State Capitol Tour

Recently we went on the state capitol tour in Jefferson City.  It's only about 45 min. from Columbia and a free tour that runs about every 20 min.  The only downside is that those tours include school groups, so if you're there when a school group is, you're included in the bunch.  We happened to go when a group of 4th graders were there.

This is a decent tour, not very long, free, and gives you a brief history of the state.

I'd recommend it for probably kids around the 4th grade or older, and maybe on a rainy day.  The 4th graders we were with had a hard time paying attention.

Here are some pictures I stole from the internet.  :-)
The Thomas Hart Benton mural.  This tells a brief history of the state from his perspective.

This is the room the state representatives use.  They let you sit in the gallery even if they are in session.  They weren't, but I've been there before when they were.  It's pretty cool.

This is a picture of the rotunda.  It's pretty gorgeous.

Galactic Fun Zone

We went to Galactic Fun Zone for my birthday last week.  I was a little worried because it doesn't look the greatest on the outside, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  It's run by two former MU football players, and you can tell they really put some thought into it.  They have cosmic bowling at all times (not just on Friday and Saturday evenings like most bowling alleys), laser tag, a large arcade with pool, shuffleboard, dance-dance revolution, and a whole host of other games, plus a bar/lounge.  It's a good event for kids or adults because you can pick and choose where/what you want to do.  Plus, they have GIANT tv's above the bowling lanes, which looked really cool.

One of the owners, Monte, was there when I got there and offered to open the lounge up for me and my friends, which was super nice, but we decided the bar at the bowling alley would suit our needs just fine.  I was really impressed he'd do that for us though.

We were fortunate enough to have an Add Sheet deal-of-the-day coupon, so we had a great deal on playing games and so forth.  Otherwise, it may have been a bit of a pricey deal for us to do everything.  It costs $7 a person for one 10-min game of laser tag, $7 for a game of bowling and $1 for 4 tokens to play in the arcade.  They also have food.  It's all bar food, but it's good, and not too expensive.  About what you'd expect to pay for bar food elsewhere.

My only real complaint was they clearly haven't put a ton of money into the arcade.  One of the dance-dance revolution machines was broken, as was shuffleboard, a skeeball machine, and a couple of other games.  Even without those things, they still had plenty to do, but it'd be something I'd like to see an improvement on over time.

My overall recommendation is to definitely check it out.  I'll be going back.  It was a great, fun time.

 My team lost our laser tag game, but we looked good doing it!

What a great pic of me and some of my friends!

Stephens Park

Yesterday, I took my puppy Molly to the park. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was out, it was in the upper 60's, and lots of people were also at the park with their dogs and/or kids. I saw people flying kites and frisbees, having picnics and bbqs, and even fishing.

Stephens Park is a wonderful park in Columbia. There are playgrounds, paved paths to walk on, and lots of green space. They have a lake where you can fish, and when it's summer, they have a swimming area with a beach and a sprinkler park for the kids to run through. One thing the Parks and Rec dept have added in recent years is free wireless internet. I think this is a fabulous addition for students because then they can study at the park on a nice day. I wish they'd had that feature when I was in school! The paths at the park have been marked for distance. The big loop is 1.6 miles, and the small loop is .7 miles. If you do the math like I did, you'll realize that 2 big loops and 1 small loop is almost a 5k. I didn't walk that far yesterday, but my friend Katie and her 2 year old son Jack were with me and Jack wasn't really interested in walking. He was way more interested in the kites, frisbees, water, and the playground!

This picture is looking down at the lake and the bridge/islands that cut it in two.

This is what they call the "sledding hill". Obviously, there was no snow, so it served as a great launching zone for frisbees and kites.

Here's pictures of Molly enjoying the park. Apparently she really likes water because when I got too close to the lake, she jumped right in. Let's just say a bath was in order when we got home!