Viola! The first French story-map of Saint Louis in over 100 years, according to the Saint Louis History Museum.
After many field trips and much research, this map was created with the help of an 8th grade French teacher who likes to take students on local french field trips.
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The journey begins at Laclede’s Landing where the streets are still cobblestone and the signs are still in French. This marks the spot of the first French trading village built by french fur trader Pierre Laclede. It is here that the future city of Saint Louis was named in honor of King Louis IX of France.
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French culture is firmly embedded in the architecture of Saint Louis, as evidenced by City Hall, a replica of the Hotel de Ville (city hall) in Paris, noted for its beauty and lighting. Here’s the very beautiful Hotel de Ville in Paris; see anything that looks familiar?
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Powell Symphony Hall is modeled after the palace at Versailles; a beautiful stained glass window can be found at St. Francis Xavier Church and Union Station is modeled after a french fortress. A renowned mosaic panel of King Louis IX can be explored in the vestibule at the Saint Louis Basilica. (Buy the small booklet in the bookshop to enhance your appreciation and enjoyment).
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The Fleur de Lis, symbol of french monarchy, was added to the Saint Louis flag in 1964 and it’s fun to hunt for fleur de lis motifs springing up with increasing frequency throughout Saint Louis. Potagers (“kitchen gardens”) and mansard roofs can be found sprinkled throughout the city.
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Soulard hosts the second largest Mardi Gras in America, and Let Them Eat Art springboards from “Let them eat Cake”. Left Bank Books is named after that famous arrondissement in Paris that is filled with bookshops, thinkers and writers.
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A vibrant number of language classes and cultural events can be found at Alliance Francaise, while a French film festival is traditionally hosted in February by Webster University’s Centre Francophone. The historic Chatillon-DeMenil House hosts a Bastille Day Celebration each year on July 14th. French colonial homes are preserved by the Les Amis organization, which also publishes a map on the Creole Corridor.
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Croissants, macaroons, crepes and traditional french cuisine can be found throughout Saint Louis, as well as chocolates by Bissingers, a favorite chocolatrie of empress Josephine, who was Napoleon’s paramour.
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All french wines owe a debt to Missouri vineyards, due to the phylloxera bug which destroyed the entire French vineyard crop in 1863, after which vines from Missouri were grafted onto French vine stock. On a nice day, it’s fun to take a champagne picnic out to Calvary Cemetery where the famous french fur trappers are buried. (By the way, Trader Joes has fantastic croissants in the freezer section.)
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If you need a hug, Green Spiral has these “French Lover” pillows available for about $35. You can order them on Zazzle or pick one up at the Green Spiral offices near the Lion Gates in UCity. Just send a note to GreenSpiralTours@gmail.com
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Or buy them on Zazzle to have one shipped to your home:
Remember that classic children’s book “Blueberries for Sal”? Maybe we should write a new book – Blueberries for Sam!
Blueberries for Sam
When the Fourth of July rolls around, it’s time to mix red berries with blue by turning your thoughts to blueberry picking. Here’s an easy cake you can make with berries from your very own garden someday.
Blueberries for Uncle Sam
Good luck, bad luck, who knows? When Green Spiral Tours started in 2008, it was hard to find even a few families willing to skip school to pick strawberries; but twelve years later, strawberry picking is now so popular it requires reservations, — so we shift our gaze to blueberries.
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Blueberry picking is a wonderful inter-generational activity because it’s an activity not too tall for youngsters and not too low to the ground for grandparents. It’s also something you can do that honors social distancing during the pandemic.
Better Together
Unfortunately, there are fewer blueberry picking locations than strawberry picking locations. (Entrepreneurial Alert! We need more urban u-pick berry farms!) In the age of covid-19, farms are now booking on-line reservations.
Watch the Wind Ridge Farm web-site for their next u-pick date, and jump on it when it appears.
Here’s a run-down of other locations for your general future knowledge:
Babb Blueberry Farm in Beufort – Babb Blueberry Farm is run by a lovely couple who uses organic fertilizers, and no pesticides or herbicides. They also sell frozen blueberries and homemade jam and have an AirBnB near the lake. Located one hour west from the Arch along I-44, this is a small family operation with nice restrooms, a fishing pond and excellent hospitality. Bring a picnic lunch. Or, stop for lunch in Eureka, Pacific or at the Junie Moon Cafe in Union along the way. Babb Blueberry Farm keeps up on their Facebook posts, but always call before you go.
NOTE: In 2020 they were hit with late season frosts and lost 80% of their crops. So no more blueberry picking this year.
GPS: 2751 Highway 50, Beaufort, MO 63013 * (636) 667-1171
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Farmers Markets of Saint Louis – Berries are popular items at farmers markets and sell out quickly. There is no apostrophe in “farmers markets”, because it is literally a market for farmers, plural. Farmers Markets are business incubators, and at the core, farming is a business. If you want to support the local food movement, head for your local farmers market.
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Ozark Berry Farm – This farm offers blueberry, blackberry and elderberry picking from mid-June to mid-July. U-pick is by appointment, and is already sold out for 2020. https://www.ozarkberryfarm.com/ 552 Lick Creek Rd, Leasburg, MO 65535
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Thies Farm – The Thies family has been farming in Missouri since 1885 and now has three locations. Blueberries grown by Thies Farm can be purchased at their stores on location at the North Hanley, Maryland Heights and St. Charles location. By the way, the way to pronounce Thies Farm is like this: “TEES Farm”. Their online communications are sometimes confusing due to all the different locations. It’s best to call them by phone.
Wind Ridge Farms in New Melle – This family farm offers wagon rides for kids plus blueberry, blackberry and peach picking. It’s a bit of a drive from Saint Louis, but well worth it. By the way, peaches and blueberries are delicious together when served with a splash of cream.
Wind Ridge Farm is offering blueberry picking by appointment this year, so watch their web-site for the next date and “jump on it like a duck on a june-bug”, as they say.
Located one hour west of the Arch, along 40/64 just past Weldon Springs. GPS: 3511 Highway F, New Melle 63341 * (636) 828-5900
Graduating? Need a hug? How about a pillow that encodes all the good things to be found while growing up in Saint Louis?
Love Your City
Created as a fundraiser for The Nook, this pillow celebrates all good things about Saint Louis, including America’s #1 zoo, America’s #1 Botanical Gardens and the #1 playground for kids of all ages at the Citymuseum. Who says Saint Louis is fly over country?
We Love the Pink Duckie Race!
Citygarden might be America’s best childrens’ garden while Forest Park is America’s most beautiful urban park, complete with free Art Museum and Science Center. Needless to say, Saint Louis is home to the best fans in baseball. Need we say more. #PlayGloria
Who’s home to the “King of Beers” as well as a very vibrant craft beer scene? Who popularized the ice cream cone, plus invented iced tea, pixie stix, listerine and the hot dog? Local merchants often win craft chocolate awards and put us on the national chocolate map. In short, Saint Louis invented all the best teenager food, which is encoded on the story-map.
Home of Great Writers
“The end is where we start from”, and Saint Louis is home to many of America’s greatest writers including T.S. Eliot, Tennessee Williams and Maya Angelou. The young people will write the next chapter in American history and then we’ll make a new story-map!
We are the birthplace of kindergarten in America as well as the cradle of rock-n-roll. The Mississippi River and Route 66 run right through Saint Louis carrying with it American music and the hope of a new day. What’s not to love?
Plus! We have some of the best tasting tap water in the country. Young people don’t figure that out until they go away and taste the difference.
As they say, “if you don’t know where you’re coming from, you can’t know where you’re going”, and these pillows are a positive reminder of where kids come from. You can choose to believe the media despair about Saint Louis or you can trust your very own eyes and look to the bright side, (or at least hold a more balanced view). Let these pillows become a token of all the love and light created by so many good people working hard to make Saint Louis a wonderful place to grow up.
The pillows are for sale on Zazzle and are perfect for your high school graduate dorm rooms, car trips or camping adventures. They are 16″ x 12″ and about the size of a large book. The cover is removable and washable.
Like Vista Print, Zazzle is a print-on-demand fulfillment center that operates by discount, so the price range varies but hovers around $30. Zazzle rarely makes mistakes, and when they do they fix them, so order with confidence and Green Spiral will guarantee your purchase.
Here’s the link for the pillow. Enjoy the goodness and let the wild rumpus begin!
The Bird Sanctuary at Blackburn Park is a fantastic family field trip, and below is a brand new map not found in our book of adventure maps called “Urban Wild Adventures”. Put kids in duck boots, bring a snack and perhaps a toy sailboat. This is a fairly short and sweet adventure. An Official Map of Blackburn Park can be found here.
Blackburn Park is located in Webster Groves. Park at the parking lot on E. Jackson and look for the rainy day girl sculpture in the corner of the park. Follow the path uphill towards the entrance of the Bird Sanctuary.
Singing in the Rain
Bring a birding book or learn about Phoebe Snetsinger before you go, OR, keep things easy and read about birds at the entrance of the Bird Sanctuary. All paths lead downhill, so go right or go left, and come back either way to make a grand loop.
All paths lead downhill
This is a tiny adventure suitable for both toddlers and teenagers, so let them run downhill to discover darling spring and a calm little pool. If it’s raining the pool will be full. This is a great place to sail tiny sailboats made of leaves and sticks!
Magical Spring
Hop on the rocks and explore the spring, enjoy the pool and follow the creek. Wander around and explore…
If you have toddlers, save some energy for the return hike uphill to where you started at the entrance to the Bird Sanctuary. From here, if you have teens or bigger kids, you can cross the open soccer fields to explore the sink holes which are described in our book. The sink holes are exciting for kids, but don’t worry, nobody will sink or disappear inside of them…
All paths lead uphill
All parks are great in all weather and all seasons, but Green Spiral particularly likes the Bird Sanctuary for a spring splash, and we think the sinkholes are particularly nice for a fall “treasure hunt” (for nuts and such)…
Sanctuary for kids too!
ICYMI – Here’s our book called “Urban Wild Adventures” available on Amazon: ten family adventure maps expertly arranged to enjoy ten different parks over ten different months.
Angela Wildermuth is a freelance nature teacher and the curator of the Urban Wild adventure maps. You can follow her or join small group nature camps during the pandemic summer at www.urbanwildstl.com
Tinkergarten is also running nature camps during the pandemic summer. You can find them or train to become a Tinkergarten teacher at: https://tinkergarten.com
Middle March is the perfect time to go on a daffodil hunt and there is no better place to do it than Bellefontaine Cemetery in North Saint Louis. Daffodils are the trumpets of spring, and nothing shouts spring like thousands of bright yellow daffodils bursting wildly from the ground.
Surprisingly, this is a great trip for teenagers, particularly brand new drivers. Teens are intrigued by cemeteries and the narrow sleepy roads are perfect for building spatial intelligence and for taking the wheel that very first time.
Be sure to stop first at the Main Office to pick up a map and a bottle of water, and perhaps use the facilities. Use your official map to target one or two destinations, but in general, simply have your teen follow the white line around the cemetery, which might take about an hour. The cemetery is surprisingly large.
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The best daffodils are located near Cypress Lake. Daffodils are the trumpets of spring; they shout that spring is coming but spring is not necessarily here yet.
Missouri weather can be unpredictable in March, but this trip works in any kind of weather. If it’s a nice day, bring a picnic and get out of the car to explore on foot, or head towards William Clark’s plot to leave a penny on this famous adventurer’s gravestone.
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Bellefontaine is full of significance and there is something for everyone. You will want to return many times to begin to explore this magnificent arboretum and nature preserve, perhaps during the Beer Baron Tours in the fall.
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This is also a nice field trip for families seeking social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. Interestingly, Bellefontaine Cemetery was originally created in response to a cholera epidemic that killed nearly 6% of the Saint Louis population before a clever doctor made a map and determined that a single water well was the source of the contamination.
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Speaking of maps, here’s a Green Spiral adventure map designed for younger families. You can make your own adventure map, download this map from the Green Spiral Facebook page or buy it in the Urban Wildbook of adventure maps available on Amazon.
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Indeed, whether following the trumpet of angels, soldiers or daffodils, Bellefontaine Cemetery has an adventure for nearly everyone in early spring.
The Field House Museum is a small and important touchstone in American culture. Come for the history and leave with a wind-up toy or book of poetry for your home collection.
This is the childhood home of Eugene Field. Ultimately remembered for his children’s poetry, Eugene Field was first a journalist who wrote about music; then he pretty much invented the personal opinion column. Eugene’s father, Roswell Field, was the lawyer who developed the legal strategy to free Harriet and Dred Scott from slavery. This attempt was denied by the Supreme Court, precipitating the Civil War and projecting Abraham Lincoln into the White House. During the Great Depression, the children of Saint Louis saved the Field House from disrepair by collecting over $2000 in pennies, dimes and nickels.
Check the internet for hours and admission fees; as a special tip, the holidays are a particularly nice time to go, because the house is decorated with goose-feather Christmas trees. It’s also fun to pick up a new wind-up toy for the holidays. Expect the visit to last about one hour. Warn the kids that this is a “do not touch” museum but the gift shop will let you play with the wind-up toys as you choose one to buy at the end of your field trip.
Begin your journey in the free parking lot behind the museum. If the Cardinals are playing, expect the museum to be busy. Enter the museum, pay the admission fee and inquire about a guided tour. There will be a fee.
The guides are attentive and very knowledgeable and the tour is short and interesting. Visit the smoking parlor, the ladies tea room and the upstairs bedrooms. Delight in the personal items, the house appointments and the toy collection. See if you can find the teddy bear with real bear fur.
After the tour, explore the changing exhibit in the new wing of the museum, designed by an expert in green building. Eugene Field loved to collect toys, so expect toys to be a focus in many of the changing exhibits.
Finish up your field trip in the gift shop by playing with the wind-up toys. Inspect the books for sale which include famous poems by Eugene Field such as “Wynken, Blynken and Nod,” “Little Boy Blue,” and “The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat.” The books with Maxfield Parrish illustrations are particularly nice. Return home and read a new poem from old Saint Louis before bedtime.
The economist Milton Friedman once said “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” — and yet the Economy Museum is free!
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Of course it’s paid for by your tax dollars and run by the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis. The St. Louis Fed is famous for its excellent presentation of data, so it comes as no surprise that the Economy Museum would be award-winning as well, but why this tour remains a hidden gem is still a bit of a mystery…
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Located on Broadway within walking distance of the Arch, this is a good field trip for students who have jobs and are beginning to learn about money, debt and the economy. You might want to open a checking account and credit card as part of the financial literacy experience…
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It’s best to create a small group learning experience, so bring a few friends, or perhaps another family pod. Bring your vax cards. Find street parking near the museum at Broadway & Locust, and make your way through the security check-point, after which you will be ushered into a lobby with short video. Plan on spending about 30 minutes inside the museum, depending on the interest and engagement level of the young people. The visit is short, sweet and self-guided trip.
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Be sure to play the BUY-SELL game located in the middle of the room, which mimics action on the stock trading floor. It’s super fun and why you need to bring a few friends with you.
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Get your picture taken with the giant Lincoln penny in the middle of the room. The photographer regrets the lack of teenager to show you the scale. The penny is quite large.
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Towards the end of the exhibit, hunt for the short video on the wall that illustrates how everything gets better, when viewed through the lens of data; a comforting message in today’s world. (Except for WWI, of course, when so many young men died.)
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After exiting the exhibit, you will enter a small gift store where you can pick up a bag of free shredded money! As a special treat for hungry teenagers, Sugar-Fire BBQ is a three minute walk around the corner. The Blues Museum is located adjacent to Sugar-Fire and is also an excellent destination — making for a perfect teenage trifecta stay-cation.
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Check the schedule before you go, as the Economy Museum is open only during office hours and not on weekends. The “dog days of summer”, when it’s too hot to do anything else, is the perfect time to go.
Saint Louis is a magical world for children and a wonderful place to grow up. This map invokes formative childhood memories of Saint Louis and celebrates teenage touchstones and interests.
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Turns out, Saint Louis has invented a lot of teen-friendly foods. First you make the map, and then the map tells you what you see. You never know what that might be!
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Here’s the story guide that goes along with the “Fly Away Home” map:
Loyal fans and followers are welcome to download and printout the story and map for personal use. If you’d like a small poster, there is a limited number available at The Nook, a gift and gathering space in Ladue that benefits St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
You can also be the first to buy these adorable pillows from Zazzle and send your student off with hugs from home.
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The pillows are 16″ x 12″ and have the “Fly Away Home” image on the front plus a quote from our great poet T.S. Eliot on the back: “The end is where we start from.”
Here’s the link for the pillows, they are priced at around $30.
It’s fun to watch Saint Louis fall in love with itself, and if you’re like me, or Ferris Bueller, you know that life moves pretty fast, and you have to stop and look around once in a while. If you don’t you just might miss it. #FlyAwayHome
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Green Spiral Tours
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