch Article on the return of the cake.

From this cake we went to Barretts Elementary School.

Barretts School

This one had a visitor already!

 Then we headed toward Edward Jones South Campus. Our GPS had us take Ballas road between the cakes and it brought back memories of when I would drive to youth group at Abundant Life church. I wasn't a highway driver at the time and had all kinds of back routes to places. Ballas Rd was my route to that church. I also remember listening to Rich Mullins's What Trouble Are Giants over and over on that drive, trying to nail down those fast lyrics. So, for old time's sake we played the song as we drove.

Edward Jones South Campus

 As we were driving home, I got to talking about cakes we would do in the future and how I wanted to try to do Fort Belle Fontaine this week. Then I got to thinking about the predicted unrest for that area this week and looking at the clock decided that we had time to find it today. So I looked up the address on my phone and off we went. I knew exactly what we were looking for because I had seen pictures that friends have taken there, but I didn't realize they were taken looking up! We arrived to find what looked like an overlook of the river. Then we looked down and, Oh! there it is!

Fort Belle Fontaine

The guard who checked us in at the park told us there was a cake "just down the road" and we might as well get it. I thought I was pretty aware of the cakes in the area and didn't know of any on the path. We looked at the map and decided that Columbia Bottoms was close, so we headed there. It was NOT just down the road, but it was only 5 miles.

Columbia Bottom

 Then it was time to head home for the rest of our busy day.

November 1: Babler State Park

Jessica bowled in the area Special Olympics tournament today so not a lot of time for exploring. We did have time for a visit to one of my favorite places in St. Louis. Babler State Park. I love this park! We used to come here all the time when the kids were little to hike, picnic, play, geocache or camp. Or just to drive around and look for deer. It's a treasure of quiet green space in the middle of a busy city.