Memorial Day Weekend Extravaganza aka How Much Stuff Can You Cram Into One Weekend?

The answer to the question posed in the title of this post is, a lot. With a 3 day weekend ahead of us and no plans to travel we decided to see what our area had to offer in the way of kid's activities that could also keep the adults entertained as well. The plan was pretty fluid. Day 1 we would go just west of town for outdoors activities, day 2 would be a relaxing day with a cook out at the end and day 3 (Memorial Day) would involve daddy and the girls getting out of mom's hair for a few hours while she steam cleaned the carpets.

The day outside the city was quite a fun time for all. First stop was Purina Farms. The girls love animals and certainly love dogs and cats so this seemed right up their alley. They got to see the traditional farm animals such as goats, sheep, pigs & cows but the difference with the cows was that Purina farms offers kids a chance to milk a cow themselves. The girls were mesmerized watching the cow enter into the milking area and the "farmer" give his talk on the ins and outs of milking before finally allowing the kids to put hand to teat. Grace was watching from the other side of the milking area and apparently at some point she made a decision that she was going to do it herself so like a girl on an unstoppable mission, she made her way to the line without saying a word to any of us and before any of us knew what was happening, she was milking the cow. I managed to get my camera out just in time to snap a picture. Oh yeah, they got to watch a dog show before getting cranky about lunch so we left.

For lunch we decided to head over to Shaw Nature Reserve for a picnic. This was a last minute decision but certainly a good one. Not crowded, beautiful scenery, peaceful setting for picnic. A definite must return. The girls again loved this place and even danced some in the picnic shelter. There are a lot of trails here and Clara isn't at an age yet where she can walk for long periods of time so our stay at Shaw was brief but memorable.

Next on the agenda was Meramac Caverns, Missouri's version of Wall Drug with signs every 1/2 mile on 44 west. The hideout for Jesse James and his crew of bandits was the site of our final stop of the day. The girls enjoyed the caverns but Clara was over the whole walking around on her own thing so Mary and I were forced to carry her for much of the cave tour until Mary had the idea to bribe her with the prospect of ice cream afterwards if she walked on her own. That was motivation enough for Clara so she was a big girl and walked.

Sunday involved visits from friends Laura during the day and Sarah in the evening for a cook out. Sarah brought some flowers & Clara decided to pose for us with them in hand.

On Memorial Day proper, Mary wanted to clean our carpets with our newly inherited carpet cleaner so best plan was to get out of the house once I helped her move furniture. So it was my job to take the girls somewhere fun. They like water and parks but there was no way I was taking them to a water park on opening weekend all by myself so I chose Tower Grove Park in the city. Tower Grove park is a 289 acre St. Louis municipal park complete with a wading pool for hot summer days.

 Unfortunately, because it was Memorial Day, all of the restaurants I was considering taking them too in the Tower Grove area to grab food and bring back to the park were not open so I had to adjust my plan. I knew the Cardinals were in playing at home that afternoon and Union Station usually has it's fair share of activities when Cards are at home so I took them to the former world's largest and busiest train station (The famous "Dewey Defeats Truman" photo was shot here - Wikipedia) that has now been converted to shops/restaurants/hotel complex. Granted, this place is past it's heyday in it's current incarnation but I didn't necessarily want to fight crowds with two tired and hungry girls.

It was shortly after lunch and feeding the goldfish in the adjacent pond at Union Station that both girls decided they wanted to go home even though I had a trip to Dave & Buster's planned for the rest of the afternoon. I guess they were just too worn out from all the activities of the past few days that the thought of spending another minute "out and about" was not appealing to them in the slightest. As expected, they fell asleep on the way home so to buy Mary more time and to allow them to sleep a bit longer, I took a detour at the Lone Elk Park near our home so I could swing by and gawk at some Bison and Elk from my vehicle. I didn't have the heart to wake them up to show them especially knowing this place is 15 min from home.