Saturday - Part 2...

We left Grant's Farm and headed to the World Bird Sanctuary. When Claude and I visited Sitka, Alaska, one of the places we really enjoyed touring was the Raptor Center. World Bird Sanctuary reminds me of that on with a much lower budget. Basically these are birds that may have been injured or are threatened in their natural environment. They are housed here to heal and be released or remain here if they can't ever be released.

We walked through all the outdoor exhibits. In front of the hospital is an eagle carved out of one block of wood.

Then we hoofed it over to the Nature Center. There is an amphitheater in front of it and we watched a hawk learning to fly on command from one trainer to another. Then we went in the Nature Center and found lots of interesting snakes and spider and HUGE bugs. Out the back door were more birds.

By the time we finished that it was dinner time and things were beginning to close that we wanted to possibly see. We decided to end our day with lots of fun foods.

Our first target was Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. Years ago the old Route 66 went right in front of this business. It was a popular stop for travelers then and it is still a popular spot. They have several windows to order your frozen custard and each window had people at it and it stayed that way the entire time we were there. We each picked what we wanted and Claude and Katelyn stood in line to get our frozen treats while I walked across the street for pictures. The frozen custard was delicious. We had a few places in Maryland to get frozen custard. We had a friend who was from St. Louis and lived here in Kentucky when we first moved here that loved and really missed frozen custard. It is like ice cream on really smooth and rich tasting.

We had several people recommend places for dinner. We drove to the north side of the city to try and eat at the Candy Kitchen. The line was forever long with not lots of seating. This place was on the Man vs. Food challenge. You need to drink 5 - 24 oz. shakes or something like that. We thought we might at least purchase some candy but after our frozen custard we really couldn't determine any we wanted to wait in line to purchase. 

So off we went to find another choice for dinner. Zia's on the Hill was high recommended by our friend raised in St. Louis. The Hill has got to be the Italian neighborhood for St. Louis. It was vintage Italian. It was a neighborhood of craftsman style homes with almost every corner having a home that was turned into a restaurant and all the restaurants names were very Italian. The streets were narrow with no driveways for cars so they were really crowded.

This was a Saturday evening and we were at the beginning of the dinner rush. Claude found a great parking place one block front Zia's. We entered Zia's front door and immediately headed up a half flight of stairs. What would have been the living room of this old home had been turned into a bar with bar tables and stools scattered around the room. We gave them our names and found stools to sit at for our 30 minute wait. We were ever so happy we waited for this delicious meal. Oh my goodness, the dinner salad and bread alone would have made a perfect evening meal for me. We each ordered a different dish and all of them were excellent. I highly recommend Zia's on the Hill to anyone traveling to St. Louis and wanting and absolutely wonderful dinner.

That was as full as we wanted this day to be. We headed back to our hotel for a good nights rest. Sunday would be a full day as well.