Hooray for Saturday and sunshine! It was a day for exploring the Kirkwood area - outside of St. Louis.
On of my Missouri possibilities was Laumeier Sculpture Park, but I wasn’t sure when I was going to fit it in. I had a 10 o’clock tour scheduled at Grant’s Farm and set off with plenty of time to spare. As I was driving along I saw another brown sign that points to places of interest and it was directing me to the Sculpture Park. Since I had a little extra time I decided to at least do a drive buy. It turned into a quick stop to see some of the sculptures along the paths. There was even a tai chi class there in the early morning sunshine.
Then it was on to Grant’s Farm. The cars were pouring into the parking lot, it’s only open on weekends in the fall so there was quite a crowd. There are a variety of things to do on the property - animal attractions, a farmstead, Clydesdale Stables with Budweiser horses, and more. I went on a Behind the Scenes Clydesdale Experience Tour that I booked ahead of time. It was great!
Our tour guide Julie clearly loves her job and loves horses. She gave us so many facts & figures. We met horses that were featured in TV commercial horses. There are 3 Budweiser hitch teams - one based at their brewery in St Louis, one in Colorado Springs, and one in Merrimack, NH. The teams are on the road about 300 days per years, so it’s rare that they are at their home stable.
We got to brush Lee, a retired hitch horse and then we got to take photos with him. Budweiser hitch horses are all geldings and have to be 18 hands tall. Warm Springs is their breeding farm in Missouri. The foals are brought to Grant’s Farm for beginning training. The geldings that pass the initial training then move to Merrimack for hitch training.
At the end of the tour there are free bottles of beer. I should have counted how many times Julie said Budweiser, Anheuser Busch, Budweiser, and Purina!
After the tour I considered seeing some of the other attractions on site, but didn’t really want to deal with the crowd. So I went down the road to Grant’s White Haven, a national historic site. I walked around the buildings & grounds and took a few pix enjoying the beautiful weather.
I met Sean at the stage door before his matinee. He had 2 shows on Saturday - a 4 o’clock matinee and an 8 o’clock evening show. Because it’s a three hour show that only gives them an hour between shows, that’s crazy. We had a friend of his take a few pix of us together. I am wondering how many pix I can get of Sean with MUSAP the butterfly in different states in my travels.
I got to see My Fair Lady for a second time. Again I loved every minute of it. I am still trying to figure out how they do all the set changes. Have to admit that I giggled when Sean had trouble with the juggling this time - not his favorite part of the show. Loved the smile and wave I got as he exited at the end of the show.
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