A Weekend in Sainte Genevieve

We explored Sainte Genevieve for the weekend and it was unbelievable! It is just one hour from St. Louis and this city is full of so much history and charm. Lots of great restaurants, attractions and outdoor hikes. 

We’ve visited the area around Ste. Gen for their trails (Hawn State Park, Pickle Springs and Hickory Canyon). But, we haven’t gotten a chance to explore downtown. We loved it. 

We started out Friday night with Braden & Friends Challenger Playground, Audubon’s Restaurant and checking into Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary. 

Braden & Friends Challenger Playground

Address: 1 Challenger Drive, Ste. Genevieve, MO 63670

We drove to Sainte Genevieve after school and stopped at Braden & Friends Challenger Playground. This is an inclusive playground that is handicapped accessible. It is fenced in and has a great farm themed. The playground is 16,000 square feet and has everything from zip lines to slides to a variety of climbing options. Named after Braden Schott, this playground was designed as a place for children of all abilities to play side by side. 

Audubon's

Address: 9 N Main St, Ste. Genevieve, MO 63670

We ate dinner at Audubon’s in downtown Ste. Gen. Located in a century old building, this hotel and restaurant are located in the historic Downtown District. Audubon’s has a first-floor upscale hotel restaurant and the 7-room boutique hotel is above the restaurant. The salmon was fantastic and our kids loved the kids’ menu (the mac and cheese was a hit). It has a great view of the sunset too!

Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary

Address: 19620 Crown Ridge, Ste. Genevieve, MO 63670

Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary (The Scott Foundation) is a Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, a verified 501 (c) 3 non profit big cat rescue and an educational facility. They provide permanent lifelong care for abused neglected or unwanted big cats. As a true sanctuary, they do not buy, sell, breed or trade any of their animals. Right now, there are three tigers here. 

We stayed at Tiger View Lodge in the sanctuary! We could actually see the tigers from the kitchen window. There were two sun rooms, a game area with a puzzle table and a bar and poker table in the basement. There were 5 bedrooms in the home, but you can also rent out one room at a time instead of the whole home. They have several other housing options as well! All of the proceeds go straight back into funding the sanctuary. 

On Saturday morning, we had an Early Bird tour before the park opened to the public. It was wonderful to hear the tigers’ stories and learn how much they have overcome. Thor, Sebastian and Shakira have had all different experiences that led them to Crown Ridge. Thor was born at a roadside zoo and did not receive the proper nutrition and was severely underweight when she was rescued. Shakira’s small zoo in Dodge City, KS was closing their zoo for a whole renovation, so Shakira found her new permanent home here. Shakira had paint on her face the morning on the tour because she was painting for enrichment! Sebastien was rescued from the well-known Tiger King Park. In total, 68 cats were rescued from this facility. Sebastian arrived slightly underweight and showed aggression towards all men. He is continuing to build trust at Crown Ridge.

Charleville Brewery & Winery

Address: 16937 Boyd Rd, Ste. Genevieve, MO 63670

Located in the western part of Ste. Genevieve County, Charleville Brewery & Winery has handcrafted wines and beers in a relaxed atmosphere since 2003. The tasting room and patio features a breathtaking view high above Saline Creek Valley. 

This was our first time using the iPourIt Wall and it was so fun! It has 24 taps that flow beer, wine and Charle-ritas with a touch of a wristband. Our kids enjoyed getting root beers and orange sodas from the wall as well. 

The patio area is amazing and has so many tables and heaters for all weather. The overlook is beautiful too. They had live music, brewery tours and great food! We enjoyed the pizza, and the pizza crust had yeast from the Charleville brewing process. 

On the property, there is also a beautifully refurbished 1860s log cabin adjacent to the brewery and winery tasting room that serves as a two-room lodge for guests. They also are adding a unique Airbnb that is inside the brewery!

Centre for French Colonial Life

Address: 198 Market St, Ste. Genevieve, MO 63670

We explored the Centre for French Colonial Life. This museum had great exhibits and was very hands-on. My kids loved laying the wood floor! The Centre for French Colonial Life is headquarters for the French Colonial America museum campus. This building has changing exhibits and a gift shop. We learned more about the area and the life of those that once lived here. This museum is open 7 days a week and has a living museum campus (several historic homes to tour). We then headed to the yard of one of the historic homes and met Justine and Ron from “Early American.” They recreate their 1800s life in Ste. Gen. Justine taught our girls to make butter and bread and Ron gave us a demonstration of the musket. We walked through the living museum campus of historic homes. 

We especially loved walking through the Linden and Buldoc homes. After completion of the restoration, the Louis Bolduc House was noted as one of the best restored examples of French Creole-style architecture in the United States! This led to a National Historic Landmark designation for the house in 1970!

Baetje Farms

Address: 8932 Jackson School Rd, Bloomsdale, MO 63627

Baetje Farms is owned by the same family as Charleville Brewery and The Kozy. We had a tour with the cheese maker, Mitch, and got to feed the goats! Mitch was incredible and took us through the process of cheese making from their goat milk. The tour goes through the word famous creamery, goats, bard and complete with a complimentary cheese tasting. Farm Tours are $20 a person and last roughly one hour. We fed the goats and then had a taste testing of all the cheese selections.

The Kozy

Address: 710 US-61, Bloomsdale, MO 63627

The Kozy has good food and friendly staff! One half is this family restaurant and the other half is Dew Drop Inn, a historic BBQ joint! They had a great outdoor space with yard games. The same family that owns Baetje Farms and Charleville Brewery also owns these restaurants. The two brothers and one sister also have a construction company and the beautiful bar tops are created from them!

Sainte Genevieve Parish

Address: 49 Dubourg Pl, Ste. Genevieve, MO 63670

On Sunday, we checked out of Crown Ridge Sanctuary. Highly recommend this one! It was such a unique stay. We attended Mass at Sainte Genevieve. Founded in 1759, Ste. Genevieve Parish lays claim to being the oldest parish West of the Mississippi River. The current church was built over the original church. The foundation is still visible in the basement (not open to the public). As the construction was being completed, the second church was dismantled and carried out of the front door. Even if you are not Catholic, the architecture is so neat to check out and neat to check inside!

Mimi's

Address: 675 Ste Genevieve Dr, Ste. Genevieve, MO 63670

We had brunch at Mimi’s after Mass. This is family-friendly, has home-style cooking and is family-owned too. The food was very tasty and the prices were reasonable.

Saint Genevieve Museum Learning Center

Address: 360 Market St, Ste. Genevieve, MO 63670

After church, we explored downtown Ste. Genevieve more. We loved exploring Saint Genevieve Museum Learning Center. The curator here believes in involving kids in tactile experiences to help with learning and it was just so hands-on. My girls loved touching all of the rocks and the replicas. We enjoyed meeting a paleontologist who was working on a Hypsibema missouriensis (Missouri’s state dinosaur found near Cape).

The dinosaurs are all hand painted and there are interesting exhibits, including some on the history of Ste. Genevieve. 

Hickory Canyons Natural Area

Hickory Canyon Natural Area East Trail is a trail that is heavily impacted by the season. It boasts a waterfall in wet months (needs a lot of rain to flow), which can freeze into a spectacular ice display in the winter. It is a must see when frozen!!

From the parking lot, go straight down the trail (East trail). At the split, if you go to the right, you will have a view looking down at the waterfall canyon. If you go to the left, you can walk right down to the base of the waterfall. When we were there, there was not much water flowing, but the canyons were still so beautiful! 

Make sure to check out Pickle Springs and Hawn State Park as well! These are two of our favorite trails and are just so breathtaking.

Overall, we LOVED Sainte Genevieve. What a gem! Only one hour from St. Louis, Ste. Geneveive is a city full of food, attractions and history. I definitely recommend visiting!

A Weekend in Green Bay

We visited Green Bay and it was just the best experience! Not only was it within driving ditance, but it was so family-friendly! Below is our 3 day itinerary. I hope you and your family enjoy exploring here as much as we did!

Table of Contents

Day 1 Itinerary

Checked into Hotel Northland

We stayed in downtown Green Bay at Hotel Northland. It has been a cornerstone since 1924. This historic hotel has two restaurants on site, a fitness center and an attached parking garage. We had connecting rooms for our hotel stay, which was great! My husband and I had a King-sized bed with a side room where we put our baby’s pack n’ play. Our older three daughters stayed in the connecting room with two Queen beds. Everything was comfortable, clean and we felt we had plenty of room for our family of six. 

Tour of Lambeau Field

This was actually my first time visiting Lambeau Field (even though I grew up in Milwaukee and am a huge Packers fan). I was thrilled, along with our whole family! My daughter said it looked way cooler in person compared to on TV. The Green Bay Packers is the only team that does not have an owner. It is owned by the people! In 1923, the Packer’s were in debt $5K. So, they sold one thousand shares for $5 a share. The people saved the team! There are currently 500,000 stock holders. We did the Classic tour of Lambeau Field, which was 55 minutes long. We started up in the suites,  and then walked through the Packers tunnel to the field. 

In 1957 and 1960 sold out for season tickets and has been sold out every year since. There are currently 158,000 on the list for season tickets and they can be willed down! Some other fun facts that we learned on our tour…the Packer locker room is 7000 square feet! In addition to the locker room, there is a full pool, 70 yard field, nine classrooms, basketball court, restaurant, barbershop and more! There are currently 81,041 seats in the Packers stadium. This was such a great tour with lots of history and I really like the length with little ones. After the tour, we walked through the Packers Hall of Fame. This was a combo ticket with our tour. We enjoyed seeing the history of the team as well as learning more about the players. Go Pack go!

Dinner at The Turn

For dinner, we ate at The Turn, which was right next to Lambeau Field and Titletown. This had great food and was such a fun atmosphere! The beer battered onion rings and the cheese curds were our favorite appetizers. It was very kid friendly and they had Topgolf suites too.

Ice Skating at Titletown

I can’t even put into words how awesome Titletown is. This downtown area was perfection. It had an ice-skating trail, a tubing hill, cafés, bonfires. many heating areas and an awesome light show on Lambeau Field every 30 minutes. It is free entry. so you just pay to skate or tube! The tubing hill was closed because it was too warm while we were there, so we’ll just have to come back another time! My girls’ favorite was the light show which was every 30 minutes on the half hour. We saw it three times while we were skating and our girls loved it every time! It was on the outer wall of Lambeau Field and included some fireworks shooting off. They also had really neat lights around the rink and skating trail. I loved how everything we did this evening was so close to each other and it definitely was so family friendly.

Day 2 Itinerary

Breakfast at Cafe Con Crema

We ate breakfast at Cafe Con Crema and it was so good.

The Nutella crêpe and the fresh fruit smoothies were a huge hit!

NEW Zoo

We visited NEW Zoo in Green Bay. The Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo is AZA certified just like our St. Louis Zoo. They have around 200 animals and we had a great time exploring here. They offer behind-the-scenes tours and encounters with giraffes, otters, snow leopards, penguins and tortoises. Our favorite experiences were feeding the otters meatballs and petting the tortoises. This also was the closest I’ve ever been to a moose! Murphy, the moose, had quite some personality and it was so fun to see him walking in the water.

One thing that stood out to us after leaving the zoo is that all of the staff knew every single of the animals’ names and their personalities. We were pretty blown away. You could tell the staff cared about these animals and were passionate about sharing information about them.

Meyer Theatre

We also had a tour of the historic Meyer Theatre in downtown Green Bay! It opened in 1930 and became a three-screen movie theate. Just 25 years ago, a community group wanted to bring this back as a historic theater. They succeeded! It opened in 2022 and has 1000 seats. It was so beautiful. I’d love to return here to see a show someday!

Lunch at Hagemeister Park

 For lunch, we ate at Hagemeister Park. It is right along City Deck, which is a quarter mile of riverfront boardwalk along Fox River. The restaurant was decorated indoors with many Christmas lights around the booths, as well as igloos on the patio.

National Railroad Museum

We headed next to the National Railroad Museum with routes starting back to 1956. The National Railroad Museum has grown to become one of the largest, oldest, and most well respected rail museums in the United States! They have over 70 pieces of rolling stock, 100,000+ artifacts, seasonal train rides, indoor and outdoor exhibits, operating/display tracks and special events! Currently, they have 62 Christmas trees set up for their Festival of Trees, where different businesses around Green Bay decorate a tree! Our family‘s favorite was a tree showing dairy products with many cows on it. The museum was so cool with lots of history…and then you had in all the Christmas trees. We highly recommend this stop!

NEW Zoo Canopy Trail

Our last stop was back at NEW Zoo, but this time we were back at the adventure park. Right next to the zoo, there is an adventure park with trails that you can cross country ski, snowshoe, and bike. They have gear for rent if needed. They also have an awesome canopy trail that goes from the adventure park all the way to the zoo and you can even walk over some animals’ exhibits! During Christmas, they decorate this canopy trail with lots of lights!  The tour is a half mile along. We walked one way from the adventure park to the zoo and then we walked along a sidewalk back to the adventure park. 

Day 3 Itinerary

Breakfast at Grapevine Cafe

For breakfast, we ate at the Grapevine Café before starting our adventures. We initially planned to eat at Toast, but we discovered they were closed for the holidays when we pulled up. We saw this was close by and decided to check it out. The food and staff were both great! We were happy that we ended up here for breakfast.

Fonferek’s Glen Waterfall

We explored Fonferek’s Glen waterfall. It is free entry and it was really flowing with all the rain the past couple of days. There is a short few minute walk from the parking lot to an observation area overlooking the waterfall. This is a 30 foot waterfall on a 75 acre conservation area. It was beautiful!

Baird Creek

Next step was Baird Creek, which is a great paved trail in Green Bay. The Baird Creek Preservation Foundation has preserved over 600 acres here. This was my kids’ happy place. We got muddy, played with sticks, found all the rocks and took in the beautiful river. It was such a peaceful spot.

Lunch at White Dog Cafe

After hiking, we ate at White Dog Cafe. There was fun artwork on animals from local artists. Plus, we voted this place for the best cheese curds we had tried during this trip. We have been trying cheese curds at every restaurant and this spot won by far. 

Sabamba Alpaca Ranch

After lunch, we explored Sabamba Alpaca Ranch, which was incredible. This husband and wife team have 47 wonderful alpacas they offer great tours and we’re so knowledgeable. We met the alpacas and learned about the shearing process that happens once a year. We twisted the fiber to create long and strong yarn strand. It was crazy how strong the piece was after spinning it! We fed the alpacas next.  Our girls got a chance to take the alpacas on a walk around the farm. What an awesome experience! We learned that alpacas do not feel comfortable with hands reaching out to them, but they do like giving Eskimo kisses! Sabamba has a great gift shop too. I purchased some hiking socks, which I’m excited to try out. Alpaca fiber has natural moisture wicking properties and is a superb insulator.

Green Bay Botanical Gardens’ Garden of Lights

We enjoyed the Garden of Lights display to end the night! The first section of the trail is walkable. Then you have a choice to continue walking the trail or take a horse-drawn wagon while taking in the lights. We chose the horse wagon! It was a cool way to see the rest of the lights! There were over 40 light displays in 350,000 lights.

Green Bay Botanical Garden spans 47 acres and have more than 85,000 breathtaking plants and flowers. 

Overall, we just loved our visit to Green Bay!! Highly recommend visiting this wonderful Wisconsin city. Head to Discover Green Bay to explore more about this area!

A to Z Playgrounds Bucket List 2025

A to Z Playgrounds: Download this freebie for an A to Z Bucket List of playgrounds around St. Louis! There is also an empty copy in this download so you can create your own too. Happy exploring!
 

 


    A to Z Trails Bucket List 2025

    A to Z Trails: Download this freebie for an A to Z Bucket List of trails around St. Louis! There is also an empty copy in this download so you can create your own too. Happy exploring!

    Download here

      Family Adventure in Chicago

      Are you looking for a fun family adventure within driving distance from St. Louis? Look no further than Chicago (a 5 hour drive)!! We visited my family in Milwaukee for Thanksgiving this year and wanted to take our daughters to Chicago for a little mini-vacation beforehand. My 5 year old has been wanting to either visit Chicago or South America (she learned about both in school). Out of these two, my husband and I thought Chicago was a little more doable, ha! 

      We planned most of our trip with CityPASS, a fantastic way to save money on attractions in lots of cities. This was our four daughters’ first time exploring the city, so we were excited to check out as many attractions and museums as we could fit in. You can save a whopping 48% on regular admission prices, which was so great for our family. I downloaded the free CityPASS app and it was super easy to select my tickets of what attractions we chose. When we arrived at an attraction, I just pulled up our app and we were good to go to show our tickets! 

      Our 4-Day Chicago Itinerary

       

      Day 1: 

      Drove to Chicago 

      Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo (free)

      The Farm-in-the-Zoo (free) 

      Checked into our hotel (Loews Chicago Hotel)

      Walked from our hotel to the Shoreline Sightseeing Architecture River Tour

      (We timed this just as the sun was setting, which I recommend because the city lights were beautiful)!

       

      Day 2: 

      Sloomoo Institute 

      American Girl Doll Store & Cafe (ate lunch with my girls’ dolls)

      Museum of Ice Cream 

      Swam in our hotel indoor pool

       

      Day 3: 

      Skydeck Chicago

      The Bean 

      Maggie Daley Park

      Christkindl Market

       

      Day 4: 

      Check out of Loews Chicago Hotel

      Shedd Aquarium 

      Field Museum 

      Museum of Science and Industry

      Drive to Milwaukee for Thanksgiving!

      In this blog, I’ll share 5 of our attractions that we chose through CityPASS. I partnered with CityPASS for this trip, which I was so thankful for. I highly recommend them as a company! Everything was seamless for booking attractions. I’ll share the other attractions in another blog post. 

      Shoreline Sightseeing Architecture River Tour

      Since this was our girls’ first trip to Chicago, we wanted to choose something that would give them a view of the city. This boat tour was just incredible! Our tour was at 4:45pm, which I highly recommend! We arrived as the sun was setting and then we were blown away by the lights of the city as the boat moved throughout the city. Many buildings had Christmas lights up too! This was a 60 minute tour with a guide speaking through the history and architecture of Chicago. The guide was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot! 

      There is a deck on the top of the boat with benches and chairs. We brought out all of our winter gear (my girls wore their snowsuits) and it was really needed with the wind and cooler weather. Stairs lead to the cabin with a cafe to order hot chocolate and some other snacks. There are restrooms around the corner too. At the front of the boat was a small viewing area and you could still hear the guide over the speaker. 

      I think my favorite part of the tour was reaching Lake Michigan and then the boat slowly turned for us to take in the view of the whole Chicago skyline at night. It was so incredible!

      Skydeck Chicago

      We saw Chicago by boat and then Chicago from Willis Tower the next day! Skydeck is located in Willis Tower, which is the third-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. This is the highest observation deck in the United States!! We rode the elevator up to the 103rd floor and then viewed Chicago from the observation windows. Luckily, we had a clear and sunny day, so we saw buildings pretty far out! 

      This location was where I was extremely thankful we had the CityPASS. There was an expedited line so we didn’t need to wait in the line for the elevator. After we took our time observing through the windows, we walked to the Ledge (also on the 103rd floor). The Ledge is made up of 5 glass floor balconies with 1.5 inches of thick glass! You can look straight down and see how tall we were–it was crazy! The Ledge is included with admission and there was a separate line for CityPASS holders too! We were able to go to the Ledge three times with our tickets and skip the lines. Each party gets 90 seconds for photos, so it was nice we could go more than once. 

      Shedd Aquarium

      I have such fond memories of visiting Shedd Aquarium when I was younger. This is the 3rd largest aquarium in the Western Hemisphere (after the Georgia Aquarium & Monterey Bay Aquarium). There are 32,600 different species of sea life at Shedd and you could easily spend all day here! First we walked to the Abbott Oceanarium where we saw Beluga whales swimming close by. You can view the whales and dolphins above water, but you can also take the stairs down to view them from under water! The penguins, sea otters and starfish are downstairs too. 

      We saw one of the free Aquatic shows, which happened to be on dolphins! This was a fantastic show. Another favorite section was the Wild Reef. I recommend hopping in line for this right away, because there is an elevator ride to arrive at the Wild Reef. This leads to the sharks in its own underground wing. There are 540 species of life shown in this public display!

      Field Museum

      Next to Shedd Aquarium is the Field Museum. The Field Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in Chicago. It is one of the largest natural history museums in the world. It has more than 24 million objects and explores more than 4.6 billion years of history!!

      Here are two of our favorite exhibits we saw:

      The Evolving Planet:

      View SUE, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered! They have both fossils and casts of MANY dinosaurs and animals. The exhibit starts with single-celled organisms and walks through the years and stages of history until early humans. 

      Inside Ancient Egypt:

      This exhibit explores a burial chamber that dates back to 2400 BC! There are 23 human mummies and 30 animal mummies. There are floor-to-ceiling hieroglyphs too!

      Museum of Science and Industry

      Located in the only remaining building from the 1893’s World’s Fair, this is the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere. There are hundreds of exhibits and 35,000 artifacts!! We loved walking beside the WWII German U-Boat (only one of five remaining U-boats in the world) and exploring through the mirror maze. One of the neatest things we did was descend into the mine shaft! We loved learning about the technology and history of coal mining. 

      Because we went during the winter season, we loved seeing the “Christmas Around the World” exhibit. There are more than 50 Christmas trees decorated! Each tree is decorated by a different country. It was so interesting to learn about different customs and traditions!

      Overall, we just loved these Chicago attractions and museums. I felt like there was so much more to learn and discover here. We can’t wait to return as a family again soon!

      A Weekend in Springfield, Missouri!

      We traveled to Springfield, Missouri for the weekend. Being just 3 hours from St. Louis, this was a perfect distance for a family-friendly weekend trip! I’ve compiled our favorite activities, hikes and restaurants below. We really enjoyed visiting Springfield, MO and we are looking forward to another trip there soon! 

      Snapshot of our weekend:

      Friday: 

      • Drove down from St. Louis (3 hours)
      • Checked into our hotel (Tru Hotel)
      • Dinner at Black Sheep Burgers
      • Walked around downtown to view their murals

      Saturday:

      • Gailey’s Breakfast Cafe
      • Springfield Conservation Nature Center (Boardwalk trail)
      • Smallin Civil War Cave
      • Discovery Center
      • Cider Days on Historic Walnut Street (and grabbed lunch here)
      • Hitsory Museum on the Square
      • Treats at Modern Sips Acai Bar
      • Dinner at Pappos Pizza
      • Wizard of Oz at Springfield Little Theatre

      Sunday:

      • Mass at St. Agnes Cathedral
      • Breakfast at Aviary Cafe
      • Bass Pro Shop
      • Springfield Botanical Garden
      • Giant Hamburg’s for lunch
      • Dickerson Park Zoo
      • Fantastic Caverns
      • Drive back to St. Louis!

      Table of Contents

      Smallin Civil War Cave

      Smallin Civil War Cave was used by ancient Native Americans. Arrowheads found here date back to 9000 years ago! Later, both Union and Confederate soldiers used the cave to hide Civil War supplies. It was also a common spot for soldiers to cool off while the Company H Union Camp was being built close by. This was a paved trail into the cave and the guided tour was a little over one hour. We saw 8 cave salamanders, 11 leopard frogs and 1 blind bristly cave crayfish! This was our family’s first time seeing the frogs and crayfish inside of a cave, so we were excited!! 

      Springfield Conservation Nature Trail

      We loved exploring this nature trail and conservation center! The center is free and there are fun nature-themed exhibits, as well as reptiles to view! We hiked on the Boardwalk trail (blue trail marker), which was so lovely! It was a nice walk through the woods with a beautiful boardwalk over the water. The trails here are family-friendly, for example, this trail was just .4 miles. 

      Discovery Center

      Discovery Center in Springfield is a non-profit organization and such a great science and children’s museum. It is all community supported and their mission is to inspire a lifelong love of learning. Our favorites here were digging fossils at the dinosaur exhibit, story time from space and working at the grocery store! There were also water tables, a cloud machine and so much more!

      Cider Days

      We loved walking along Historic Walnut Street to experience Cider Days! There were many stands set up to view art, shop and grab food…of course yummy apple cider! There were several stages set up on the street with musical performances going throughout the day. Check out Visit Springfield’s website to view future events and festivals. 

      Fantastic Caverns

      This was such a neat experience! Fantastic Caverns is one of the only complete drive-through caves in North America! This cave was accidentally discovered by a dog! The dog was lost, so the dog’s owner started looking for him. To the owner’s surprise, the dog had found a cave! We loved this guided tour to learn more about Missouri.

      Dickerson Park Zoo

      Dickerson Park Zoo is AZA certified, just like our St. Louis Zoo. We loved feeding the giraffes, who were SO friendly and came right up to us! My kids also loved feeding the goats and riding the train. My kids were in awe of the many peacocks walking around the zoo too!

      Springfield Botanical Gardens

      The Springfield Botanical Gardens located at Nathanael Greene/Close Memorial Park are FREE! There are dozens of themed gardens and it connects to the South Creek Greenway. There is a main playground behind the Botanical Garden’s Visitor’s Center, but if you walk along the trail around the lake, there are 5 mini playgrounds, called playpods. They are small, nature-themed playgrounds right along the trail. There are also fun facts listed at each playground based on that theme. We walked to the tree and leaf playpods and had a great time!

      History Museum on the Square

      This is a great local museum that explores the area’s history through a variety of permanent and temporary exhibits. Because Springfield is the official birthplace of Route 66, they have a wonderful exhibit. My girls loved sitting in one of the classic cars! They also had signs throughout the exhibits saying “please touch” which was SO cool and so inviting. Some highlights were walking into a teepee and staying warm by the pretend fire or driving through time on a trolley!

      Springfield Little Theatre

      Mark took our older daughters to see Wizard of Oz one evening. It was a great show, very family-friendly and it had the most aerials that our family had ever seen. There was fake snow and they shot out streamers too! After the show, they got invited up to the stage for a picture with the cast! Check out the rest of their season here!

      Lodging

      We stayed at Tru hotel, which was in downtown Springfield. It was in walking distance to restaurants, which was so great! We had a connecting room with one King bed in one room and 2 Queen beds in the other room. There was a pool and a great lobby (all decorated for Halloween)!

      Overall, we had the BEST time here as a family. There was a great mix of indoors and outdoor activities, and we loved exploring more of this area. We can’t wait to come back!

      Family Adventure Camp: Philmont

      Camp Philmont

      Family Adventure Camp: Philmont

      Philmont is 140,000 acres in New Mexico, making it the largest youth camp in the country. There are over 315 miles of trails and 770 campsites. Philmont is a high adventure base for Boy Scouts of America (one of the 3 locations in the US). We had a blast last summer at Family Adventure Camp at Bechtel Summit Reserve in West Virginia. We were excited to try this location this summer! Philmont is a new location for me and our daughters, but my husband, Mark,  has been here for Scouts growing up. 

      Family Adventure Camp at Philmont includes lots of fun activities (hikes, climbing, outdoor adventures and camping). It is family-friendly for all ages and you don’t have to be in Scouts to attend. It is open to anyone (all ages and all skill levels). You choose your own adventure and pick an itinerary that works for your family. There is a half week or full week option. You can choose to do the scheduled activities or just rest and take in the scenery too. Each day, our family chose our own adventure. There are different tracks or schedules that you can choose from. Because of our kids’ younger ages (ages 7, 5, 3 and 8 months old), we chose the “Mini Bear,” where our experiences were targeted to younger children. 

      We were partnered with other young families in the same track we chose, which was just so fun to get to meet other adventure families!

      Each event and hike is guided by a great and supportive staff. Philmont hires over 1,000 summer staff to run programs, treks and Family Adventure Camp.

      Lodging

      We stayed at one of the glamping tents for the week. There is a queen-sized bed and a separate room with 2 bunk beds (4 twin beds). The beds were super comfy, there was electricity, a ceiling fan and all linens were provided (pillows, sheets and blankets). The main room was spacious enough where we could put a pack n’ play next to our bed (for our 8 month old to sleep in). There were groups of 4 glamping tents facing each other with a gas campfire in the middle. It was really nice to start up quickly for s’mores!

      The bathrooms are in a building next to the glamping tents and are all family style, where the toilet and shower are in one room. The restrooms were so clean and also enclosed (not open to the air). Towels are included, but bring your own shampoo and body soap.

      Food

      Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all included with Family Adventure Camp Philmont. The food is great and they offer kids’ meal options for some days too. For example, there were corn dogs offered one night when there was a more spicy meal offered. There is a large outdoor covered patio or also a larger room indoors to eat. A highlight for my kids were the plethora of drink options from milk to Gatorade to lemonade! High chairs were available as well. 

      Included Child Care

      Small Fry Center is included with Family Adventure Camp (no additional charges). There is a building on the property with amazing staff members to watch children from baby to 6 years old. If your kid is above age 6, they have a separate kids’ program called “Trappers.” 

      Small Fry has their own weekly schedule with fun events going on too. Our kids were mostly with us, but it was really nice to have this option. You can drop off your kids for as little or up to the full days. While we were here, it was our 8th wedding anniversary. On our anniversary, Mark and I dropped our girls off while we went for a walk and grabbed milk shakes! It was so nice to have the time as just the two of us. 

      Some parents were here for a conference, so their kids were at Small Fry the whole day and there was a weekly schedule for them (and they took them to lunch). Some of the high adventure activities offered are for a certain age, so it is nice to have the option to drop off younger kids if needed too.

      Evening Family Events

      In addition to the fun daily activities, there are free events to choose from in the evenings. One night we had Junior Wrangler night. We fed the ponies, goats and other animals! Another night was Western Night, where we dressed in our Western attire, ate buffalo burgers (from buffalo raised on Philmont’s land) and tried line dancing! I think my favorite evening event was Happy Trails night with lawn games, branding, dinner & ice cream and face painting.

      camp philmont

      Activity Choices:

      High Ropes Course & Climbing Tower

      Our 3 older kids tried the climbing tower (auto belay). There was one section with a slight incline, which was perfect for new climbers. The high ropes course is for ages 11 and up, so my husband and I adventured up there. This was something out of my comfort zone (my legs were shaking, ha!), but I loved showing my kids that I can try new things too! Our girls also tried crate stacking while here. You stand on a crate and are handed a second crate. You have to balance and climb onto the new crate without falling! Our 7yo made it to 9 crates (she was attached to a harness to catch her when she fell). I believe the current record is 23 crates!

      Craft Center

      Imagine pretty much any art you can create in one place…and this is it. It is open every day (can visit more than once). From painting pottery to mosaics to tie dye to leather stamping to resin, there is so much to create here. There is even a maker’s space with a sewing machine, sand art and lots to paint. The staff helped encourage our family to try new crafts. My 7yo made her own pottery cup while taking a pottery spinning class for the first time!

      Lover's Leap Hike

      This was our favorite hike! A guide led us on this family-friendly 3 mile hike. It was 1.5 miles to an incredible overlook. The trail goes into a canyon with epic views along the trail. We initially had to delay our hike because of thunder, but we were still able to complete it. 

      Hunting Lodge Campout

      We were driven to a one night tent campout next to the historic hunting lodge of Waite Phillips. Phillips gave 127,000 acres of his favorite ranch in New Mexico to Boy Scouts of America. The iconic Cathedral Rock just above the Cimarroncito Reservoir was beautiful. We received a tour of Phillips’ historic hunting cabin, had a chuckwagon campfire meal (yummy biscuits over chili) and storytime around the campfire. The wonderful staff set up our tent, gave us sleeping pads and pillows/linens. This was a fun one night trip before returning back to our glamping tent! In the morning, we hiked 1 mile down to the reservoir with our 2 guides. Staff picked up our gear and then picked us up from the reservoir to drive back. The wildflowers here were incredible. 

      Abreu Homestead Camp

      We were led by staff to a beautiful Mexican homestead camp. We learned about the homestead here in the wilderness and what life was like in the early 1900s. The staff was dressed in character (the backcountry staff lives here all summer). We saw how they lived and even helped to make Adobe bricks. My girls were living their best life by packing mud into the brick molds! There was also the BEST root beer in the trading post here, which tasted even more amazing after the hike here.

      Dino Hike

      Philmont is home to one of the only two confirmed Tyrannosaurus Rex footprints in the world! This is a 2.25 mile round trip hike. Super kid-friendly! The trail winded through a beautiful valley. In 1963, geologist Charles Pillmore discovered a 96cm long fossil footprint. It is a fossilized track of the hind foot of a T-Rex from 65-70 million years ago. A little further up the trail, we saw the fossil of a Hydrosaur claw.

      Archery & Shooting Range

      From shotguns to archery to BB guns to sling shots to ax throwing, there was so much to explore here. It was my 5yo’s first time with a bow and arrow. She loved it. Staff gave us dog food for the slingshots, which attracted “Chunk” the squirrel who kept a close eye on the dog food!

      Pony Rides

      Riding Mickey the unicorn was a huge highlight for my girls! Our girls loved brushing the ponies and learning more about their care. We also held chickens, fed goats and donkeys! This was such a peaceful and fun experience. 

      There is so much history at Philmont and we enjoyed learning more about the area and people. We learned about the Santa Fe trail at the Kit Carson Museum and also learned about the origins of Scouting at the national Scouting Museum.

      Our week at Philmont’s Family Adventure Camp was such a positive experience. I just can’t say enough about this beautiful place. We made many happy family memories here and look forward to more future adventures here! 

      To reserve your Family Adventure Camp adventure, head here to find out more!

      A Weekend in Kansas City

      weekend in Kansas City

      Looking for the perfect weekend trip from St. Louis? Just 3.5 hours away, Kansas City makes the ideal family-friendly getaway. 

      This was our family’s first time exploring Kansas City! We had been last year visiting Great Wolf Lodge, but had yet ventured throughout the city. We were frankly blown away by all of the options to choose from!

      Weekend in Kansas City

      Kansas City Lodging

      We stayed for two nights at Hilton Kansas City Country Club Plaza (779 W 47th Street, Kansas City, MO). Our room was very comfortable with 2 queen beds on one side of the room and one pull-out couch on the other side. A main highlight for our kids (and parents too!) was the fun panel to swim in between the indoor and outdoor pools!

      There is a free, public parking garage across the street from the Hilton. We chose to self-park in the garage attached to the hotel–which was super easy to take the elevator from the lobby to our van. 

      We overall loved this location because we enjoyed walking up and down the Country Club Plaza. This area is 15 city blocks with dozens of fountains, restaurants and shops! All of the architecture is Spanish-inspired and it was just so peaceful!!

      Day 1

       

      We arrived in the afternoon and checked into our hotel. We saw the outdoor pool from our hotel window and quickly changed into our suits! After swimming to our heart’s content, we walked to dinner from the hotel. We walked around the Country Club Plaza and were happy to eat at Brio Italian Grille. The service was quick, the food was great and in large portions and my kids loved the bendable plastic straws that could move into silly shapes.

      Day 2

      Breakfast: Messenger Coffee Co 

      We started our morning here at the Country Club Plaza location just up the street from our hotel. Our favorite pastry was the blackberry crumble! Right outside of the shop is a warthog sculpture (replica of one in Florence), which we rubbed for good luck. 

      Address: 318 W 47th St, Kansas City, MO 64112

      LEGOLAND Discovery Center

       We arrived a little before 10am (when they opened). I’d allow for some time to park in the parking garage near Crown Center. I really liked this plaza because LEGOLAND and SeaLife are located in the same building, and then our lunch spot was just right across the street at Crown Center. There are over 2 million LEGO bricks in this one-story center. I appreciated the one story because it was easier to keep an eye on our kiddos. Highlights for us were the Earthquake Table (where we designed buildings and then placed on a mat that shook) or the LEGO Pizzeria (where my daughters could design their own LEGO brick pizzas and even slide them in a LEGO oven). There was a separate room to see Kansas City in LEGO bricks and there was a switch to see day and night! The interactive car racing was a blast. The “Design-your-own Quilt Square” was a blast too, where we designed a square out of LEGO bricks and added it to a wall next to other decorated squares. 

      Address: 2475 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64108

      Lunch: Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant

      All aboard!! After LEGOLAND, we walked across the street to Crown Center. Every table in this iconic train restaurant gets food delivered by an overhead train! We ordered by phone and had fun watching the train carry a basket of burgers for us. There were even fun conductor hats to wear!

      Address: 2450 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64108

      weekend in kansas city

      SEA LIFE Aquarium

      After lunch, we walked back across the street to enter SEA LIFE. This is the same entrance as LEGOLAND, so it was easy to navigate and figure out where to go. Each day around 1pm, the larger tank with sharks, sting rays and larger fish are fed. We all had fun watching this! The aquarium is all one level (similar to LEGOLAND), but it was extensive and seemed large. There were many exhibits to view and it was hands-on, especially with the touch pool! My favorite exhibit was the seadragons! We could have spent much longer here than we initially thought. 

      Address: 2475 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64108

      Science City at Union Station

      This is one of the top 25 science centers in the country…and I was shocked. 92,000 square feet with over 300 interactive exhibits. It is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024 and there is just so much to explore here!! We really could have spent all day here and not seen everything. There is an extensive indoor and outdoor space to explore here, as well as a new robotics exhibit, illusions experience and dinosaur dig. We all created art in the Makerspace, we walked through a cave and my husband rode the SkyBike! There is a kids’ climbing area, a mirror maze, a water table exhibit and so much more. 

      Address: 30 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO 64108

      weekend in kansas city

      Disney100: The Exhibition

      After Science City, we went downstairs at Union Station to the new Disney exhibit. This exhibit goes through the history of Disney over the past 100 years. Walt Disney began his animation career right in the heart of Kansas City. Kansas City is one of the first three cities to host the historic North American tour!

      There were so many different props and artifacts, like Cinderella’s slipper. There were also some interactive exhibits where we could listen behind-the-scenes to different movies, like Frozen and The Little Mermaid. My kids’ favorite exhibit was hearing different languages while watching Moana and Encanto (they could select the language to listen to)!! It was so interesting to see the actors and voices behind each language presented. My favorite was seeing the history of Walt Disney and how he built Disney and the creation of his story boards. The exhibit ends with Disney’s quote: “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

      Address: 30 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO 64108

      Dinner: Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que

      This is one of Kansas City’s best barbecue restaurants and Joe has earned national recognition. Originally sold from this gas station location, there was a line out of the door and many tables inside to sit and enjoy. After our very fun day of exploring, we definitely built up an appetite. The ribs were the best we had ever had. Seriously, they were incredible. 

      Address: 3002 W. 47th Avenue, Kansas City, KS 66103

      Day 3

      Breakfast: Mildred’s

      We woke up feeling rested after yesterday’s fun and busy day (the kids slept through the night- yay!). We checked out of our hotel and ate breakfast at Mildred’s. It is a family owned and operated cafe that serves delicious home-made pastries. Their cinnamon rolls or the gooey butter pastry were winners in our books! We loved the relaxing vibe here. It was a tasty and great stop. 

      Address: 1901 Wyandotte St, Kansas City, MO 64108

      Penguin Park

      Our original plan was to make a stop at Penguin Park after breakfast. This park has a 26-foot kangaroo slide and a 23-foot penguin to play inside! Due to the pouring rain, we were unable to play here, but I did walk around to get some of these pictures to show you. 

      Address: 919 E 14th Ave, North Kansas City, MO 64116

      North Kansas City Public Library

      Since we had time before The Rabbit hOle opened, we stopped at the nearby North Kansas City Public LIbrary. There were some animals on display, many toys and books, as well as relaxing chairs by multiple cozy fireplaces. What a lovely and peaceful library!!

      Address: 2251 Howell St., North Kansas City, MO 64116

      The Rabbit hOle

      I would have come to Kansas City just to experience this gem. As an elementary school teacher now turned stay-at-home mom, I’ve read a fair amount of children’s books. So I was just thrilled to see this brand new literary experience in North Kansas City. To enter the exhibit, you climb down into a huge cave-like rabbit hole and then emerge into a magical immersive museum.  Your favorite children’s books are brought back to life!! They have copies of children’s books by each exhibit, so you can sit and read the book together as a family. Some of our favorites were Strega Nona, Caps for Sale, Frog & Toad and My Father’s Dragon. Make sure to check out the Goodnight Moon exhibit behind the bookstore/gift shop. This truly is a world of wonder and reminded me so much of the City Museum, but all book-themed!

      Address: 919 E 14th Ave, North Kansas City, MO 64116

      Lunch: Chicken N Pickle

      This is Chicken N Pickle’s original location, which opened in North Kansas City in 2016! There is now a second operation now in Overland Park. There is also a location that opened recently in St. Louis (which we haven’t visited yet), so we loved checking this out. It was great food and a fun family-friendly environment. The rain let up after lunch and we played outside after eating lunch. There are lots of yard games here (Bean bag toss, Battleship, Jenga) in addition to pickleball courts!

      Address: 1761 Burlington St, North Kansas City, MO 64116

      Kansas City, you were so good to us!! We quickly fell in love with this beautiful city. From the unique museums to immersive experiences to great food, Kansas City is so family-friendly. Not to mention, it was just a quick car ride from St. Louis. We are already looking forward to our next trip!

      A Weekend in Wichita

      A Weekend in Wichita

      Just 5 hours from St. Louis, Wichita is the heart of the country and it is the largest city in Kansas. This weekend in Wichita was our first time exploring Kansas and our family was floored by the natural beauty, as well as the rich history of this area.

      We explored Wichita for 2 nights/3 days over 4th of July. Here is a snapshot of what we visited while there. 

      A Weekend in Wichita

      Weekend in Wichita Day 1: 

      OJ Watson Park 

      We had a blast exploring this 119-acre park in Wichita. They offer a miniature train ride, pony rides, miniature golf, paddle boat rentals and $1 sno-cones!! We really liked the train ride around the lake. It reminded us of the St. Louis Zoo train and we saw many ducks swimming!

      Exploration Place

      Think Science Center + Magic House in St. Louis! There are lots of hands-on exhibits. Wichita claimed the Air Capital of the World in 1928 (and it still is true today), hence the many airplanes here. My favorite exhibit was the interactive medieval castle! The Children’s area is all-things Kansas, including lots of farming and gardening topics. To end our visit, we viewed a movie in the largest dome theater in Kansas (attached to Exploration Place). We saw “Sea Lion: Life by a Whisker,” which followed a sea lion colony in Australia.

      Keeper of the Plains

      Along the Arkansas River, there is an incredible urban trail!! It is more than 10 miles long. It goes right by the Exploration Place! We walked along this trail and viewed the lighting of the Keeper of the Plains statue. At 9pm each night in the summer (weather-dependent), the Keeper of the Plains statue has a ring of fire for 15 minutes. This 44 foot sculpture honors the region’s original citizens and has become a special symbol for Wichita. This is the spot where the Big and Little Arkansas rivers join. 

      Boats & Bikes

      We rented a pedal boat and watched fireworks along the Arkansas River! Our boat rental was right along the riverfront. There is also a public dock here, so you can bring your boat for no charge. They have life jackets here for kiddos 30lbs and up, so make sure to bring a proper infant life jacket if needed. The fireworks were over the river and it was so unique to view them from the pedal boat. People lined up to watch fireworks on both sides of the river too!

      Weekend in Wichita Day 2: 

      Field Station: Dinosaurs

      We started the morning with dinosaurs! There are over 40 life-sized and realistic dinosaurs here!! Seriously so cool. We walked along the trail to view the dinosaurs up close. There are informational signs by each one to learn more. We also really enjoyed the fun shows (included with admission). We saw a show on the mighty T-Rex, which included fun facts and songs. There is also a dinosaur maze, digging site, bounce house and more. 

      Tanganyika Wildlife Park

      Then, we went to one of the most unique places we have ever visited: Tanganyika! Mark swam with penguins (the only place in the USA), I fed the lions and our girls fed giraffes and rhinos! We had a meet-and-greet with the penguins and rhinos, where we learned more about these animals, fed them and pet them. The rhinos were much softer than I thought! There are many animals to view and pet (my girls’ favorite animals to pet were the kangaroos). The splash pad and playground were right next to covered pavilions and a concession stand. They really thought of everything here and we definitely could have spent more time here. 

      Gallery Alley

      This interactive alley is in downtown Wichita. It features a large spider! My favorite art installation was the “make a wave” exhibit. You pull on the rope to cause other ropes to move, creating a wave!

      Gallery Alley Wichita

      Weekend in Wichita Day 3: 

      Great Plains Nature Center

      This is a fantastic and free nature center just outside of Wichita! Head inside the nature center first to pick up free turtle food. Inside here, there are many exhibits and animals for viewing. It blew me away! Outside, there are many short trails including boardwalks, which I could walk on all day. We had so much fun feeding the turtles and (very large) fish off of the boardwalk. 

      Great Plains Nature Center Wichita
      Great Plains Nature Center Wichita

      Cowtown Museum

      We then stepped back into time at Cowtown! There are over 25,000 historical artifacts and 54 buildings here. It spans 23 acres and is nestled in Wichita’s Museums on the River District. It mirrored what Wichita looked like from 1865-1880. Cowtown reminded me of a much larger version of historical Faust Park. People were in character and there were cooking demonstrations, as well as free horse carriage rides. 

      cowtown museum Wichita
      cowtown museum Wichita

      Lodging: 

      We stayed at Hyatt hotels next to Wichita State University. Our room had 2 Queen beds and a pull-out couch, which was great to fit our family. The included breakfast buffet and indoor pool were wonderful too! The hotel is just 2.5 years old, so everything feels clean and modern. 

      Wichita lodging
      Wichita lodging

      Top 3 places to eat: 

      1. Donut Whole for unique donut flavors! Make sure to go in the morning (before they sell out) as they make them fresh each day. This reminded me a lot of Strange Donuts in STL. I chose a cinnamon coconut and it was heavenly!
      2. Cocoa Dolce for the best chocolate shop in town! It is rated Wichita’s best chocolate. Mark got a mocha with 70% cocoa and I got a hot chocolate with 54% cocoa–so tasty!
      3. B & C Barbeque is the highest reviewed barbeque restaurant here. I’m still dreaming about the ribs and the brisket!

      Would we visit here again? Yes. In a heartbeat. My kids actually started crying when we left because they had so much fun here. Frankly, I was blown away by Wichita and the proximity to St. Louis was a huge plus! Thank you for a great visit, Wichita. We are excited to return again soon!

      St. Louis Summer Bucket List Part 2

      St. Louis Summer Bucket List

      Missouri is full of great spots and attractions to enjoy in the summer. After writing Part 1, I couldn’t stop adding more places! Here is part 2 of yet more summer sports to explore. 

       

      Gateway Arch Riverboat Cruise

      50 S. Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard.,

      St. Louis, MO 63102

       

      We love taking the historic paddleboat cruise along the Mississippi River. Not only is it an amazing view of the Gateway Arch, but we learned so much history on the tours as well! They have dinner cruises, live music and tours. My personal favorite is the Skyline Dinner Cruise!

      Parking is available on the levee and payment is by card only. 

      City Museum

      750 N 16th St

      St. Louis, MO 63103

       

      This is a former warehouse of the International Shoe Company, the City Museum is a must to visit! Artist Bob Cassilly purchased what would become this STL gem in 1993 and opened the doors in 1997! We love visiting here in the summer because we can enjoy the outdoor climbing and rooftop even more. There are 29K artifacts from all around the world, a 10-story spiral slide and a 3 story cave.

      There are old chimneys, salvaged bridges, construction cranes, miles of tile, fire truck, school bus and even two abandoned planes!

      We went recently on the rooftop for the first time with our kids…and we all loved it!! Our favorites were the variety of slides (featuring sliding below while people are climbing up it on steps right above you), the giant praying mantis & the out-of-commission school bus!!

      Union Station

      1820 Market St

      St. Louis, MO 63103

       

      All under one roof at this historic train station turned into an epic vacation spot!! There are some awesome attractions here to enjoy. There are two free shows daily! There is a beautiful free light show in the Grand Hall. These are projected on the ceiling every night at the top of the hour from 5-11pm. The fire show is at the koi pond every night at the top of the hour from 5-11pm. It was set to songs and was so fun! There is also the St. Louis Wheel (we love to go while the sun is setting), a ropes course, the St. Louis Aquarium, mini golf, carousel and a mirror maze. 

      Laumeier Sculpture Park

      GPS Coordinates: 38.54993° N, 90.41413° W

      (Off of Laumeier Park Rd)

       

      We park at the south end of the parking lot at the trailhead and we like to hike through the woods on the Eastern Woodland Trail (where there are sculptures along the trail). We then come out to the big field with mounds to climb.

       

      After the mounds, you can keep walking along the paved trail toward the children’s sculpture garden or circle back to your car. We love the central lawn with my kids’ favorite being the large eyeball! It is a perfect spot for a picnic.

      Grant’s Farm

      7385 Grant Rd.

      St. Louis, MO 63123

       

      It doesn’t feel like summer without a visit to Grant’s Farm! Open for 70 years, this historic farm is a long-standing staple here in St. Louis. From tram rides to bottle-feeding lambs to viewing the beautiful Clydesdale horses, Grant’s Farm has it all. They offer behind-the-scenes tours, where we were able to feed camels and tortoises! Seasonal events are always a blast here too. 

      Missouri Botanical Garden

      7385 Grant Rd

       St. Louis, MO 63123

       

      Missouri Botanical Garden has 79 beautiful acres in St. Louis and it was founded in 1859! It is one of the oldest botanical institutions in the United States and a National Historic Landmark. Extended summer Thursday evening hours, the incredible Children’s Garden and free concerts make the summer here extra special. One of our favorite spots is the Japanese Garden. We like to bring quarters to feed the Koi fish along the bridge and boardwalk!

       

      If you have a membership through the Botanical Garden, you also have admission entrance to Shaw Nature Reserve and the Butterfly House. 

       

      Pickle Springs

      Dorlac Rd

      New Offenburg, MO 63670

       

      This is an outstanding 1.9 mile unpaved loop in Sainte Genevieve. There are waterfalls, shallow caves and bluff overlooks. The trail is mostly shaded with some steep inclines. Between the vistas and box canyons, this has a little bit of everything. I call this one the perfect family hike because it has so many fun things to climb, and has creeks and views too! Pickle Creek may be flowing in some spots and it is more rain-dependent. The layered sandstone dates back to 500 million years old, and this Natural Area is a National Natural Landmark!

      Mastodon State Historic Site

      GPS Coordinates: 38.379370, -90.394553

       

      This is one of our favorite creeks to explore in the summer! We park by the area called the Mastodon State Picnic area (.8 miles off Seckman Rd, not the museum entrance). It is in the rear parking lot past the playground.

       

      More directions from Mastodon’s website:

      Located off of 1-55, the Imperial Exit (exit 186 if heading South bound). Next take W Outer Rd, and Seckman Rd will be your second Left. Follow Seckman Rd for about .8 miles. Park in the rear parking lot, to the left of the bathrooms (past the playground).

       

      We took a short hike (about 3 minutes) along the trail and then set up camp! The creek is shallow, shaded and has so many rocks—so perfect for little kids. We like to set up a picnic blanket on the side of the creek. 

       

      I recommend getting there early in the morning to avoid crowds. Just a heads up that Seckman Rd will be having construction for most of the summer of 2024 and you will have to pass through the back roads. 

      St. Louis Summer Bucket List

      Elephant Rocks State Park

      7390, 7406 MO-21

       Belleview, MO 63623

       

      It’s not every day you can see 1.5 billion-year-old granite! This area is known for massive boulders. Located in Belleview, this state park has unbelievable views. There is a 1.0 mile paved Braille trail here, as well as lots of opportunities to climb the beautiful granite. We also like to see the old engine house! Instead of hiking on the trail that goes on the perimeter of the boulders, we love to hike up the incline in the middle. The view from up here is breathtaking! 

      On our last visit, we had the place to ourselves by arriving at 8am. The parking lot was more packed by noon, but it was still pretty spread out on the boulders. The main restrooms are located by the parking lot, and a portable bathroom is across from the playground.

      There are many wonderful areas to explore in St. Louis and Missouri! Make sure to check Part 1 as well. Happy summer exploring!!