We lived in the St. Louis metro east (southern IL) for 18 years and still own our house there, so in many ways St. Louis is home to us.
So, here's my final My Country Collage (I think! LOL!), featuring Mid-America: St. Louis Metro Area (Missouri and southern Illinois). The top left is the St. Louis Arch or the Gateway Arch, formally called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Beside it is the old court house as viewed from on top of the arch. The elephant is a bull elephant born at the St. Louis Zoo, the best zoo I've ever been to (and I've been to a lot of zoos). The cave is Meramec Caverns in the Ozark Mountains of MO, where Billy the Kid his his loot. The two bottom pictures are from IL, a statue of Abraham Lincoln just outside his tomb in Springfield and the cornfield behind my old house.
Well, I'm prejudiced, I'm from So. Ill myself. They have (or did the last time I was there) some of the old-style houses left, mostly for the smaller reptiles and so on, but they have a lot of lovely large outdoor landscaped areas for the large animals.
Beautiful shot of the Arch. My Jr. High class made a field trip there the year it was built and I feel like it's MY arch, but I don't have a single photo of it, I don't think.
I should know what that domed building is and I can't remember. Great shot of it! Did you take it from the top of the arch?
@pixiemac@swilde Please see my remarks above about the elephant. I'm up past my bedtime and I forgot to tag you. They boil down to, St. Louis has a wonderful zoo!
@pixiemac@swilde That's Raja, he was born at the St. Louis Zoo and now is the papa of many of their baby elephants. He was only a few years old when we first started going to that zoo. St. Louis Zoo is the best free zoo in the world. We have gone to expensive zoos and still not found one as nice. If you ever get the chance to go, you won't be disappointed. @therubysusan I miss the St. Louis Zoo. The Boston zoo is terrible.
@joansmor I do. I wish I had time. I have tons of regular scrapbooking stuff, I just haven't had time to do anything with it the past two years. Hopefully, once we are settled in NC, I'll have some free time (or an occasional free weekend).
@tuya Thanks! @digitalrn We also spent 4 years in Germany, but those pictures are on film, not digital, so that one would require a lot of work to do! LOL! This doesn't even include the time my husband spent in KS or GA. We only spent a summer in KS and visited GA while he was there.
@therubysusan It's the old court house that sits below the arch. And it was taken from the arch windows. There was a big case decided there, so it's a historical site. I think it was Brown vs. Board of Education.
@homeschoolmom I was going to say the St. Louis Zoo was world class, and then I realized I've only been to 3 zoos, so I toned down my remarks! Thanks for the confirmation, and the info on the courthouse. At first I said to myself, "was she in a helicopter or something?" and then "facepalm" "that's right near the Arch!" That's Busch stadium in the shadows behind it, isn't it? I'm not a sports fan, so it didn't sink in last night. Again, great shot!
@therubysusan That's Keiner Plaza behind the court house. Busch Stadium would be on left of the court house from this angle, and back about 5 or 6 blocks.
I have been to the Arch and have been up in it. It's really a great monument. I've also driven past the corn and sunflower fields and thought they were really beautiful. I have a good friend who lives in Fenton. I hope to get out that way and visit her someday again. You've done a great job on your "My Country" collages!
@luvmynynix It was taken from the top of the arch. You ride a little tram up to the top to a little room. You can get great pictures from the windows up there. It's either 500 or 600 feet up. I can't remember. @jennywren Thanks! @olivetreeann Thanks. I know Fenton on the southwest side of St. Louis. All of the auto manufacturing plants used to be there. It's not too far from where my husband's old Reserve unit was at Jefferson Barracks. If you could look through that cornfield pictured above (the field behind my house), you would see I-70. The corn made for a nice sound buffer!
@homeschoolmom Wow!!! I have only been there once on one of our motorcycle trips. I didn't realize you could go inside the arch...at that time I was just excited to get pics from the outside! :)
@luvmynynix Oh, you have to go inside, especially if you have your kids with you. There is a museum under it that is really cool. We watched a Park Ranger hide behind a stuffed cow a moo until he had a little kid convinced it was a real cow! LOL! The movie on how they built the arch is pretty amazing, too.
Well then we must return! My husband and I used to travel cross country on a motorcycle and we eventually when through each of the 48 contiguous states. Now that we have my daughter we have a camper and when she gets just s little older I would love to start all over again with her! It is surely a beautiful country!
@luvmynynix Yes, it is. We have traveled extensively as well. We love it. My kids track the number of states they have been too and get very excited when they can add a new one! LOL! I'm not sure if that's a military thing or a home school thing. But, they know their geography and they love sightseeing. We have to revisit the Southwest because my two boys were too young to remember it. I think they are up around 36 states now.
@homeschoolmom That's awesome! We have a huge map of the US in our basement and as we visited each state we put a Harley symbol on it. I also have pics of us at all of the state signs and some day I will make a frame for the map out of them! We have a sticker map on our camper that we kept track with my stepson, but he went off to college before we finished all 48...one day we'll take that plane ride to Alaska and Hawaii! :)
@luvmynynix We started with a $1 map of US placemat from Wal-mart. We have it all marked up. Each person has their own color showing they have been to that state. My husband is in the lead at 42, I think I'm at 39, my daughter's at 38 and my boys are at 36. They can't wait to go to VT and RI this spring to add two more states. We hope to get all 50 in eventually. We have made a good start of it. We also have a list of countries. My kids can't wait to cross over to Canada, as they have not left the US. But, I've been to 22 countries and my husband has been to close to 30. It's fun to track! LOL!
Wow! I haven't been to nearly as many countries! That's amazing!! The northeast is always great for picking up states, while the southwest (although beautiful) takes forever! LOL
I haven't gotten to any of the west coast states yet, but I'm only missing VT and RI on east coast now. That's been our goal this year in New England. We've had fun trying to see as much as we can. Could see more if the weather would cooperate! LOL!
February 4th, 2014
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I should know what that domed building is and I can't remember. Great shot of it! Did you take it from the top of the arch?
@digitalrn We also spent 4 years in Germany, but those pictures are on film, not digital, so that one would require a lot of work to do! LOL! This doesn't even include the time my husband spent in KS or GA. We only spent a summer in KS and visited GA while he was there.
@jennywren Thanks!
@olivetreeann Thanks. I know Fenton on the southwest side of St. Louis. All of the auto manufacturing plants used to be there. It's not too far from where my husband's old Reserve unit was at Jefferson Barracks. If you could look through that cornfield pictured above (the field behind my house), you would see I-70. The corn made for a nice sound buffer!