Overland, MO Indoor Activities

Towering alongside Clayton Road, the Tropicana Lanes sign has a vintage, weather-beaten look acquired after more than 50 years of welcoming visitors. Three generations of Richmond Heights bowlers have ventured into the facility during this time, scattering pins across the same 52 lanes that have hosted the nationally televised Professional Bowlers Tour. Owner and PBA Hall of Fame inductee Ray Bluth oversees the day-to-day operations of the alley—which, despite its retro disposition, sports modern extras such as automatic scoring and singing shoelaces. Between frames, bowlers can kick back inside the cocktail lounge, play pool in the game room, or munch on wings, nachos, and hot dogs from the snack bar.

Named St. Louis’s Best Driving Range by the Riverfront Times in 2007, Family Golf & Learning Center earns praise as an encouraging environment in which golfers of all levels can hone their games. The lighted range boosts golfers with a second story of hitting stations stacked on top of the first that offers a bird’s-eye view, if that bird is sitting on the head of a giraffe. The range also features both real zoysia-grass tees as well as artificial-turf tees, and it stays open year-round thanks to heaters that prevent golf clubs’ handles from developing frostbite.

Once thoroughly limbered up, golfers can tee off on the par 3 course, where a maximum hole length of 160 yards allows for practice with short strokes and putting. Should self-improvement reach a plateau, the center’s instructors stand ready to help players make further strides through onsite lessons.

Course at a Glance:

• Nine-hole, par 27 course
• Total length of 1,124 yards from the back tees
• Three sets of tees per hole
• Scorecard

At Crest Bowl, pins scatter across the gleaming hardwood of 32 bowling lanes equipped with up-to-date scoring equipment, lending a baritone rumble to a chorus of cheery shouts. Patrons lace up bowling shoes to improve smooth approaches and ward off sandal-model scouts. Mr. Karaoke conducts sing-alongs multiple nights a week, and cosmic bowling nights allow players to work toward a perfect game and experience the thrill of riding a comet amid upbeat music and the glow of laser lights. When three consecutive strikes put turkey on bowlers' minds, Brickhouse Pizza Company sates appetites with pizzas and sandwiches and fuels victory toasts with a full bar.

Tucked within Planet Fun's indoor play facility, two stories of colorful, interweaving tubes, tunnels, and slides coax sock-clad youngsters into its labyrinthine space for crawling and climbing exploration. After emerging from the tubed tangle, guests can try their hand at more than 30 redemption games in the arcade, such as air hockey and skee-ball. A plenitude of pizza and snacks nourishes exhausted kids, while a toddler arena engages newborns with age-appropriate versions of the older children's tube and slide attractions. Along with tots and tykes dropping by during open play, Planet Fun accommodates birthday kids with party packages and numerous group events, including lock-ins and field trips.

Since 1958, the clatter of pins has filled Crestwood Bowl, which was taken over in 1973 by Ray Bluth, one of the first PBA Hall of Fame inductees. Ray’s son, Mike, recalls fond memories of a childhood spent carousing amongst the lanes. In 1979, Mike started working at the alley, and continued to do so all throughout high school and college, before he became general manager. "Nothing much has changed," says Mike about the alley and the sport itself. The bowling alley still glistens pristinely, just as it did in the 1970s, with comfortable seating at each of the 24 lanes, which are set against a backdrop of planets and stars.

But that’s not to say that there haven’t been updates. Years ago, the alley's bumpers were inflatable, and would send balls ricocheting from side-to-side down the lane like runaway hedgehogs. Today, bumpers are built into each lane, and the AMF Advantage automatic scoring systems can be altered so that hitting eight pins equals a strike, thus bumping up kids’ scores. During Extreme Bowling on Friday and Saturday nights, the lights dim and a disco ball spins wildly in an attempt to escape down the lanes and hit a strike. Between frames, bowlers can refuel at the snack bar, chewing on chicken strips, pizza, 1/3-pound Angus beef burgers, and pork tenderloin.

A championship tennis player until age 19, Michelle Maue began practicing yoga in 1997 to complement her athletic lifestyle. She grew to love the mind-body connection inherent in yoga, and opened Clayton Yoga, which has now been in business for 10 years. A roster of Yoga Alliance–registered teachers have led more than 5,000 classes, guiding students of all backgrounds and skill levels through the calming movements of Vinyasa yoga, which helps detoxify bodies and strengthen the core. Along with Vinyasa-yoga classes, which meet six days a week in sessions of up to six students, Clayton Yoga hosts Thai-yoga-massage sessions, yoga retreats, and dance classes. Clayton Yoga was one of the first yoga studios in Missouri to offer a certified teacher training program, and Michelle herself has trained more than 300 yoga instructors. The studio also runs numerous wellness- and yoga-based corporate programs, where employers and employees collectively practice breathwork and restorative yoga.