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As a shutterbug I'm partial to the St. Louis Zoo and the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Of course, you must get Ted Drewes (sorry, Rube  ) and some St. Louis Style Pizza.

The best way to tackle three of these in one fell swoop is this:
Get off at the Hampton exit on Highway 40. Go to the zoo (inside Forest Park) and then head the opposite direction on Hampton. You'll see an Imo's Pizza on the corner at the left JUST past the highway. When you are done with Imo's head down Hampton until you get to Chippewa. Make a right and Ted Drewes is down on your left about a mile and half.

Enjoy our beautiful city

Aww...I remember that stagecoach
I can't believe how little your face has changed in 27 or so years

LOL, am just seeing this, Rube. I DO remember that guy saying my name...unfortunately I'm still gullible
I always seem to have been the one to get 'pranked' at SDC - from this time, to when Terry scared me as a scarecrow to that damn life preserver on the boat ride, lol.

We really thought the saw blade was going to cut our cart in half, and that the explosion would really flood us completely.  It was a dark ride well done, not just a carnival amusement. 

THIS! As a youngster I would make my dad sit on the outside so I was certain not to be cut by the spinning blade. I always prayed that we weren't in the car that was in front of it when the lights went off.

LOL.

Alright, I'll come clean, it is being shipped to my backyard.

If only!

Something tells me that K wouldn't like that so much 

Terry is a great guy, he gets my vote for the hardest working man in Branson. I have talked with him many times. Some he would remember, some probably not! Usually I am referred to as Matt the Painter after the painting I did of him.

ahem...a painting based on a photo I took!! 

The fun part aboout the Feather bed shop was that on a warm day, it would still smell like Taffy.

After talking to the worker at Becca's Weaving this past December, he said that the he thinks that the taffy smell has gona away, BUT on those same days, the smells from the potpourri and flower scents still seem to arise.

It will always be "The Taffy Shop to me!

And to me - I can't tell you how many times Rube and I would go in and get our free sample right off of the production line in the Taffy Shop. Up until the last few years it really did still smell sickeningly sweet like the Taffy Shop. As for the area just to the side of the building I remember well getting tin-types done there (in fact, I'll have to dig it up, but I do have one someone where Rube is a baby and I'm only 2 1/2)

Ahh the rope, maze, and the ball pit, the air guns, that place was great. Climbing up the hollow "tree" was always great. Both Hucks Hideaway and Tom Sawyers Landing
(formerly Hermans Hermits I am pretty sure) were all amazing places. I wonder what the treehouse looks like inside. Injun Joes cave (of stars) always reminded me of a weird music video, I wanted a room like that in my house!

Rube, it was the end of Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel when he walks away covered in little lights...lol. That was my favorite part of the treehouse.

Nothing? No one knows anything about this lovely man? 

Put your thinking caps on folks - for years a gentleman named Santa (that's what his nametag read, I found out later that his real name was Garry and he had a twin named Larry) worked at SDC. My first memories of him were making coins but late in his career with SDC he moved to the gun/knife shop. My daughter was about 2 the first time she "met" him and she fast became totally enamored (and why wouldn't she, he was freaking Santa Claus!). On the way into the park each time we would visit (4-5 times per year) she would insist that we stop at Browns Candy Shop and bring him candy. We always did and even when she got old enough to know she still loved him. He remembered her (despite the humongous number of kids I'm sure he saw every day) and that meant so much. He left SDC several years back to go work at a hotel in Branson (at least thats what the guy in the gun/knife shop told me). I know in the winter he and his wife would take their RV down to Florida where he would treat a whole nother group of children to Santa. Does anyone know of him and if he's still around? I'd like to reach out to him and say thank you for the special memories he gave to my daughter and me...

Under "shops" thread I posted the following, but it fittingly went here as well...

I miss interactive demonstrations at the stores during the kids fest. It wasn't called that 25 years ago, but here is how it went. Instead of Spongebob, and the similar modern "pop" image additions to the summer months, Kids could take part in the crafts. As a child I threw 2 pots on a pottery wheel on the porch of the Hillside Pottery shop (with assistance cenering the clay from the potter himself), made a butter churn out of barrel staves and hoops (which we were told would be sold the net day...later I found out that they were quickly dismantled for the next kid to put together), my sister StlPhotogal spun a jump rope, we pressed (minted) coins, tooled leather cuffs/ bracelets and keychains. There were no beanie babies or battery powered toys, we would buy marbles, or dolls (in Stl's case-not mine). Buy cap guns and pop/ cork guns, and enjoy every minute of it. We didn't need to bring in Smurfs or Sesame Street or any characters to make our trip worthwhile.

Rubes a liar, the dolls WERE for him
In all seriousness though I so very much miss the "old" kids themed items/activities. My daughter was fortunate enough to get to press a few coins herself with "Santa" (Garry) prior to his move to the gun/knife shop and then subsequent departure from the park. I remember we got to go down a zipline once too (remember, Rube?) - it was made of the jump rope material and you would crash into some hay bales at the end. I still have the tooled leather band I made with my name on it. Sigh...I miss all of that (not just for me but for my daughter and everyone elses kids too). 

Not about the rehab but I LOVED Grandfather's Mansion as a kid - we'd go through two and three times in a row but as I get older (31, ha) I've found that the leaning room gives me terrible vertigo. 

Out of many many visits wildlife sightings has kept itself to a minimum. One tick (crawling) on my arm about 8-9 years ago, a baby possum on the corckscrew pass in the middle of the day, fish in lake silver, and a family of kittens (actually StLPhotogal found them).

I can't take credit for the kittens - my daughter (then age about 7) found them - they were mewing and mewing - three little kittens seemingly abandoned by their mother underneath the bouncy bridge (as my daughter calls it). Unfortunately our family is challenged in the vertical department so we enlisted the help of a tall young man who fished out the kittens and we took them over to the homestead where they ensured us the cats would be well taken care of and live a long life mousing amongst the homestead area. I saw the same possum as Rube and have seen more than my fair share of chipmunks and squirrels, LARGE spiders (orb-weavers) in the flowers around the Grand Exposition area, and, of course, bats in the cave but never a snake.

Worst for me as a kid was the runaway sawblade in the Flooded Mine (yes pre shootout) I would wait in fear until that point...then joyfully watch for the canary, then worry that the canary had died, were we next? Yes these things entered the mind of a child, but for me it still makes the ride memorable!

LOL, Rube - it STILL makes me nervous when riding on the outside!!!

Staying with the older items...

I have a "now" version of this one (I took this in 2007)


Must run in the family right Rube?