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St. Louis, Missouri – Our First Planned Stop

For those who have never entered Missouri in this way, the dividing line between Illinois and Missouri is the Mississippi River.  For us, crossing over this broad river and seeing the Gateway Arch over the horizon was as inspiring a welcome to the West as its builders likely intended. Knowing that for years, America’s frontier somewhat arbitrarily began west of the Mississippi River, crossing it meant we were now in “the West.”

My wife and I are not city people, as most readers from this site can probably tell, and so in cities we try to hit the highlights we want to see and get out.  I must admit, of the cities I have been too, St. Louis is definitely one of the more open cities I have explored, and want to return to. On our list of things to see, we knew we had to go in the Arch, check out Busch Stadium, and see Budweiser’s Clydesdale.

As we entered downtown St. Louis, we had about an hour before the Arch opened, and so we decided to make a first stop at Busch Stadium. Unfortunately, the stadium tours were not open either. Walking along the outside of the red brick stadium, one immediately knows this team is an instrumental part of baseball history. While I’m a die hard Braves fan, St. Louis’ baseball history dates back to the late 19th century, and has won more World Series Championships than any other National League Team (10). Circling around the stadium, the outside of the park proudly displays much of its baseball history, the most notable of which is the series of famous St. Louis Cardinals’ Statutes just in front of the Stadium’s main entrance. These memorialized players include Lou Brock, Roger Hornsby, Ozzie Smith (a childhood favorite of mine), and the great Stan Musial (also given a much larger statute elsewhere on the grounds).  Busch Stadium looks like a heck of a place to see a game, and St. Louis is definitely a baseball town.

From these statutes and the main entrance one can see directly downtown to the Old Courthouse and the Gateway Arch just behind it. . After wandering through the stadium’s souvenir shop for a moment, we decided it was time to get to the Gateway Arch, before the crowds started lining up.

One thing I have realized about the Arch upon getting back home was that almost every picture taken in St. Louis has the Arch, officially named the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, somewhere in its frame. Whether this was an intentional part of the city planning, or simply a tribute to the massive size of this National Monument is difficult to say, but the Arch does have a way of looming over the city.

Nevertheless, one must see this monument up close and inside. Parking near the Old Landing, we were treated to a pleasant tree-lined walk through the park approaching the Arch. This entry is actually somewhat spectacular as the trees keep the Arch hidden until you are nearly right on it. Walking out of the shade of the trees the arch shoots suddenly towards the sky, this is when I realized how large it really is.

Inside the Arch

One of the surprising things about visiting the Arch for us was that it wasn’t a mere elevator from the ground up, like the Washington Monument. The entire complex contains a large underground welcoming center, complete with interactive museums, multiple theatres, an old-timey candy shop, and a souvenir shop. With the exception of the theatres, all of these places are free. The only thing we had to pay for was the elevator ride to the top.

The tram cars themselves are very small, semi-spherical bubbles that pack five seated adults into a space that is approximately 5 feet in diameter. While the ride to the top lasts only about five minutes, this could easily be five minutes of hell for anyone with claustrophobia. The ride is a very slow moving, rickety, and sounds like ascending a large roller coaster hill.

At the top, the narrow archway is packed with visitors. Despite the crowds, we were treated to some fabulous views of both downtown St. Louis to the West, and the Mississippi River on the East.

One of my favorite views was to the Southwest. From this window, I could see inside Busch Stadium, the old courthouse, and many of the St. Louis skyscrapers cropping up around them.

To the North, the giant meandering Mississippi looked tame, but its size was apparent when I noticed how small several large boats appeared on the river.

After returning below the base of the Arch, we explored the museums detailing America’s westward expansion with numerous artifacts from Lewis and Clark’s Corp of Discovery.

Beer for My Horses

After we left the Arch, we made one last stop in St. Louis. For those who don’t know, St. Louis is the location of the original Budweiser beer factory, and is now the home to Anheuser Busch and its Clydesdale horses.

At the factory, one can take a free tour of the beer manufacturing process and see some history of one of America’s first major brewers. Also, despite what I was once told by an economist that there was no such thing as a free lunch, Budweiser offers free samples of its various beers, some pretzel, and sodas for the youngsters, which ain’t bad. While we had already seen Busch’s similar museum in Jacksonville, Florida (also offering free beer), St. Louis is one of the few locations to see the Clydesdales and all the gear they have in their famous Super Bowl commercials.

After the  St. Louis highlights and grabbing some lunch, our plans were originally to spend the night in St. Louis and checkout the nightlife, but because we saw these highlights early we decided to make one of our first roadtrip detours to see Missouri’s Capitol Building in Jefferson City, one of the nation’s most beautiful capitols.

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