Today was a day to visit Forest Park, one of the great urban parks.
We started at the St. Louis Zoo. St. Louis has a great zoo, but today’s visit seemed sad—the animals just seemed not to be enjoying themselves. Of course, the fun part at the zoo is not watching the animals in cages but the people outside of the cages. Lots of schoolkids, moms with their families, and tourists. What I like about the St. Louis Zoo is the history. Seeing the 1904 bird cage. Seeing the 1922 bear enclosures. Seeing the 1930s-era animal houses. They did have a nice exhibit on the zoo’s history, which I enjoyed.
After the zoo, we walked up art hill to the St. Louis Art Museum. This was very nice. They have a very broad mix, from mummies to columbian art, american, european, … modern, classic … art deco and art noveau … and even armor. It was a very very enjoyable museum, and Erin had a lot of fun sharing what she learned in AP Art History.
Our last museum was the History Museum. We didn’t spend as much time there, but did get to see the exhibits on the 1904 centiennial (which I had seen before, but I enjoy); the Lindberg flight (which never mentioned his antisemitism), an exhibit on a middle school named after Lindberg that went from Jr. High to Middle School to Early Childhood Education to Elementary School… and back to a Middle School. There was also a good exhibit on St. Louis’ history. This led me to bemoan the fact that there is no good museum with the history of Los Angeles and Southern California. There are scattered special cases, but nothing that brings it all together into a single story. Hmm, just like the city itself.
In the evening, we went out with my dear friend Linda to United Hebrew, the oldest Reform congregation west of the Mississippi. After services, we went out to a French restaurant for dinner, followed by FroYo, and then sat and talked for a while. A delightful evening with a friend I don’t see often enough.
Tomorrow is packing for the return trip home. We may do some more exploring after that, but we need to be at Lambert around 2pm to start our journey back to Los Angeles. You probably won’t see a post tomorrow, unless I find free WiFi in the Denver airport.
