Traces of Life & Steps of Grace: Play Date with Beth!

I left Columbia at around 10 to get to O'Fallon to pick up something real quick and then kept heading ease for St. Louis for my play date with Beth :)

"Let's meet at 270 and 40" said Beth, sounded very much like a local, we met up in a parking lot of a shopping complex and then headed in town.

Since the time I arrived was around noon, we decided that lunch sounded like a great idea.
"What are you in the mood for?" she asked me, and I said: "what are YOU in the mood for?" After tossing the question back and forth, I decided that WE were in the mood for Japanese food.
With the aid of a great invention of the century-- iPhone-- we were able to locate the closest Japanese restaurant to us-- "Wasabi sushi bar" (yes, how generic!)

Seeing nothing appealing on the lunch menu, we (well, I did...) went for these items on the dinner menu:

Okonomiyaki お好み焼き

Okonomiyaki (or, okonomi yaki) is a Japanese savory pancake, usually containing variety of ingredients.

Sukiyaki すき焼き

Sukiyaki is a type of Japanese hot pot, which usually consists of thinly sliced meat along with vegetables and other ingredients, cooked in a shallow iron pot in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin. Before being eaten, the ingredients are usually dipped in a small bowl of raw beaten eggs (and we did!!)

Sashimi 刺身

Sashimi is very well known to most people and love-love-loved by me!!!

After making ourselves very full and some nice conversations, we headed to our destination-- the City Museum.
It was toooooo cold for me to take any outdoor pictures, so, here, the pretty stairwell.

the stairwell leads to lots of fun!

This is a place which you can crawl, climb, slide, run, walk, and do all kinds of exercises... hmm, just be like a 5 year old! (Beth said 10, but I think it's more like five!! I must have been a terrible five-year-old!)

the handrail bars are turnable and very colorful

We started with some easier looking crawling project, but soon realized my coat and purse was very much in the way! And I guess the city museum has had enough experience that there IS a coat and bags checking place, and it costs $1/item.

"remember Jane? just swing like her!" the staff of the museum told me

Uhmm, apparently, I don't have enough Jane in me.
I gave it several tries and decided that these are for little people, and I am just to "developed"(at least I'd like to think that...) to do this!

But....

Beth's got more Jane in her!!!

Beth did it!!!

So I have concluded that Beth's just has better working legs (sighh... me and my short Asian legs... can't walk very fast and can't work with a swing!!!), since the staff of the museum kept telling me, "your legs! your legs! get the up!"

Charis: "I think we're going that way!"

There are numerous mazes like this one where you enter from one place and come out from another, oh, I meant, crawl out of another.

There is no room in these mazes for an adult to stand, so the only way is to get on your hands and knees. I should have practiced more when I was a baby!!!

"this one you need to enter with your head in first and on your back!"

These things exercise the muscles rarely used in our daily life, well, at least, mine. And, my fear of hight didn't kick in at all this time (I think I am just fearing bridges!).

Can you find me?

After trying to get in with "head first and on my back", which is totally anti any ergonomic posture, I told Beth that it'd be okay if she doesn't try this one :)

Then we strolled to the more quiet and educational part.

Beth loved these!

To be honest, I am NOT a big fan of insects. I love animals, but insects just make me really nervous-- live or dead.

So very quickly I passed through this area while Beth observed and enjoyed.

hmm... right...

I am not sure why I do not like insects. One of the reasons may be because they are not pretty looking in my eyes, and another maybe because they have too many legs and are usually black and not furry looking. Or, maybe because some of them bites!

Upon the request of my dear Beth

Just a small FYI, I really don't go around kissing stone sculptures when I walk down the streets :)

alright, where I was standing made me shy...

I LOVE architectures, this part of the museum with parts of old buildings was really appealing to me! With the same same reason I love visiting castles and old buildings, as long as it is in day time :)

toiled and tangled

Another successful attempt of conquering my fear of hight! I think it's because I knew that I was so securely tangled that there was no way I could fall out of this!

Coming down!!!

And slides! Yes, there are also different slides to try!

The one with turnable bars on the side, you're suppose to "high-five" to all the bars and you go down!! Okay, maybe not "supposed to", but it's more fun that way!!!

another exercise-- climbing up 10-story-high worth of stairs, and they spiral...

Up and up and up we go!

I live on the 9th floor when I was in Taiwan, so I know very well how it is like when the elevator was under regular maintenance and we just had to walk up... it was much easier when I was a teenager! I couldn't remember when was the last time I had to climb up so many stairs at once... maybe when I was sight-seeing in the Yellow Mountain in China in 2009? --> the downside of living in Columbia, not really any tall buildings, thus no chances to walk up flies and flies of stairs.

about two hours of almost non-stop walking UP

and then another two hours walking down...
and these stairs were not big and wide steps!!

It was a gorgeous place to visit, especially when it was the day of moon eclipse when I visited. But it was also some very serious walking!!

Anyway, back to St. Louis...