The waterways of Forest Park are not just for viewing. Their 22 acres / 9 hectares can be explored by kayak or paddle boat. We have taken our granddaughter on a paddle boat and it's harder work than you think. It can be beastly hot in the summer but on a beautiful spring day kayaking is an easy pleasure.
The designers of Forest Park, when laying out the waterways, created an idyllic island, now known as Picnic Island. It is a little walk from the nearest parking and the entry bridge isn't evident from the street, so it is never crowded. In fact, it is quite peaceful. There are only a few actual picnic tables. It's more of a spread a blanket out on the grass type of place, one of our town's hidden gems.
Shift of local attractions to Forest Park, which, as I ceaselessly point out, is the largest urban park in the U.S., bigger than Central in New York or Golden Gate in San Francisco. The middle and northwestern areas of the park are full of waterways. Some of them are grandiose, some quiet streams. Much of this is left over from the 1904 World's Fair that took place here. The fresh green trees, red bud trees and cloudless skies mean it's spring in The Lou.
Tower Grove Park has ten of what they call pavilions, really ornate, old-fashioned picnic shelters. The dictionary built into my Mac defines pavilion as, among other things, a summerhouse or other decorative building used as a shelter in a park or large garden. You have to reserve and rent these but they are great places to gather. This one is called the Old Playground Pavilion because, uh, maybe, there used to be a playground around here somewhere.
This statue in Tower Grove Park is of Alexander von Humboldt, who used to be a Really Big Deal. He was described in the mid to late 19th Century as the last person who knew everything about everything. There are statues of him in many U.S. cities with German populations. His fame, however, has dimmed with the great strides of the sciences.
Here he is surrounded by spring tulips, the quintessentially Dutch flower. I don't think he minds.
