Arts & Entertainment

Can't Miss Summer Adventures

As always, we’ve found cool ways to beat the heat.

By Mark Dischinger 

Big things are happening this summer in St. Louis. So if you suddenly find a dozen friends camped out in your living room, sucking up your air conditioning and asking you what to do, well, there are plenty of hot adventures awaiting you. The good news is that at least Highway 44 is still in order, Bike St. Louis is making the city ready for bicycle travel, and the MetroLink can take you to most every event listed below.

First, my fellow summer sojourners, let us dive into the heart of the city. Unlike suburb-dwellers, who have to drive everywhere, the fine folks in the Central West End and Lafayette Square can walk anywhere they want to go. And so can you! On June 2 and 3 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., join the self-guided Lafayette Square House and Garden Tour, where you will see eleven stunning Victorian homes and eight gardens (start at Park and Mississippi avenues). Or skip the houses and check out the antique fair and some of St. Louis' best bars and restaurants (like Eleven Eleven Mississippi or the Chocolate Bar), take a free carriage ride, or stop at Lafayette Park to cheer on the St. Louis Perfectos Vintage Baseball team. (They play old-school, without gloves!) Tickets for the Lafayette Square house tour are $15 in advance, $18 on the day of the tour. Call 314-772-5724 or peruse their Web site: www.lafayettesquare.org. The Perfectos play all summer; learn more at www.perfectos.org.

The following weekend (June 8 through 10), you'll want to head to the Central West End for the Art Fair & Taste, where you can browse the work of dozens of artists; sample local flavors from CWE hotspots like Llywelyn's, Moxy Bistro and Chez Leon; and dance to live music from 5 p.m. to midnight Friday, 10 a.m. to midnight Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. The Art Fair & Taste is free; visit www.cweba.com for details.

We know you've seen Chihuly's fantastic glass at the Missouri Botanical Garden, but the beauty of the garden is that it's changing all the time. MoBot makes it easy to return and enjoy with Chapungu: Nature, Man and Myth, a collection of stone sculpture from Zimbabwe. The garden is open late on Thursdays for Chapungu Nights, with tickets a mere $10. Not sold? Then check out the free Whitaker Music Festival, where a different jazz artist plays every Wednesday night from June 6 through August 8 beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the outdoor Cohen Amphitheater. The Missouri Botanical Garden is located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard (happily close to 44, for those of you dreading highway traffic). See www .mobot.org for more information.

The Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis enters its seventh year of Elizabethan delight with Much Ado About Nothing, one of the Bard's great comedies. This time Much Ado is set in the Wild West — complete with cowboy boots, saloons and six-shooters. As always, the stage is just east of the Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park, and the play starts at 8 p.m. every evening (except on Tuesdays) from May 25 through June 17. The Green Show — singing, juggling and a quickie play called "Much a Doo-Wop About Nothing" — begins at 6:30, which is probably a good time to get there, settle in with a picnic of wine and snacks, and enjoy the fact that you're a lot more literate than you thought you were. See www.sfstl.com for information.

No reminders of this city's baseball obsession are necessary, but do keep in mind that corporate-sponsored Major League Baseball isn't the only game in town. In addition to cheering on the Perfectos, you can drive two minutes across the Mississippi River and see the 2003 Frontier League Champion Gateway Grizzlies at GCS Ballpark (2301 Grizzlie Bear Boulevard in Sauget, Illinois), or head west to O'Fallon for the River City Rascals at TR Hughes Ballpark (100 TR Hughes Boulevard). Tickets are dirt cheap ($5 to $11) and available at www.gatewaygrizzlies.com or www.rivercityrascals.com. The Grizzlies offer both picnic-table and hot-tub seats ($36 and $165, respectively), which shows that at least one ballclub in town is out to please the fans. That said, no summer is complete without seeing the world champion St. Louis Cardinals. If you can afford to go to Busch Stadium, bully for you. Concession prices are up this year, but what's a beer approaching ten bucks when you can see Albert hit the long ball? The stadium is aptly named Baseball Heaven, for after all, the national pastime is a religion here. Tickets begin at $13 and rocket to $110; see www.stlcardinals.com for information.

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