Meet Me in St. Louis

A few weeks ago Loren and I spent the weekend in St Louis. It was a quick trip but I think we hit most of the important tourist to-dos.

First I should just mention that the Drury Inn on Broadway downtown was such a great place to stay! We were within walking distance to pretty much everything and the staff was so nice. Plus there's a free hot breakfast,  fresh popcorn everyday for snacking, and a sweet happy hour! Free drinks and hot dogs! We were more than satisfied with our stay there and will look for their hotels in other cities we visit. 

Moving on...we spent a lot of our first day in town relaxing. We did venture out and saw the Gateway Arch on our way to the Cardinals baseball game. From Broadway St you can see the Old Courthouse and the Arch is behind the building. It's beautiful. 

We continued on toward Busch Stadium. There's a new area next to the stadium called Ballpark Village that the hotel staff recommended so we stopped there for dinner.

 The place was huge and we ended up eating at Budweiser Brew House. I'm going to be honest and say that nothing I had there was very remarkable. I'm not a beer drinker so I ordered a sangria. The waiter told me it was tasty but strong. It was disgusting and strong. I think I took four sips before giving up on it. I also ordered poorly when it came to food...disappoint all around. But it was a fun atmosphere and I feel like most of my complaints were my own bad choices given the venue. 

The Cardinals game was pretty fun. It was a chilly night so we brought a blanket from our hotel room to keep warm, haha! I will admit that it was somewhat strange to me to see how packed the stadium was. I don't usually see that many people at the baseball games here in Seattle. The stadium was really nice and I loved all the red team gear.

The next day we were up and at 'em relatively early. Our first plan for the day was heading to the Gateway Arch. We walked over and waited through the security line to get inside. Something worth mentioning is if you book your tickets ahead of time you still have to wait in the security line to enter the structure. There are lines at both ends of the Arch. The "pod" you take up and down the Arch is a little on the scary side.

 

If you are a claustrophobic person, the ride could get a little intense. I had to take a few deep breaths to try and keep calm. I'm positive the people we rode up with thought I was a lunatic. Once you get to the top though, there are some pretty amazing views.

After the Arch, we headed down to the waterfront to take a riverboat cruise.

The cruise was okay but if you have a packed schedule you could definitely skip it.

Later in the evening we decided to end out to the Del Mar Loop. It seemed to be a more hip, young crowd in this area. Lots of people carrying bluetooth speakers around so everyone on the sidewalk could listen to their music. haha! We stopped for a little pick-me-up at Fitz's Root Beer shop. They brew their own root beer and serve up some pretty serious root beer floats.

Loren had the original and I went with the s'more (cream soda with ice cream, hot fudge, and marshmellow fluff). It was delicious but I think I only managed to get about 25% through it. Luckily Loren's sweet tooth is bigger than mine. :)

After browsing the shops a bit more we decided it was dinner time. We settled on this Mexican place that had a super long wait. BUT it turns out that they have a take-out window and little side bar where you can eat. We got food and drinks within about 15 minutes compared to the 45-60 minute wait we were quoted at the restaurant. Seemed like a win to us!

This food was AMAZING! We ordered these french fries with carna asada and all the fixin's piled on top. Honestly, one of my favorite things I've ever ate. Mexican food and french fries in one?! Heaven!! Plus the most delicious strawberry daiquiri ever. It was a good food night.

The next day was our last day in St. Louis. We drove around Forest Park for a bit but decided to focus our efforts on getting some St. Louis style BBQ. Interesting tidbit - on our boat cruise the guide informed us that St. Louis style BBQ is actually about the cut of the meat; and it's pretty much what you get everywhere in the US. But Loren had looked up a few places that seemed worth checking out so we went anyway. We decided to go to Pappy's. After waiting in line for about an hour, we were finally able to order our food. Loren got ribs and I got the beef brisket sandwich.

The food wasn't anything to write home about. Loren actually said that he'd prefer the ribs at Famous Dave's...so not worth waiting an hour for.

Our last stop was the Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour. We got to meet a Clydesdale! He was a beautiful horse.

The tour was fun and it was actually a very pretty place.

So that's it! A weekend of fun in the Midwest! We had a good time exploring the area and I was happy to check another state off the list of places to visit. The people there were just so friendly, I enjoyed the city just based on that fact alone. Until next time..  xo, K