Subject: Re: Travel with grand children |
Hi Marge,
The grandson I'm taking to NY is 12. I only take one at a time. Two at once might be okay in other cities but I wouldn�t try it in New York. I took my 8 year old grandson to St. Louis last summer and this is a great destination to take a child. I had a car for one day and that day we drove across the Missouri River to St. Charles to see where Lewis and Clark started their journey, went to Grant's Farm (it was Pres. Grant's at one time) which is now owned by the Anheuser-Busch Company. Admission is free and they have an amazing assortment of animals from various countries. This is also where they keep the majority of their Clysdales. The new cathedral is one of the most beautiful I've seen anywhere in the world. It has the largest mosaic collection in the world created by 20 different artists and covering 83,000 square feet. It contains 41.5 million pieces of glass tesserae and uses over 7,000 colors. It was started in 1912 and completed in 1988. There's also a nice museum in the basement. Anything that keeps an 8 year old occupied for 1 1/2 hours has got to be good. The old cathedral is down by the Arch. We stayed at the Holiday Inn near the airport (kids eat free) and used the hotel shuttle to get to the light rail which starts at the airport. We went all the way to the Arch on it. The stop closest to the Arch is under the western end of the Eads Bridge - the first bridge across the Mississippi. The steamboats and ferries did not want this bridge built and people did not trust the stability of it - so when the bridge was completed, Eads hired an elephant to cross the bridge because everyone knew that an elephant would not step a foot on an unsafe bridge. At the Arch there are two excellent movies, you can go to the top of the Arch and children can become Junior Rangers by going through the wonderful Western Expansion museum there and finding the answers to the quiz questions the Rangers give them. Union Station is good for lunch. At one time, this was the largest and busiest passenger rail terminal in the world. There is a hotel there also and the gigantic lobby is the original railroad station waiting room. It is stunning. They also have a wonderful zoo and children's science museum. Harlene - about to leave for another adventure. |