Sunday In My City - Elk up Close

We made yet another trip to Lone Elk Park.  We're finding late afternoon seems to be the ideal time to see the animals and we were truly surprised to see the entire herd of elk, right there beside the truck.

Sunday In My City - Tower Grove Park

I think it's safe to say Tower Grove Park is by far the prettiest park in the area.  It's filled with lots of gazebos and a fabulous set of "ruins" created by Henry Shaw in the 1870's.  Several wedding parties go there for pictures and I took my daughter there for her senior pics.

Sunday In My City - Lone Elk Park

We made another trip to Lone Elk Park this week.  We have a favorite pizza place that's a decent drive away from our house.  It was drizzling and we were hoping to find a someplace scenic to park where we could to dig into the yumminess sitting in the backseat.

Neither one of us anticipated seeing ANY animals and yet we managed to see everything the park has to offer!

Right off the bat we spotted deer.  You can barely see them, but they are in the very middle of the picture.

Immediately I encountered the crappy lighting conditions.  I zoomed in and caught two males trying to lock horns, one very young with nubs for antlers and the other with a full rack.

We stopped to eat in the truck and then around the next corner saw elk.  This is the best shot I could get as the canopy made it way too dark for my camera.

Then we ventured into the bison area.  I used a flash and you can see his spooky eye glaring back.

They stood in the street completely unaffected by our presence

Here's a calf standing next to the truck

I love fall colors and they are beginning to burst in St. Louis. 

SundayIn My City - Fall In The Park

Post-Halloween jack-o-lantern (squirrels have nibbled on it)

The vibrant fall colors have faded to more subtle browns and yellows.

Ice Storm 2006

Like I posted yesterday, there had been a major ice storm a few years ago.  It knocked out my power for a few days, but having experienced the same thing earlier that summer I didn't flip out.  I sent the kids to their dad's house and I hunkered down in front of my fireplace (man I miss having a fireplace).  For entertainment I visited a couple of local parks and captured the following shots.

These were taken at Sioux Passage Park, on the banks of the Missouri River.  The water was extremely low - not sure if you can tell where the water should be, but trust me that was VERY low.

Sunday In My City - September 12, 2010

Last week, after doing the finishing touches for inspection in our new pizzeria, we took a drive through Lone Elk State Park.  The elk weren't out.  I was a little sad about that.  One of my most vivid memories of this park was driving through during mating season - that was interesting to say the least.  The males were ripping the crap out each other.

This time, though, we got to see one meager herd of buffalo.  And they were rib-viewing skinny.  Not sure if there's a problem or what, but it was a little disappointing.

Afterwards we stopped at Steak-N-Shake for happy hour (1/2 price milk shakes)

Ian got Oreo Mint

And I got caramel apple (notice the huge blob of caramel!)  It was quite yummy.

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