St. Louis

We're in St. Louis and spending a couple days with Karen, who is giving us a tour. I've been here before, but a long time ago and for less than a day. It has a few scary spots (like the neighborhood we stayed in) and some super cool spots. I'll do a day for each of my next couple blogs. So in the morning of day one, we went to the Zoo. The St. Louis Zoo is supposed to be one of the best in the nation. And its free. In fact St. Louis may have more cool stuff that's free than any other city. Then we went to the art museum, again free. I'm not really into art, but this was fun. Some of the paintings were by artists I had heard of - Picasso, Monet, Vincent van Gogh. I really don't know what I'm supposed to be appreciating exactly when I look at art. I forced myself to stare at each painting for at least 10 seconds so I would at least look like I was thoughtfully appreciating it. I didn't want to appear uncultured in front of the other art fans. The Cardinals weren't in town, but that evening we went down to their stadium. They have a bunch of statues out front, including maybe the greatest living baseball player - Stan "The Man" Musial. We walked over to the arch, which is only a few blocks away. Underneath they have an underground museum on explorers. You can ride up to the top of the arch, which I wasn't about to do. To get there you have to squeeze into a tiny capsule with three other people and it takes you to the top. It doesn't look at all safe. Since it combines my fear of enclosed spaces, heights, and strangers all in one tidy package, I chose not to do it. Afterward, as we walked on the grass, an automatic sprinkler popped up in front of me and drenched me. We all, except me, had a good laugh about that.