Winter is a great time to have fun in Missouri, especially if you’re in the St. Louis area. In fact, there are quite a few excellent entertainment options within easy reach of the city of Ellisville. Here are just some of our favorites.
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Ice Skating
Strap on your ice skates and hit the rink. Visit St. Louis’s Kiener Plaza between Nov. 17, 2018, and Jan. 1, 2019, to participate in Winterfest. In addition to ice skating, this festival has a playground and hot chocolate.
You can also drive just over half an hour to get to the city of Florissant, where you’ll find the James J. Eagan Ice Rink. Enjoy a selection of tasty snacks from the concession stand before getting onto the ice. Of course, if it’s just too cold to be outside — or not cold enough for real ice — there are plenty of indoor rinks in the area.
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Skiing or Snowboarding
Ice skating is a lot of fun, but sometimes you need to up the adrenaline factor. Skiing and snowboarding are an ideal way to get a more extreme winter thrill. We recommend visiting the Hidden Valley Ski Resort in Wildwood; it’s only about 15 minutes from Ellisville and has about 30 acres of slopes to enjoy.
While the snow is mostly machine-made, that’ll be the last thing on your mind as you’re careening downhill on skis, a snowboard, or even a snow tube. Tickets are about $50 for adults and $30 for children, with additional fees if you need to rent your equipment.
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Bird Watching
Get back to basics by going out in nature and seeing the local wildlife. We’re not talking about songbirds, either — the nearby towns of Alton and Grafton are home to one of the biggest bald eagle populations in the country.
A bald eagle’s nest can be as big as 5 feet in diameter and 4 feet deep, and you’ll have the chance to watch the birds constructing their nests if you visit during the winter. This bird is much more than a symbol of America. It’s also a fascinating predator with well-documented chick-rearing behavior. Don’t miss your chance to see one in the wild.
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Try an Escape Room
Even in the worst winter weather, you’ll have a blast at an escape room. These are interactive experiences where you’ll be locked in a room and given a set amount of time, usually an hour, to solve a series of clues and puzzles, advancing a storyline and allowing you to claim victory and “escape.”
Multiple companies offer these games in our area. Breakout Games has rooms themed after a museum heist, kidnapping scenario, and erupting volcano. Mastermind Room Escape also has elaborately themed puzzles centered around favorite Christmas movies like “Home Alone” and “Elf,” which ideal for the winter season.
Don’t let the winter blues get you down; there’s so much to do in Ellisville that we’d be tempted to call it our favorite season. Start with one of these fun activities to get off on the right foot.
Image via Flickr by oskarlin | CC BY-SA 2.0.
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