St. Louis Zoo - Saint Louis - TravBuddy

I've been here twice and enjoyed the second time just as much as the first. First of all, it's free and that is pretty hard to find these days. You can get a lot closer to animals at this zoo than most others. They have it set up so you don't have to be looking through glass to see everything. That is always nice for pictures. The penguin display is my favorite just because you could acutally touch them you are so close. However, just remember they are really good at drenching people in freezing cold fishy smelling water. :) Yeah, it happened to me when I was trying to get a close up picture. If you are looking for one particular display, you might have problems finding it because there aren't many signs that say which way is which. However, it is sort of like a maze and you'll see everything eventually and they have some really cool trails.

First thing that morning I’d gone to the Museum of Westward Expansion, conveniently located at the Giant Arch’s base, staying just long enough to check out all the Lewis & Clark stuff and some of the American Indian Peace medals--“world’s largest collection of!”--before chucking the scene. Finding the riverfront too busy for my sedate frame of mind, I decided to head out west--much like the pioneers had from this spot--to Forest Park, and then, depending on my mood when I got there, either visit the art museum or the zoo.

As I yet again reminded myself to shoot the train station before leaving town, the bus zoomed along, little traffic at this time of day, and got to the park quickly enough. As it happened, the stop was pretty much right between the two possibilities, so I stood there, turning my head from side to side like a mule paralyzed between two haystacks. I checked my backpack and saw I didn’t have my fast lens, which would make shooting art difficult, but then I wasn’t really here to shoot. And how often did you come across a free art museum, after all? On the other hand, the museum’s website has very few examples of their artwork online, the fewest for an art museum since the Hammer’s in El Lay, but don’t get me started on that. . .

A bus unloaded in front of me, a charter, and a few families with kids jumped off and moved toward the zoo. Another bus immediately followed with about an equal number of older, more sedate people who went off to the museum. . . or the Planetarium. . . or the Science Center, Natural History Museum, or Botanical Gardens.

And then an old man, dressed like he wanted to retain the dignity of his previous life but not able to afford new threads, carefully stepped off the bus and made sure his St. Louis Zoo cap was on straight before following the kids toward the zoo.

Chuckling, I followed as well.

After a brief stop at what turned out to be an excellent information center, the next few hours were spent in silent contemplation and communing with nature, urban style, yo! As usual, the reptiles were popular creatures, but because of that and the fact they were so icky, I walked right by, though I did want to take a peek at something called a tuatara, simply because I’d been told the zoo taped their sexual encounters. I wasn’t going to ask why, and come to think it, I wasn’t that interested; maybe my curiosity does have boundaries after all. {You can’t take curious out of the cat. . .}

I skipped the Discovery Corner too, not at all fascinated by the thought of having to deal and be around sugar-powered kids. The River’s Edge section was of course the most fun, because it was the most natural, allowing the animals to feel almost at home in their large habitat while affording me plenty of photographic opportunities. I finally know what a capybara is {though I don’t imagine this info will ever be useful}, and I’ll bet no one’s heard of a bee-eater before {it’s a bird, dang it; I was trying to imagine the snout. . .}.

Luckily I caught the stink in the air long before I arrived at the penguin compound; despite how easy they are to shoot, I managed to turn away before my stomach got involved. It did, however, take away my appetite for dessert for a while. The grinning polar bear made up for it, though, and while the big white fluffy one didn’t quite bring any food cravings back, it did help me forget why I’d lost them in the first place. And even though it sounds dorky, I like that they call this “The coolest place in town!”

It wasn’t long after that I came across a restaurant called the Painted Giraffe {seriously, “Chicken Caesar Wrap” and such at a zoo, but no burgers?}, but being well-experienced with amusement-park-type food, I went for Ice Cream Oasis instead, where I “made do” with a waffle cone, which they claimed was “A World's Fair Original,” and a pretzel. That gave me enough energy to un-hungry myself till dinner.

Unfortunately I forgot to NOT eat before going on amusement-park-type rides, in this case the miniature train that was going too fast for good photos, and well as filled with those aforementioned sugar-powered kids. Skip this and walk. The sea lion show was fun, though.
Damn, I love zoos. . .

{For those not in the wise, PENGUINS STINK! Worse than fish. . . or rather, because of fish. Makes me gag just thinking about it. . .}

Since, my friend loves visiting Zoo's in different part of states we went to St. Louis Zoo. We were very surprised that admission to zoo was FREE. Although, an admission to Zoo is FREE, there are some attractions that require minimal fee (all under $5). Such are carousel rides, railroad train rides, sea lion show, and 3D Movie.

All day parking is available on the Zoo but it requires parking fee of $10. My friend and I, we did not utilize Zoo parking. Instead, we parked our rental car across the Zoo in which were free to public (spaces are limited so you are lucky if you happen to find a space).

What I liked about this zoo was cleanliness - a very well kept zoo. Oh yeah, a FREE ADMISSION.

If you are a kid or a big kid at heart (like my friend and I..lol), you'll enjoy visiting this ZOO.

All in all, it only cost us less than $10 (my friend had to have root beer float...lol).