Weekend Road Trip - Summer in Saint Louis 2011

So one of the most fun things we did this past summer was a little trip to Saint Louis while the grandparents watched the baby for the weekend. My first thoughts when my

boyfriend suggested Saint Louis – what the heck is in Saint Louis that could possibly be (a) fun or (b) interesting? Well boy, was I in for a surprise! Saint Louis has TONS of stuff to do for both families and couples, alike. Let me tell ya, if you live within driving distance you should definitely check it out –oh say, sometime before you kick the bucket! LOL.

First off, we stayed at St. Louis Union Station Marriott. Pretty cool historic train station, if you’re into that type of thing. They have converted part of it into a shopping mall complete with local merchandisers selling pretty much ALL Cardinals apparel and restaurants including Hard Rock Café and a Landry’s Seafood. This hotel was chosen for us thanks to me naming my own price on Priceline (yea, that’s right, only $50 a night for a four star hotel), but had I chosen myself, I would have gone with a hotel closer to the river and within short walking distance of the arch. Our hotel was pretty much the farthest big hotel out from the river and still located in the downtown area. Kind of a bummer for our hopes of just walking everywhere we went all day long, but then again it was much closer to other cool destinations such as the City Museum which I’ll get to later in this post.

We had the pleasure of attending a Cardinals game the first night of our stay. (In retrospect this is *Sa-Weet!* because I now know that the Cardinals won the World Series this year – Go Cards!) Now mind you, anyone that knows me knows that I HATE baseball. Just can’t get into it, but the stadium and the experience were actually pretty cool. Anheuser-Busch Stadium is pretty state-of-the-art in terms of features and the view of downtown Saint Louis was ahhh-mazing! Not to mention the fact that since it was the ANHEUSER-BUSCH stadium, there was no shortage of beer around here. Though, we will always remember the $8.75 we paid for every 16 ounce draft. Ouch! Our seats were pretty high up (but very cheap thanks to StubHub) which made the view all that more scenic, here are a few pictures, although they don’t do the real thing justice.

The next morning we went to the City Museum. Um, WOW. This place is undescribable. Don’t worry, leave it up to me to attempt that one, though: An art museum where you’re allowed to touch everything, meets petting zoo, meets skatepark, meets ballroom, meets welded metal structures coming out the side of a building which an airplane is hanging half out of turned playscape, meets harry potter, meets aquarium, meets glass mosaic mania, meets funhouse. Yea, I think that pretty much sums it up. Just look at the pictures.

So after we were done with the City Museum we were starving, but we still wanted to eat someplace unique to Saint Louis, since we didn’t know when or if we’ll ever be back. As we started walking we found this Italian Café as we were walking toward the river where we indulged in THE BEST grilled chicken pesto pizza on the face of planet. Yes, my boyfriend is still talking about that same pizza to this day. We sat outside on the patio and if I remember correctly the place also served breakfast. If anyone knows what this place is called or have a good guess, PLEASE let me know. He and I are dying to go back just to experience some of that great food again, but can not remember the name of the place!

It was Marine Week in Saint Louis. So ladies, for future reference if you’re in the market to get yourself a Marine of your own, this is the week to visit Saint Louis! I believe it’s an annual occurrence, and let me tell you the place was crawwwling with them. They had all types of helicopters and tanks to look at and tour, and they also had some cute activities for kids like putting on all the gear and dressing up to checking out all the artillery. It mostly seemed like a huge recruiting session – go figure, but cool nonetheless. Here’s a taste.

And the arch..

Saint Louis also had a really cool district down off the water called Laclede’s Landing. It had some restaurants, breweries, night clubs, dueling piano bars, you know things of that nature. We ended up going during the day, which I’m sure doesn’t do the place justice, but I heard if you’re in the market for somewhere to host a bachelorette party or go out on the town this was the place to do it. We stopped in the Morgan Street Brewery for a few cold ones, but alas, I forgot my ID so can’t attest to the quality of the beer.

Later that night we had a relaxing evening. We ate at Mizu sushi bar downtown and then headed over to Rosita’s Cantina for some drinks after dinner. Both were good, I’d go back. We also wanted to check out this place called Flamingo bowl, I gathered it was kind of a retro-themed bowling/cocktail bar infusion. They had a party going on so we didn’t end up going, but looked like the place would be better if you attended with a group, didn’t really see any couples there by themselves.

We only spent two days in Saint Louis, but we packed a ton of stuff into our little trip, it certainly is a good weekend destination. There was so much more stuff we wanted to see and do but never got a chance to. We wanted to go on an Anheuser-Busch brewery tour, but the line was FOREVER long. Maybe next time. We are planning on going back to Saint Louis sometime soon, but next time we plan on bringing our son. I heard about a place called the Magic House that’s supposed to be great for kids. Can’t wait to explore all the other stuff in Saint Louis that he’ll love, too! Until next time!