My only other entry for this year was the first day of the year, now three full months later I write again. However, today is not my SECOND DAY exercising in Forest Park. Rather, according to my exercise log today is the 57th time in 2006 that I have taken my exercise and almost all of them have some Forest Park component. I’ve just not gotten around to writing about those walks and rides, many of them just marvelous.
One that was very special and I intended to write about it but got sidetracked somehow, was about 2-3 three weeks ago. It was a very nice day and I walked through the park over to the Missouri Historical Society Library on Skinker and did some work. Then, walking home, I was up alongside the golf course behind the Art Museum and I had this crazy idea to walk straight south through Kennedy Forest, not using any paths, just tromping though the woods.
I could only do that in the dead of winter since the bushes, thorns and other stickers bushes would allow it, and the lack of insects. And plod I did. Crunching broken twigs beneath my feet, at one point having to drag two small logs over to put them across a small creek to provide a two-plank bridge. It was so much fun. Lots and lots of birds feed along the ground, and I was stirring up dozens of them.
As I approached the street that runs alongside Hwy 40 from the zoo to Hi-Pointe I realized that it had been more than FIFTY YEARS since I had ever done that. I know for sure it was my pre-teens the last time I did it and I had just celebrated my 67th birthday, so it had to be in the late 1940s. I just had more fun.
Today, however, I was on my bike. I rode alongside Kennedy Forest a bit and already it is full of green, no longer the clear darkness of winter. I couldn’t do that walk even now.
But the park is just awesome right now. So green. As the song says; Spring is bursting out all over. I rode all around the grounds of the Jewel Box. They cheated there a bit and had recently planted full blooming flowers. I don’t know the names of most flowers, but I did recognize daisies, petunias, tulips and then several whose names I don’t know. It is extremely pretty there right now and I highly recommend a visit very soon before spring passes on into summer.
Over by the Grand Basin I once again came upon a sizeable group of women who come with an instructor and do rigorous exercises on Art Hill. They run up the hill to the statue, and at times run back down backwards. That’s not easy when one is coming downhill. Then, in the grassy area between the bike/walking trail and the Grand Basin they do lots of exercise. There must have been at least 20-25 youngish women in the group (mainly 20s and 30s I would think). The instructor is very demanding and all business. She puts the group though rigorous exercise.
All over the park people are walking dogs. Dozens and dozens of them. And today was the first time this year I’d see a charity walk going on. Just over near the Muny Opera the American Lung Association was gathering up people for a walk, registering them in. During the rest of the year until into late October early November hardly a weekend will pass without one or more of these charity walks taking place and often there are hundreds and hundreds of people walking. It is really fun to see.
Saturday morning (and quite early) it is normal to see a dozen or more groups of runners who run together every clement weekend. Guys and gals, mainly people in their 20s and 30s, and these are serious runners, but they run and converse and laugh and chat without lessening the pace. They move at an impressive clip.
Many many families are out with children in walkers and buggies, families on the bike trail, and many people taking advantage of the spectacular new children’s playground over at the Visitor’s Center (the old Clubhouse for the golf course, just a hundred yards east of the Missouri Historical Society Museum).
In short, Forest Park is simply beautiful, magnificent, greening, inviting and filled with St. Louisians enjoying themselves. Why not join the group? It’s fun, relaxing, just so lovely in the nice weather.
After riding nearly 15 miles around the park I headed over to the exit on Clayton Ave toward Euclid, continued on down one block to Taylor and headed south to one of my favorite coffee houses, La Dolce Via. They have the best fruit berry scones I’ve ever tasted and excellent coffee. I sat outside in the sun reading my book and thinking life doesn’t get much better. After too long there, I hopped on my bike and back through the park coming home via the baseball fields next to Hwy 40. Much to my surprise, since it was still fairly crisp out, two baseball teams were warming up at the new fancy “stadium-like” fields. It turns out two out of town high school teams were playing, one from Iowa, I believe another from Kansas. I expressed my surprise and the man who was in the know told me that SLUH had invited three teams in and these two were playing here while SLUH and the other team were playing at SLUH’s new field just south of SLUH toward Manchester where they have a stunning new set of athletic fields.
I’ve actually only finished 3/4th my exercise, just 15 miles. However, I had made arrangements early this morning to meet my oldest son, his wife and two small children in the park this afternoon. Last weekend Bob (my son) and I met there with Kyra and Katie while the girls played. They are just 1 and 3 and they had a ball throwing rocks into the lake and then getting sticks and playing in the water. We spent a wonderful hour or more just walking around and have such fun. I commented to Bob how the kids needed no playground, no toys, nothing. Just sun and time and some freedom to do what they wanted. They quickly discovered the rocks and little one-year old Katie in a second began to imitate her “big” sister and both were flinging rocks hither and yon in the lake. Then the “discovery” of a twig, and a whole new game was on. All that reminded me so much of the utter simplicity of the joys I had and so many other Dogtown kids growing up next to the park, making it our “playground” and learning we needed nothing but time and ingenuity to have fun in Forest Park.
It’s time for many of us to once again discover this marvelous gem of a park and all the joys it holds for us that are costless and so much fun….. See you there. I’m there nearly every day.
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