We spent a lot of time this weekend on the Metro Link around St Louis, as I don’t drive, this is my main transport when I am out and about.  There are lots of options once you are off the train around Forest Park, so we like to take full advantage.

1. On Friday we decided to visit Forest Park and include the Zoo in the trip.  As the zoo is the furthest point from the train station, we went there first.  We went to see the polar bear who was happily munching away on ice cubes which flowed from his personal ice maker in the enclosure wall.   While we were having lunch this Grackle sat eyeing up the nacho’s!

2. We made our way back across the park and decided to stop off at the St Louis Art Museum for a few minutes of air conditioning and maybe check out a couple of paintings at the same time.  Shortly after entering we got got chatting to one of the museum staff who was telling us about some of the pieces in the collection, so we went to see them.  The Art Museum holds lots of favorites for us, so we decided to go and find the mummies in the Ancient Egypt collection.  Even though we visit the mummies regularly, I still have no clue where to find them, so we got to wander around the museum on the way to eventually say hi to the old Egyptians.  On the way we came across the ‘Blow-Up‘ Exhibit which features some gorgeous vintage Marimekko fabric and dresses, so that was a happy detour.  A quick stop off ended up lasting one and a half arty hours!

3. After an 8 mile day on Friday, we were off again on Saturday.  Back to Forest Park, this time for the Great Forest Park Balloon Race. On the walk over to the field where the balloons launch from, we spotted this graffiti on the side of a dumpster, pretty cool.

4.  The balloon race is an annual event but we haven’t been for years and years.  It was a windy day which meant that some of the regular balloons were unable to take off.  This didn’t deter from the event at all as most of the balloons were up and away in spectacular style.  The grounded balloons welcomed the public onto the launch field where we could get up close and chat to the pilots.  I love the colours of the balloons and the sheer size.  I couldn’t complain about the brilliant blue sky either!

By the time we got home on Saturday we had walked another 8 miles!  So we declared Sunday a ‘sit down’ day!!  The weather was lovely this weekend, sunny but cooling down nicely.  Yay for early Autumn!

I hope you had a lovely week, I am joining in with Isabel at Nanjing Nian for a One + Four =Life link up with other bloggers, pop over and see what everyone has been up to.