I think it’s safe to say that Mr. Handsome and I are officially “zoo people.” So far, I have written posts about our trips to the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere (including Little Buddy’s first visit), the New Orleans Audubon Zoo, and the Memphis Zoo. Recently, we took a St. Louis vacation with Mr. Handsome’s family (altogether, there are almost 20 of us!), where we visited the St. Louis Zoo and Grant’s Farm, which is basically a zoo.
Grant’s Farm is a family attraction that has free admission and is enjoyable for all ages. The tour starts with a tram safari ride through a prairie that is home to several unique species of deer, as well as zebra and long-horned cows. The farm also has a pond filled with koi fish. Did you know that koi can live a couple hundred years? Apparently, there was a koi fish called Hanako that died in 1977 at the age of 226.
Grant’s Farm is named after Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, because a portion of the land was a wedding gift from his wife’s parents in the mid-1800s. The farm was purchased by the Busch family about 50 years later, after Grant filed for bankruptcy.
While there is a Busch family mansion on the grounds, there is also a cabin (called “Hardscrabble”) that was built by Grant. According to the tour guide, the cabin is one of only a few remaining residences that were built and lived in by United States presidents. At Grant’s Farm, we also saw…
