St. Louis Zoo Trip With My Daughter
In April 1997, I took my daughter Caitlin, who was three years old, to the St. Louis Zoo. I subtitled the trip, “How to Leave the House with $25.00 and Come Home with $0.75.”
In the late 1990s, the St. Louis Zoo had a travelling exhibit of the albino alligator. Caity really wanted to see it, so I took her on my day off during the week. I figured $25.00 would be enough for a free institution.
We arrived as the zoo opened and it was a beautiful Spring Day. If you want to see the most animals, go in the spring or fall on a sunny day. Outside of interesting smells, it will be a memorable experience.
Caity in her TKD uniform at 6 years of age
We walked a country mile through River’s Edge to see a couple of elephants and a hippo, but the rest of the exhibits were worth the pay off. We went to the reptile house and Caity got to see her albino alligator.
She liked all the exhibits except for the bears. One of the grizzlies snorted and she had a death grip around my neck.
Her favorite animals were the lions, tigers, and leopards in Big Cat Country. We rode the train around the zoo. One of the train stations is right across from the tiger pit and it creates the illusion of being eye level with the tigers. You do not realize there is a twenty-foot pit between the wall and edge of the pit.
So how did I end up with $0.75? We paid to park. It was a little under half of what it is today but knocked me down to just a little over $20.00. Caity asked me to get something to eat around lunch, so the two hot dog specials took me to $10.00.
As we were leaving the restaurant, we walked through the gift shop, where Caity saw a plush souvenir albino alligator for $9.25. Well of course, I was not getting out of there without the alligator, so I had soda money for the next day.
This field trip was memorable for us because Caity is my stepdaughter, and her brother was born three months later. She had been the only child, and I wanted her to know that her brother would not replace her. I remember it like it was a couple of years ago.
Caity is now a grown adult, and I have not seen the albino alligator for a while (it was grey the last time I saw it.) However, we still have the memories of our field trips to the zoo and our personal favorite, the Missouri History Museum.