St. Charles MO

St. Charles Oktoberfest

Yesterday we went to St. Charles Oktoberfest for the first time, and it was so much fun! I really loved the location at Frontier Park right on the banks of the Missouri River…it’s the perfect place for a festival!

There were lots of tents, and we got to hear several bands:

There were also German dancers, which I absolutely loved!

The dancers were from the German Cultural Society of St. Louis, and they also had a booth where they were selling cookbooks (I added one to my extensive cookbook collection) and Schwarzwälderkirsch Cupcakes (very tasty!).

Speaking of food…is it even Oktoberfest if you don’t have a pretzel?!? We also tried the schnitzel sandwich, which was served open-faced on rye bread with sauerkraut and mustard…so delicious!

We didn’t get to see the “Wiener Takes All” dog derby, but we did see tons of dachshunds everywhere we went!

And we weren’t there for the glockenspiel performance, but it was cool to get to see the clock!

With apologies to Belleville, this was the best Oktoberfest I’ve been to!

It was almost everything I hoped for in an Oktoberfest…lots of people, lots of tents, German music and dancing, German food, and even places to buy various German items. I think if I want to get my souvenir clothespin, a beautifully decorated Lebkuchenherzen, and a Steckerlfisch, I’m just going to have to plan a trip to Munich, though!

Christmas Traditions

Last year, we made a somewhat tentative return to St. Charles, MO, for Christmas Traditions; this year, we returned in full force!

We made sure that we were there for the Santa Parade. Actually, we were there way earlier than we needed to be, but at least we got a good parking spot!

I truly believe Main Street in St. Charles in one of the prettiest streets in the entire St. Louis metro, and never more so than at Christmas!

We did a pretty good job of finding characters…I think we ended up with 26 of 33 cards. The important thing, though, is that we found both Jack Frost and the Master of Revels, our two favorites! We were impressed by how many characters they have added representing different world cultures…it gave us an opportunity to learn something new!

Jack Frost even gave Bunny a “Blue Crew” pin, which made her day!

I had to stop and take a picture with the Mistletoe Misses, because I looked like I could join their lovely, mid-century group in the outfit I was wearing!

And, as always, I took a photo of the Fab Five by the gazebo. Not in quite the same location as usual, because one of the singing groups was performing in it, but close enough:

Sometimes, I can’t believe just how long this has been a part of our Christmas traditions…it’s definitely one of the things I look forward to the most in December!

A Spirited Journey Through Halloween History

Yesterday we went back to Legends and Lanterns in St. Charles, MO, for the first time since 2019!

It is always a good day when we visit St. Charles, and yesterday the weather was especially perfect! Some things were different from our last visit (we really kind of missed collecting a sticker or stamp of some sort from the characters to prove we had seen them), but most things were the same.

We were there just in time to see the Angry Villagers take to the streets to warn the gathering crowd of the monsters lurking on Main:

The cast of characters was excellent. We didn’t see them all (we never do), but we visited with most of our old favorites:

We don’t tend to take as many pictures with the characters at Legends and Lanterns as we do at Christmas Traditions, but we did get a few:

There were some very clever entries at Scarecrow Glen:

The storefront signs in St. Charles never disappoint:

I will never pass up an opportunity to take a picture of the Fab Five!

We missed out on Legends and Lanterns in 2020 because of the pandemic…last year, we simply couldn’t find time. I’m really glad we made time to visit this year, because it’s so much fun!

A Return to Christmas Traditions

After a hiatus last year due to COVID-19, yesterday we made a return to Christmas Traditions in historic St. Charles, MO!

The parade was a little different this year, including the fact that it ran the opposite direction down Main Street from what we were used to. This actually made it easier to photograph because I wasn’t pointing my camera into the sun, so that was really nice. And Santa liked my Christmas skirt!

Seeing the characters is always the best part, and we saw all of our favorites…in the end, we collected 21 of 35 cards, which is only ok, but the point is, we were there.

The very best moment for me was seeing Bunny see Jack Frost again. If we had accomplished nothing else yesterday, that would have made the trip worth it. And I think he was equally glad to see her!

My annual gazebo picture was a little different this year, but again, the point is, I took it:

Of all the things COVID took away from us last year, missing our favorite family Christmas event was one of the ones that hurt the most. Even if things weren’t exactly the same as they used to be, I was so glad to be back!

Christmas Traditions 2019

On Saturday, we enjoyed one of our favorite Christmas traditions…the Christmas Traditions festival in St. Charles, MO!

It was so much easier to enjoy the event this year, without my ankle being broken. (Although the day was not without a foot injury…more on that later.) For example, we actually got to see the gingerbread houses this time, and they were spectacular…it was hard to choose a favorite!

We also enjoyed our walk down beautiful, historic Main Street, which always looks so nice at Christmastime!

We saw the entirety of the Santa Parade:

And the hoopla, in its new location behind the Tourism Center:

We also attended the Land of Sweets Gumball for the first time:

And caught up with some of our favorite characters, including the Master of Revels, who we missed last year:

And of course Jack Frost, who let Bunny sit in his cart…they even pretended to run down Susie Snowflake!

We also saw one of the Seaman dogs, all dressed up for the holidays!

We collected 25 of 39 character cards, plus two of the five bonus cards, which seemed a bit slim to us, but we still had a great time!

Anyway, the only downside to the day was me stepping on a thumb tack slightly before we left. It went through the sole of my boot and into my foot, which felt great. As I was due for a tetanus shot anyway, we hit the Minute Clinic on the way home so I could get that taken care of, just in case. What a dumb thing to have happen, but I’ll take it over a broken ankle any day!

Going to the Dogs

Remember how much fun “Cakeway to the West” was?!? I loved the public art scavenger hunt that celebrated the 250th birthday of St. Louis. You can imagine my excitement, then, when earlier this year, I heard that St. Charles, MO, home of many of our family’s favorite memories, was going to be celebrating their 250th birthday in a similar fashion, with 3-foot-tall sculptures of Lewis and Clark’s dog, Seaman, displayed around their town! When we were in St. Charles for Legends and Lanterns over the weekend, we found several of the dogs:

My favorite was the one at the Embassy Suites and St. Charles Convention Center, and it wasn’t because it was the location of my second place win in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch apple dessert contest, but because it had an American highway motif:

I don’t know if we’ll have the opportunity to see more of these sculptures before the year is over, but I’m really happy we visited the ones that we did!

Legends and Lanterns: The Fourth Year

Yesterday was one of our most anticipated family outings of the year…our trip to St. Charles, MO, for the fourth annual Legends and Lanterns event!

As always, the characters were a huge draw. Some were the same, but there were a few new faces/characters, as well (we really enjoyed the Druid Priest and Imhotep, and the new version of Ichabod Crane really nailed the nervous persona of his namesake!).

And Scarecrow Glen is always fun…my favorite was Vincent Van ScareGogh!

Historic St. Charles really gets the “spirit” of the season, from the festival adornments to the various shops’ decorations:

The girls, especially, love taking pictures in special locations or with special characters…and so do I!

Another new element this year involved the event books. Instead of handing out stickers, each character had a stamp. This had some obvious logistical benefits, and also had an added perk of some characters having specific ideas of where their stamp should or shouldn’t be placed in the book, which added to their eccentric personalities:

Every trip we take to St. Charles is fun and memorable, and as my children get older, and I begin to glimpse a future where they strike out on their own, I have a new appreciation for these special family moments we have shared, and memories that we have made!

Christmas Traditions 2018

Today we made our annual trek west to St. Charles, MO, for the Christmas Traditions festival. (This is not to be confused with the trek north we made a few weeks ago to St. Charles, IL, also for Christmas-related reasons!)

The day was as beautiful as the picture looks, although it was a bit warm for our tastes. But the spring-like temperatures brought our larger crowds than we’ve ever encountered before…it was a good thing they finally decided to close Main Street to vehicular traffic, because I don’t know how all of the pedestrians would have fit on the sidewalks!

St. Charles is never more charming than it is at Christmastime:

One of the best parts of going to Christmas Traditions is seeing all of our favorite characters. We’ll call this year’s attempt a “successful failure.” We saw the number one character we wanted to see (Jack Frost), and a really cool new character (Ded Moroz), but there was no Frontier Santa this year, and we didn’t see the Master of Revels, and a number of the other characters we enjoy seeing every year. In the end, we collected 31 out of 41 numbered character cards, plus one of the bonus cards, which is really not bad!

Bunny had an especially good visit with Jack Frost, the “Bob Ross of Frost” this year. He even embellished his character card with a bit of his artwork for her!

This was a challenging visit to St. Charles for me, since I’m still wearing the CAM boot. The uneven brick streets made walking more difficult than I would care to admit, and our parking space, which was practically on the other side of the Missouri River, made our walk extra long. But I was determined to have fun today, and do the things we usually do, because I hate to miss out on anything. So, even though climbing the brick steps up to the gazebo wasn’t the easiest thing ever, I even got my annual picture of the Fab Five, and I think it might be the best one yet!

And just like that, another year’s visit to Christmas Traditions is over. Even though things were a bit different this year (we were too late to see the parade, and we missed the gingerbread houses), we had a great time! I’m already looking forward to seeing what changes they might make next year…but not as much as I’m looking forward to not having to navigate the event with a broken ankle!

Legends and Lanterns: The Third Year

Today we visited historic St. Charles, MO, for the third year of the Legends and Lanterns festival!

We enjoyed meeting some new characters, including the Queen of Hearts, the Phantom of the Opera, the “Weird Sisters,” one of the Brothers Grimm, and the Wicked Witch of the East:

We also saw some familiar faces:

It’s always so much fun to walk up and down Main Street and see all the fall decorations, the horse-drawn wagon rides, and the creative displays in Scarecrow Glen (where we also voted in the “Straw Poll” for our favorite):

We had a great time collecting stickers for our “passports” along the way. The Legends and Lanterns passport continues to impress me. Not only is there a space for every sticker you receive, making it very easy to keep track of who you’ve seen (and who you’ve missed!), there are fun activities and great background information for the characters. We once again saw almost everyone, and only came up a few stickers short. We even found Jekyll, the cardboard cat, and were rewarded with Legends and Lanterns yo-yos!

As always, I love these great events in St. Charles, especially since they focus so much on history and literature!