Wednesday, February 25, 2009

St.Louis Loves Children

I moved to St.Louis because I was in love. Not with the city but with a man, who lucky for me is now my husband. When I first moved here I literally experienced culture shock. I moved here from New York City, a city to which I developed a massive love affair with almost right from the start. I probably could have lived there forever and been quite happy had it not been for resources, mainly money, starting to run thin. While living in New York I really felt like I found myself. I LOVED spending time by myself roaming the streets and shops of Soho, Greenwich Village, and the Meatpacking District yet I also met and had lots of friends so there was always someone to go out with at night for drinks. Not to mention all of the wonderful museums, the cultural diversity, and the amazing one of a kind restaurants the City has to offer....

Anyway, so I moved to St.Louis because I was broke and I fell in love. I had nothing else here yet I confidently thought I'd make friends easily and find a different kind of identity. Well that didn't happen so quickly and it was really a slap in the face. I found it (and still find it) extremely difficult to make friends to the point where I was told blatantly once by a girl I met a Nordstrom, "I have all the friends I need already..." I was really into fashion and as I later came to found out, St.Louis is the place where fashion trends come to die. Never mind going out at night since I didn't have friends to go out with anyway. I depended a lot on John for my happiness and well, frankly, that sucked. This would later became known as "the dark period".

Flash foward to today. Six years later (holy shit has it really been that long?) and over time I have really grown to appreciate this city. Not only does St.Louis have fantastic restaurants, they are all really affordable. The main reason I have grown quite fond of this city is that it is a wonderful place to have and raise children. First and foremost there is an impressive line-up of free things to do here: The Zoo, The Discovery Room at The Science Center, and Grants Farm just to name a few. There are also plenty of amazingly fun attractions if you are willing to spend just a little money. This includes the newly expanded Magic House, The Transportation Museum, and The City Museum. But probably the best part of living in St.Louis with children is the fact that you can drive from the county to the city in 30 minutes, making it so easy to get anywhere you want to go and not have worry about screaming overly tired children crying from the backseat of the car.

I leave you with a picture of a recent trip to The Magic House of St.Louis (recently rated the #1 family attraction nationwide by Zagat Survey's U.S. Family Travel Guide):


(Finn's masterpiece, upclose and personal)

1 comment:

  1. A masterpiece. I assume it has been framed and is hanging in an appropriate spot!!!!

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