An Elephant (Rock) Safari

We've just returned home from 10 days in Missouri.  It was a pretty busy visit but we did manage one day with the kids.

The weather was beautiful so we decided to head south to Elephant Rocks State Park (https://mostateparks.com/park/elephant-rocks-state-park )

We took the left trail which is known as the "Braille Trail" because of the braille markers along a paved pathway.

Climbing up the granite boulders burned off a lot of young energy!

Some energy took longer to burn off than others...

The back part of this section is an old quarry with the blasted out stone and chips leftover when it closed.

It was a perfect day for finding wildflowers to photograph.

An oak tree with new leaves and sneezy-wheezy pollen filled flowers

Little Bird and some tree fungus.

There are many types of lichen growing on the granite stones.

The kids loved them.

We had them bring their iPads to take photos and videos of what they saw.

This fence lizard was a rock star with his paparazzi.

What an interesting trunk on this oak tree!

The quarry pond.

A budding Spielberg working on his video.

Photo op!

We all had a great time and will come back to do the right trail this fall (when the weather isn't melting).

Cajun Food at the Bayou in Pocahontas, MO

Himself and I were treated to lunch at this hidden gem in the tiny town of Pocahontas, MO.  It is just a short distance north from Cape Girardeau, MO.

When you see this unassuming building with the huge parking lot... you are there!

The cold dreich Wednesday weather must have kept the locals home, tho a few did wander in while we were there.

The menu had a lot to pick from and we each had a different meal.

Cajun Catfish dinner.  Himself said it was the best catfish he'd ever had.  He also had the blackberry cobbler which he said was excellent.

Jumbo shrimp dinner with okra and fries.

Red beans and rice.

And my Gumbo with okra and wonderful cornbread.  

Will we go back again?

Absolutely!

Museum of Transportation For a Birthday Train Day

Our present to Little Hoss for his 6th birthday was a trip to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis.  He absolutely loves trains and was excited for the trip.

He got to go where he wanted and do (more or less!) what he wanted to do.  Those little hands did a lot of touching.

Of course we picked the hottest day so far to make our visit.

-sigh-

Look at those two hamming it up!  We'd been there 10 minutes...

Amazing how long a kid wants to pull a bell rope.

Next was a trolley ride.

The trolley used that day was a converted "L" car from Chicago.  They liked that since they've ridden the L many times.

The 'roll down' windows amazed them.

Little Bird gives a donation for the upkeep of the trolley.  They use the old fare takers to put the donations in.

Next was a guided tour through some of the sleeper/Pullman cars.  Charles was a fantastic guide.  He encouraged the kids to ask questions and gave very good answers that they could understand.

These cars were very nice!

Early sleeper cars... not so much.

But as the years went by they improved.

A kitchen in one of the newer, more luxurious Pullman sleeper trains.  All chrome.

The dining car.

How about those prices?

Google "Pullman Porters".  It's a very interesting bit of history.

A school bus train.  Hoss wants to go to school in such a manner!

He loves the big locomotives.

We made a few rides on the miniature train.  See us in the mirror?

They knew to pick the back seat to ride in...ALL ABOARD!!!

And they had a few go-arounds with the handcars.  They are powered by hand cranking to machine.  They burned their energy on that one.

Down the track.

The day got seriously hot...the car read 102 when we left.  Since this was Hoss's birthday present I 'negotiated' a deal with him.  If we could leave 'now', we would go get frozen yogurt and come back in the cooler fall to spend another day.

Hoss countered with frozen yogurt now AND when we came back.

Done deal!

Good bye trains!