The Arch, Busch Stadium, Anheuser Busch Brewery oh my!

St. Louis was a 2 day whirlwind adventure! Here it goes...

Day 1: Walking Tour around the Arch, Journey to the Top of the Arch, missed Riverboat Tour, Old Courthouse (where the famous Dred Scott case was held), Cardinals vs. Marlins game

Day 2: Rescheduled Riverboat Tour, Anheuser Busch Brewery Tour, Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, Missouri Botanical Garden, Free Counting Crows concert at Fair St. Louis

So Day 1. Why did we miss the Riverboat Tour? You guessed it. Because of me...kind of. The only tour to the top of the Arch available was at 1:20 PM and the Riverboat Tour started at 2:30 PM. Things at the Arch got a bit backed up and......we missed the boat. But we didn't just miss the boat. We got to the top of the Arch, got back down at about 2:28 PM, ran to the boat (at which point Brian fell on his face) and got there at 2:33 PM. When we got there, the boat just left the dock. But luckily we were able to reschedule for the next day at 10:30 AM.

The worst part of the whole thing was that going to the top of the Arch is not that great. You sit in this little pod thing where you feel like you're being sent up to Mars and you get out onto this small and enclosed observation deck where you feel like a sardine. The second you get out of the pod, you just want to get back in to go back to earth. At least I got a cool picture of Busch Stadium from it though.

Busch Stadium from the top of the Arch

The grounds of the Arch itself are wonderful. The Arch is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The park is a memorial to Thomas Jefferson's role in opening the West, to the pioneers who helped shape its history, and to Dred Scott who sued for his freedom in the Old Courthouse.

Heather with Old Courthouse

After the day of touring the Arch, we headed over to Busch Stadium. It's literally right downtown only a few blocks from the arch, which is really neat. The outside area of the stadium is really nice and they did a great job with the facade. In front of the stadium are statues of all of the Cardinal greats: Musial, Bob Gibson, Brock, George Sisler, Hornsby, Slaughter, Dizzy Dean. Really nice touch. They also have the 3rd base entrance dedicated strictly to Stan Musial with an additional statue of him.

In front of the stadium (where the statues are)

3rd base entrance in front of Musial statue

The inside of the stadium is really nothing special, but the views of the arch are breathtaking! Thanks to Richard on his recommendation of where to sit, we had a perfect view.

On the 2nd day, we took the Riverboat cruise, which we absolutely loved. If you ever goto St. Louis and you have to choose between taking a small pod or going on a boat, choose the boat. The cruise had a park ranger narrating and the views of the Arch from the river were spectacular.

We then headed over to the Anheuser Busch Brewery for a free tour, which was a lot of fun. We even got to meet some Clydesdales!

And then we finished the day checking out the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis and the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Cathedral Basilica

Inside of Cathedral Basilica

Missouri Botanical Garden

Missouri Botanical Garden

Overall, we really enjoyed our 2 days touring St. Louis. There was a lot to see and do and the Arch up close and personal was a thrill!

Stay tuned for a post on Kansas City sometime in the next couple of days. Tomorrow we have a full day here in Kansas City and then we will start the 10 hour drive to Denver!