Local author tells:

Great destinations for short vacation trips

Have high gas prices and other rising expenses causing your family to reconsider taking a long vacation this summer? It might be time to consider a series of short trips to unusual places close to St. Louis.

St. Charles author Ann Hazelwood has a book full of suggestions. "100 Best Kept Secrets of Missouri" is in its second printing and available at area book stories. (For information, visit www.STL-books.com or call (314) 367-6612.)

Kids, the book is a collection of well-known and not-so-well-known places in the Show Me State that our worth a visit. And, because they are all in Missouri, most of them can be reached with a relatively short trip.

Ms. Hazelwood divides the state into five regions to make it easier for kids and their families to plan their short vacation getaways.

Author Ann Hazelwood

For instance, she has 23 of the "best kept secrets" in the St. Louis region. That includes St Louis City and County along with St. Charles, Jefferson, Franklin, Warren, Lincoln, Gasconade and Montgomery counties.

Of course, some of the "secrets" aren't really secrets to local kids and their families.

For instance, Ms. Hazelwood lists the St. Louis Zoo, the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Gateway Arch among the noteworthy destinations in the St. Louis region.

But, when asked about an unusual destination in the St. Louis Region that would be particularly interesting to kids, she quickly named the Corn Cob Pipe Museum (Secret No. 89) in nearby Washington, MO.

The museum contains samples of hundreds of pipes and cigar holders made from the cobs of white hybrid corn.

The corn has been genetically engineered. But, the engineering was to grow a larger cob, rather than more corn kernels. The factory has been making corn cob pipes since 1869 and still ships about 5,000 pipes a day. Walgreens is one of the firm's biggest customers.

Lemp Mansion

For kids who like ghosts, there's the Lemp Mansion (Secret 34) in St. Louis.

Located at 3322 DeMenil in the city, the mansion was the home for the Lemp Family. That family owned one of the biggest breweries in early St. Louis. Its haunted reputation started with the suicide of Charles Lemp.

But, the family had other examples of unusual, mysterious and untimely deaths.

At one time, the mansion made the Life Magazine's list of America's most haunted places. Now, the mansion invites visitors who can order a fine meal while waiting for the ghosts to arrive.

For more, visit www.prairieghosts.com/lemp.html.

Leila's Hair Museum

Asked about the most unusual secret for the state of Missouri, Ms. Hazelwood named Leila's Hair Museum (Secret 63) in Independence, MO.

Independence is mostly known for being the birthplace of President Harry S. Truman.

But Leila's Hair Museum gets Ms. Hazelwood's nod as best secret in Independence.

For one thing, it's the only museum of its kind in the country. And it showcases an art form that died out in the early 1900s.

The museum is recently expanded and has more than 300 hair wreaths on display. Also, there are men's and women's jewelry as well as hair samples of famous people.

The oldest hair sample on display is from 1680.

The owner also has written three books, including one for children.

If you'd like to call for information, the number is (816) 833-2955.

Some of the secrets aren't confined to one place.

For instance, there's Missouri's Traveling Fish (Secret No 57).

She is referring to the Missouri Department of Conservation's Show-Me Missouri Fish Mobile Aquarium. That's truck-mounted display of as many as 70 different native fish.

Missouri's Covered Bridges (Secret No. 72) covers four covered bridges in various places in Missouri. They are the Locust Creek Bridge, the Buford Bridge, the Union Bridge and the Sandy Creek Bridge.

(For information and locations, visit www.mostateparks.com/statemap.htm.)

Some of the secrets are attached to going businesses. In addition to the Corn Cob Pipe Museum mentioned earlier, there's Crane's Museum and Marlene's Restaurant (Secret No. 8) off the Williamsburg exit on I-70.

The museum has a diverse collection of furniture, toys, barber shop and schoolhouse equipment and tools from years past.

In this case, you can find a lot of the modern equivalents for the rural life at the nearby Crane's Country Store. It's filled modern-day with rural clothing, tools and equipment.

And Marlene's Restaurant has plenty of hearty food for sale. (For more, visit www.cranesmuseum.com).

Ms. Hazelwood said she spent nearly a year compiling the "secret" suggestions from people throughout the state. She said she considered many more suggestions than the 100 she finally settled on.

She said, "I had enough left over to write a sequel." (For more about Ms. Hazelwood's other publications, visit www.booksonthings.com.)

(Editor's Note: In future editions of Young Saint Louis.com, we will include other samples of Ms. Hazelwood's "Secrets" book. These additional citations will be included in the Places to Go;Things to Do feature. In the meantime, you or your parents might like to consider buying the book at the nearest book store.)