Last
week we visited St. Louis, Missouri. Here are things we did and what we saw.
5/29/16:
We left
home at 6am, crossed into the Central Time Zone and arrived in St. Louis at
4:30pm. Our hotel was the Hampton Inn at Gateway Arch ($95.20/night +
$15/parking per night). After checking in, we walked down to the ticket office
at the Old Courthouse. We talked to a really nice ranger (Nancy Hobbe) who
answered our many questions, offered to give us her recipe for Gooey cake,
showed us how to get to a Pasta House, walked us to Visitor Information, and
then talked about the arch and the tours. After finding out that she was giving
a tour in the morning, we scheduled to be there for her tour. She was an
awesome introduction to St. Louis! We walked to the Pasta House but it was
closed for the day so we ended up eating at Pi’s Pizzeria and had a great thin
crust pizza – The Hill and 2 diet pepsi ($24 for 2 people). I would definitely
eat there again! After dinner we walked down to the waterfront and then back to
the Arch. They are doing construction under the arch so the museum is closed
until the construction is finished. After that we returned to our hotel for the
night.
5/30/16:
Breakfast
was served 40 minutes late but we left the hotel at 7am so we could get in line
for Arch tickets by 7:30. At 8:15, we joined the tour that Ranger Nancy Hoppe
led and she was absolutely amazing! The hour long tour lasted about 90 minutes
and she took us up into different courtrooms as well as explained the trials
that went on. There was an active 10-year-old with us and she was so patient
with him by getting him engaged with helping out to tell the stories. I learned
so much from her talk and didn’t realize how fascinating the Old Courthouse
was! You could tell that she loved her job and shared her knowledge in a way
that you wanted to hear more! She said she has been working there for 30+ years
and it was great to hear from her about the changes that have happened over the
years. When we left she was so sweet to give us copies of the Gazette and a
book! Just being around her made us glad that we came to St. Louis!
After the
tour, we had time to get a snack at Hardees before heading to the Arch and
going on our tour at 11am. I’m glad we got there early because we had to go
through a strict security check before going to the top. The little tram that
we rode held 5 people and it was a very small area. It took 4 minutes to go up
and we were allowed an unlimited time to walk around looking out all of the
windows before boarding another tram back down to the ground. We went up on one
leg and down the other. After walking around, we headed back to Hardees for
lunch around 1pm.
After
lunch we headed to the river cruise and boarded the boat “Tom Sawyer” to take a
cruise down the Mississippi River. We had nice views of the Gateway Arch from
the boat. After the boat ride we walked around town and had dinner at Sugarfire
BBQ which was pretty good.
5/31/16:
It was
raining in the morning so we walked to the Federal Reserve Bank and went to the
Inside the Economy Museum (which was free). We enjoyed the interactive
exhibits. Then we walked up to Union Station which is now a hotel so I could
take pictures of the beautiful former train station. After that we went to the
City Museum which was very interesting. After that, we got in the car and went
to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Route 66 where I had one called Cardinal Sin
(hot fudge and tart cherries). It tasted divine!! Then we went on an
Anheuser-Busch brewery tour. Since it was still early, we went to Imo’s on The
Hill (Italian section) to try toasted ravioli. Next we went to the World’s Fair
Pavilion for more picture taking. We finally called it quits and went back to
our hotel!
I’m
glad we stayed downtown in St. Louis so we could walk around. I was surprised
how little traffic was downtown all the time we were there. I was also surprised
to hear on the news that there were shootings downtown.
Things I Learned
1.
Louis
Brandeis passed the bar at the Old Courthouse.
2.
The
courthouse paintings were painted by Carl Wimar depicting four events in St. Louis history by Carl
Wimar. Ettore Miragoli painted over them in 1880.
3.
Taylor
Blow bought the Scott family for $1 each and then paid $1000 each for their
freedom papers.
4.
The
Gateway Arch is really the Jefferson Expansion Memorial Monument.
5.
The
arch is 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide.
6.
Ted
Crewes frozen custard is worth getting!
7.
Sugarfire
BBQ was terrific!
No comments:
Post a Comment