Shaw's Garden, St. Louis

Well, my first visit to St. Louis must have gone well because the next time my boyfriend went home to see his folks, I got invited to tag along. This time, on top of some great family festivities, we also went to the beautiful Shaw's Garden and got some cool photos. In addition to just being a fabulous botanical garden, Shaw's Garden (or The Missouri Botanical Gardens, officially) is exceptional because it is divided into several small gardens, all with very different atmospheres, as you can see from the photos below.







The Japanese Garden -- much larger and more open than most gardens in Japan, but still, they captured the spirit well.











The sundial's off from the watch by an hour because of DST, but otherwise, remarkably accurate.



One of about a half-dozen couples we saw either getting married or having their photos done in the gardens that day.

St. Louis "Marathon" Weekend

Here are a few more photos from my first weekend in St. Louis...



We went to the Arch, of course, and I got a history lesson on its construction as well as a few cool photos.



Touching the Arch is supposed to be good luck, so we gave it a whirl.





I also got to sample some St. Louie cuisine, including the famous Imo's pizza and toasted ravioli! Yum!



Art Hill and the museum in Forest Park on a gloriously sunny day.





This was the first time I'd been to one of Stretch's races, but I think grabbing a cup of coffee while I wait for him to get to the finish line will work nicely as my regular race day routine.

St. Louis City Museum: Recapture Your Childhood for Just $12

I was a scrawny, decidedly unathletic wisp of a child -- all sharp angles and toothpicky limbs. No matter what sport the other kids were playing, my attempts to join in typically ended quickly and unceremoniously with a nose bleed or an asthma attack. Just watching a game of dodgeball gave me bruises.

Despite my somewhat fragile constitution, I eventually discovered that I was reasonably coordinated and found a blissful sanctuary on the playground: the monkey bars.

Twenty years later, I'm still avoiding dodgeball games, but sadly, my friends and I have outgrown the monkey bars...

Until this weekend.




As part of our move from "dating" to "seriously dating," Stretch took me to St. Louis to "watch him run in the St. Louis Marathon" (read: "meet his parents and tour his hometown"). On my little tour, he took me to St. Louis City Museum, which is basically a ginormous indoor/outdoor jungle gym for grown-ups.

Here are some photos, but you really need to see this place to believe it.







Stretch squeezing through a giant slinky to get from one floor to the next. Being skinny and flexible has never been more convenient.



Slides!! Woo hoo!!!



Outside, the giant slinky madness continues as we hover three stories above the ground with only some twisted re-bar keeping us from a grisly death.











Stretch likes the chains in the castle, though it occurs to me that this might be the most dangerous part of the whole ordeal.



Luckily, neither of us fell down this staircase, and we left City Museum feeling fulling twenty years younger.