On the Farm

So, now I’ll head back to St. Louis!

On Sunday morning, we ate breakfast, loaded up the car, and headed to Grant’s Farm.  Charlotte had originally wanted to go to the St. Louis Zoo, but, upon further investigation, Grant’s Farm seemed to be a bit better choice with a baby, and Charlotte thought it looked like fun, too, so that’s where we went.

Grant’s Farm is so named because President Ulysses S. Grant lived there for a bit before he became president.  His wife’s family owned the property and gave a number of acres to Ulysses and Julia Dent when they married.  The log house in which they lived is still on the property.

Some years after the Dent/Grant families lived there, the Busch family purchased the property.  (This would the the Anheuser-Busch people.  After all, this is St. Louis, home of Budweiser!)  They restored the cabin and opened the property up to the public some 50 years ago.  Anheuser-Busch Inc. runs and maintains the Clydesdale breeding facility and animal park that Grant’s Farm now is.

We saw Clydesdale horses and foals, Scottish Highland cows, elk, several varieties of deer, a giant tortoise, alpacas, miniature donkeys, an elephant, a zebra, a capybara, goats, a kangaroo, bald eagles, parrots, macaws, and owls.  In other words, we saw a veritable zoo at the farm!  And it was all free, paid for by beer drinkers the world over.  We did pay $11.00 to park, more than that for lunch, and a couple bucks for milk bottles to feed the goats, but entrance to the park, the animal show, and the elephant show were all free.  Plus, each person of legal drinking age got to pick two, eight-ounce “samples” of the Budweiser family of beers on tap in the food area, also for free.

Not a bad deal.

Upon arrival, we visited the Clydesdale barns and pastures.  Yep, these are the guys that star in the commercials every year during the Super Bowl, and they are magnificent animals.  We even got to see a couple of babies from a distance.

 

After that, we got in line to ride the tram through a large deer park to the actual animal farm.

 

After we disembarked, we headed straight for the Animal Encounters show, a very entertaining half hour in which trained animals performed for us.  Birds did math…

…drew pictures…

 

… and walked tightropes.

This very skittish owl flew from his trainer to a perch a couple of times…and then flew away!  His trainer was still trying to round him up when the show ended!

The show ended with a particularly talented macaw doing his best imitation of the Anheuser-Busch eagle.  Pretty funny!

After the animal show, we looked at a few of the animals, including this camel who actually posed for a picture!

Then, we headed to a grandstand area for an elephant show.  This was better than the circus.  The elephant walked on a narrow ledge, picked up a dime with his trunk, and sprayed the audience with water.  After each trick, he bowed to the applause.

 

As Sunday was just as hot as Saturday, we headed over to the food courtyard for lunch and a bit of time in the shade.  Then, we looked at the rest of the animals and bought a couple bottles of milk for the kids to feed the goats.

This ended up being pretty funny.  These goats were very aggressive, so here are the kids trying to deal with that!

 

Charlotte, of course, wanted to feed the sweet goat who had no interest in the bottle, and Elijah wanted to share his bottle with about six different goats.  I tell you: this was highly entertaining.

 

Since we’ve never been to the St. Louis Zoo, I can’t tell you how it compares, but Charlotte and Elijah definitely enjoyed this place!

 

On our way out, we stopped by the “general store,” where Charlotte and Elijah each used their own money to buy a souvenir.  Then, we headed back into St. Louis for me to my souvenir from the Hard Rock Cafe.

A number of years ago (like, before I was even married), I started buying teddy bears from town that had one’s Hard Rock Cafe.  My very first bear was from Washington D.C. during a college visit.  Jeff brought me one from Japan, and we have some from various European cities from our time there.  (Strangely enough, we’re missing Paris and London, although we visited both places…HRC wasn’t on the agenda, I guess!)

Anyway, St. Louis has a Hard Rock, so we tried to track it down.  This ended up being surprisingly difficult.  The first place we stopped (thanks to Jeff’s iPhone GPS) was an industrial area by the railroad tracks.  The next place was an actual street that looked promising, but still no Hard Rock. 

We finally figured out that it was in Union Station, so we parked close to there and walked in…only to find out that we parked at the farthest possible point from it.  By this time, we were hot and tired and I wasn’t much in the mood to buy a bear anymore!  But we trudged over and went in the gift shop…only to discover that the bears I had bought for years were not available here.  (Perhaps they’re not available at all anymore.)  I ended up purchasing a Beanie Baby-type bear, complete with tattoos, an earring, a leather vest, and a red mohawk.

Oh, well.  He looks a bit out of place with my others, but the times, they are a-changin’!

So, after our last inadvertent adventure, we headed home, making one quick stop in a McDonald’s parking lot to feed Jeremy.

It was a great birthday weekend!  I highly recommend St. Louis.  We can’t wait to go back and visit the Arch and the zoo next time.

Have a good one!