A Day in the Park

By Kylie Kirkpatrick, Tommy Brown, and Emma Eckhard
Published: May 12, 2016

St. Louis is a large city with many fun things to do. One of the biggest and well known attractions is Forest Park. This 1,293 acre park has many cultural destinations, dining options and natural highlights.

“My favorite part of Forest Park is the environment. There’s always a lot of people and dogs there. I’ve never had a bad experience,” sophomore Kelsey Decker said. According to About.com, the top three attractions in Forest Park are The Saint Louis Zoo, The Saint Louis Science Center, and The Muny. The Saint Louis Zoo is one of the top zoos in the country, and it’s the only one with free admission. There are 18,700 animals at the zoo and over 560 species.

“My favorite animal to see at the zoo is the baby elephant,” sophomore Madelynn Wood said.

There are many extra attractions at the zoo like the Children’s Zoo where kids can pet and interact with animals and the Stingrays at Caribbean Cove where visitors can pet and feed stingrays and sharks.

Another popular attraction is the St. Louis Science Center. This building is full of science related exhibits and also includes a Planetarium and Omnimax theater. There are many exhibits that are there year round like the Discovery Room and Life Science Lab where people can participate in science experiments and learn about aquarium life. There are also featured exhibits that are at the science center for a short time. Right now the featured exhibit is Above and Beyond which is about space exploration, and this summer (starting June 18) the featured exhibit will be GROW which is all about food and where it comes from.

“At the science center, I loved seeing the star show in the planetarium,” sophomore Christian Witte said.

The Muny is another popular destination in Forest Park. The Muny is a large outdoor theater that seats 11,000 people. Every summer at The Muny there are around six shows that people can buy tickets for and see. This upcoming season the shows are The Wizard of Oz, 42nd Street, The Music Man, Young Frankenstein, Mamma Mia!, Fiddler on the Roof, and Aida.

“I’ve seen many shows at the Muny and my favorite was The Addams Family,” sophomore Elise Stuertz said.