Scavenger Hunt 250 St Louis Cakes

This year St Louis is celebrating its 250th Birthday.  Whenever the kids and I see one  on a field trip we have taken a picture.  Recently someone sent me the official list of where all the cakes can be found in the St Louis and surrounding areas and that has motivated the family to try to locate as many of these cakes as we can possibly find and we have discovered a few new treasures in our new city that we need to investigate more fully.

While looking for these cakes we are discovering new neighborhoods and new fun places that we need to add to our calendar to try out.  Recently we decided to head to the main city park and a few surrounding neighborhoods to locate 12 cakes...by the end of the day we had found 15!  I have promised the kids that if we find 125 cakes (we will celebrate by going to a bakery and getting a supersize cupcake for each of them) and if we somehow find all 250 cakes we will order our own 250th Birthday cake and celebrate!!!  Kids thought that idea was cool especially as Mom and Dad are on a diet and no longer allow sweets in the house:)!

Here is how we spent one Saturday starting at 10 am and ending at 7 pm that evening.

The first one we found was at the Jewel Box

It had a beautiful water feature.  The building itself was closed but I am told it houses a wonderful poinsettia display around Christmas

The Muny which is an outside theater which I want to attend soon with the children!

We found out that St Louis has an outdoor ice skating rink!  We will check that out is winter

watched an historical group of re enactors in the park:)  Hubby was not impressed as they were using foam swords and shields, but it was fun to watch!

In front of the history museum which we have visited and it is wonderful

Across from the Art Museum which we have visited with the local homeschooling group

Went to the Roman Catholic Basillica which was declared the "Rome of the West".  Inside is absolutely beautiful.  We weren't allowed in the main part due to a wedding in progress but we did explore the mosaic museum beneath and learned tons.  We will be going back as I heard the stain glass is amazing inside.

Saw how mosaics are made and learned the difference between Italianate and Byzantine mosaics 

Saw an amazing 14th century choir book from Spain.  

Learned Pope John Paul visited  St Louis in 1999 and sat in this chair

Firedrake and my husband practice their latin by reviewing and reading the sermon that Pope John Paul read while in the  St Louis

This cake was right across from the Chess hall of Fame

Which boosts the world tallest Chest piece--Firedrake loves chess so we will be coming back here to further investigate

Outside a hotel

Center for the Deaf

Taking a break for a late lunch/early dinner at the Boat house

15th cake found at the zoo...

We spent the evening exploring the zoo.

We had a fun time finding all the St Louis 250th cakes and plan on doing it again very soon!  We learned so much about our city and found many things we need to explore further.  Another fun thing about this adventure is that we are meeting many people doing the same thing as we are.  Tips for finding cakes were freely given by complete strangers!  If I really wanted to go all homeschool I am sure I could add map skills to the trip for the children to help us find the cakes as GPS coordinates are given out on the official list!   Hmmmm I need to work on that:)!