St.Louis :: Camping, Zoo, & Grant's Farm

Last weekend we went to the St. Louis zoo with Rick and Kim, Austin and Emily. We had originally planned to go to Omaha, but later found out that they were having the college World Series there and all the campgrounds for miles around were completely booked. So, we opted for St. Louis instead. Fairly close to home, nice zoo, and none of us had been there before (well Rick had, but a LONG time ago!).

We ended up camping at a place about 40 miles from the city, but the drive was not bad at all. The campground was really nice. They had a pool, and a lake for fishing. They also brought the firewood to our site, and came during the night to clean the ashes out of the firepits which I thought was pretty cool. Defintely a friendly place to camp and we plan to go again sometime :)

Saturday morning we headed to the zoo. It's free admission, $11 to park. Not bad considering the KC zoo charges $10 a head to get in during peak season. The STL zoo was really nice, and had lots of shade and plenty of places to get snow cones :) Considering we later found out it was 103 degrees that day we did pretty good staying hydrated and we had a lot of fun despite the heat.






On Sunday we went to the Gateway arch and then to Grant's Farm. The arch was pretty cool. We went up to the top which was a bit nerve wracking, but once we got up there it was not bad at all. I expected it to be swaying in the wind but it pretty much felt like being in a hallway with small windows.
The ride up to the top was pretty funny. They use a tram rather than an elevator, but the door is so small it looks like you're entering a hobbit's cave, lol. Each car only holds 5 people, and it's white, and rounded inside so it felt a lot like what I think the Jetsons must have felt like! It was quite humerous to watch Rick get in and out!







Grant's Farm was pretty awesome. In fact, we all decided after going there and the zoo, that we could have skipped the zoo altogether! Grant's Farm has the Clydesdales of course, but also had many of the same animals as the zoo. My favorite part was taking the tram through the area where the animals roam together within a (very large) fenced area. It was cool to see bison, zebras, deer, flamingos, and all sorts of other animals all enjoying the shade together!






Overall, we had a great time and we hope to do something similar every summer :) There is so much to do and see in MO that we've never done before, and it sure beats spending a small fortune on a vacation out of state!