St. Ferdinand Park, Florissant

Location: 25 St. Ferdinand Park Dr., Florissant, MO 63031

Website: http://www.florissantmo.com/egov/apps/locations/facilities.egov?view=detail&id=26

Playground Ground Cover: Wood Chips and Poured Rubber

St. Ferdinand Park is a 64-acre park located at the intersection of North Lindbergh and St. Ferdinand Drive.  This park has 5 picnic pavilions each having a BBQ pit of which 3 pavilions have electricity.  There are 6 lighted ball fields along with 3 unlit fields.  There are four playground areas in the park, 2 restrooms, 3 sand volleyball courts, 1 soccer field, 2 tennis courts, and a lake that can be used for fishing.  The park is home to the summer concert series "Music Under the Stars"  held adjacent to the lake during July and August. There are paved walking trails with fitness trail equipment and a little free library. 

The 4 playgrounds are circled in red. The first one we encountered was the most southern one.

They had 2 sling swings, 1 adaptive swing, and 2 baby swings.

 The pavilion and bathroom were close by, as well as the tennis courts. 

 They had several interesting climbers

 My daughter liked the balance beam

 Zipline

 The play structure was large with several different slides, and tons of different bars and poles.

They had a xylophone as well.  The playground is not shaded and can get hot but overall it had a nice variety of things to do for ages 2 to 12. 

If you drive north around the park you will come to the other playgrounds. Here's the next one:

 looking towards the lake to the north (you can fish here)

This is one play structure with several different slides, a cool tunnel, a steering wheel, speakers, a maze board, a musical board, a climbing wall, and a ladder.

Here's the smallest one in the park, it's basically just a slide and a pretend window. It's next to the sand volleyball court.

The last playground is the largest and newest. It's next to the lake and it's awesome! The equipment has a balloon theme which is so different and fun. This playground was replaced in late 2022. 

This is the old playground, it was pirate-themed. 

The play structures have a pretend window, slides, a small tunnel, a rock wall, and tons of cool climbing things.

Rolley slide

Floating steps

Holiday Night Lights, Wentzville

 

Location: 2577 W. Meyer Rd., Wentzville, MO 63385

Website: https://www.wentzvillemo.gov/programs_and_activities/holiday_night_lights.php

The annual Wentzville Holiday Night Lights display at Rotary Park opens on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Enjoy a one-mile light display that features large illuminated commercial scenes and 2 tunnels of twinkling lights. This holiday display is a great way to experience the magic and joy of the season close to home. It is open 5:30-9:30 p.m. nightly.  It is $10 per vehicle holding up to six passengers and $1 per additional person after the sixth. On Saturdays, guests can enjoy a visit with Santa inside the Kolb Building. You may purchase your tickets at the Drive-Thru or prior to your visit.

The 12 days of Christmas scene was very long and set far back from the road so it was hard to photograph. 

This light display is different than most of the others in that it's just lighted scenes and no strands hanging from trees like at Santa's Magical Kingdom or Tilles Winter Wonderland. It took about 20 minutes to go through and there was very little traffic. One downside is that it's far out in Wentzville but on the plus side it's the cheapest of all the light displays at only $10 per car.