Cairo, Illinois
Driving from Western Kentucky towards St. Louis was a new experience for Julie & I. We were finally going to be seeing new states. Even though we had been on the road since May 2017 somehow we had not yet driven through Illinois or Missouri. This being said however our time in Illinois turned out to only be about 40 minutes or so. The drive from Paducah, KY towards St. Louis took us first through Cairo, IL. Cairo is on the southernmost point in the entire state of Illinois and unfortunately it didn’t seem to us that the city was doing all too well. Most of the downtown area’s buildings were boarded up and those that were not didn’t seem to be doing too much business. Needless to say we did not stick around Cairo for too long.
As our drive only cut through the extreme southern part of Illinois we were across the Mississippi River and into Missouri in no time. Before long we ran into something that we had not seen in a long time…..Mountains! This surprised us for two reasons, 1. We had been living in central Florida for 6 months and the only hills that we had seen were bridges going across rivers and 2. We had no idea that Missouri had mountains at all. As this was pretty unexpected I had to remember how to drive Bubbles up and down tight curves (it takes a bit of muscle to maneuver a big, top heavy van up and down steep hills). It took a few hours more but finally we reached our campground on the outskirts of St. Louis. We had a quick dinner after setting up and headed to bed. We were excited to be in our first big city of the trip!
St. Louis Gateway Arch
We woke up the next morning ready to go. The weather wasn’t the best as it was raining off and on but we didn’t care. The first thing we were going to be doing today was to see the famous Gateway Arch. We thought this was so cool as its not everyday that you get to see one of the famous man made landmarks in your own country. After breakfast we packed up Bubbles and headed to downtown St. Louis. We found parking just a few blocks away from the Arch and within a 15-minute walk we were staring straight up at it. The Arch is situated in a park with its official name as the Gateway Arch National Park on the grounds of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The Memorial contains the Arch, the Museum of Westward Expansion and St. Louis’s old courthouse.
The museum for the Arch is actually located under the Arch itself. It is free to go in unless you want to watch a short movie about the making of the Arch or if you want to ride to the top of the Arch itself. The museum was pretty neat telling about the history of the St. Louis area as well as the building and construction of the Arch itself. We had paid to watch the short film about the building of the Arch so we did that next. The film was shot during the actual construction of the Arch from 1963 to 1965. Even though it seemed that very little had been done to update the movie it was still very interesting nonetheless. Construction of an Arch this size was an amazing accomplishment.
After getting our fill of the Arch we wandered around downtown St. Louis for a while stopping for lunch at Sugarfire Smoke House. We each tried something different with Julie opting for the brisket and I ate their ribs. We generally stay away from chain restaurants but as this was a local chain we made an exception. We are glad that we did as our lunch was delicious.
Union Station
After lunch we wandered around a bit more before heading over to Union Station. This used to be St. Louis’ train station but has now been turned into a luxury Hilton Hotel property. Julie had been reading about the hotel and about how starting at 5pm they have a laser light show in the lobby. We thought it sounded pretty neat and so we went. We got to the station around 430 and our minds were blown. The entire property had been restored to its former glory and it was beautiful. The lobby and bar were in the old waiting area of the building so we got a drink and waited for the show to begin. At exactly 5pm the lights dimmed and lasers accompanied by music started. It was a really neat show with the lasers using features of the building to play off of. They danced off of the walls and ceiling almost making the building come alive. The show lasted around 10 minutes and was well worth the stop.
St. Louis Cardinals Baseball
Since we were having so much fun we didn’t want the day to end. After looking up the schedule for the St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Team we saw that they were in town so we decided to go to the game. We walked over to the stadium, purchased tickets and we were in. Julie & I are not the biggest baseball fans but going to a baseball game, especially in a new city, is a lot of fun. Busch Stadium is situated directly downtown and we thought it was pretty nice. Our seats had a view of the Arch, which was pretty neat. We were sitting there, watching baseball, eating a hot dog and seeing one of our country’s iconic monuments. This is one of those times that we will never forget. The game turned out to be a defensive battle with St. Louis losing to Pittsburgh but we still had a lot of fun.
St. Louis Neighborhoods
The next day we woke up ready to go again. Today we would be venturing into the neighborhoods surrounding downtown St. Louis. The first stop for the day was the Central West End Neighborhood. We loved it here! This neighborhood had big old homes with even bigger trees surrounding them. Even though it was a bit rainy people were still enjoying themselves taking their dogs for walks and going out to eat. Julie and I thought that we should do the same so we went to El Burro Loco for some good Mexican food for lunch. We both had tacos and we both said that they were “muy bueno”!
We then hopped back into Bubbles and headed over to the Lafayette Square area. This area featured huge, turn of the century stately mansions surrounding a big square with a park in it. Julie & I both thought that this was really cool. Not knowing many people at all from St. Louis and never having been ourselves we had no idea that neighborhoods like this existed here!
From Lafayette Square we drove over to The Grove neighborhood as our friends Jen & Tyler suggested it. One of Tyler’s favorite breweries called Urban Chestnut Grove Brewery and Bierhall was located there. The neighborhood itself turned out to be pretty funky. It was in an up and coming area with about half of the storefronts boarded up. Those that were open however had everything from coffee shops, music shops and even a cocktail bar shop. After getting a coffee at Rise Coffee we wandered into the Beirhall and sat down. For a microbrewery this was pretty big and was set in the German style. It had big picnic tables through the main room where you just sat down and made some friends. Julie & I split a flight of a few of their beers and would give it two thumbs up!
Lastly we ventured over to our friend Jens’s hometown neighborhood of Maplewood. While Maplewood did not feature the huge, stately homes of Central West End or Lafayette Square it felt the most home for us. The homes were around the size that we grew up in while in Western New York and the street was lined with everything from clothing stores to jewelry shops and a few diners. In Maplewood we visited another one of Jen & Tyler’s favorite breweries at Side Project. At Side Project Brewing they specialize in barrel-aged beers. We sampled a few in their new tasting room to finish out the day. The beers here were excellent! It had been quite a while since we had toured a cities neighborhoods and it was safe to say we had a good time.
Anheuser-Busch Brewery
We woke up the next morning, our last in St. Louis and were excited once again. We couldn’t leave the St. Louis area without visiting their most famous brewery, (and one of the most famous in the USA) Anheuser-Busch, the makers of Budweiser. We drove over to the brewery not expecting it to be very crowded but to our surprise it was. It just happened to be Mothers Day and the brewery was hosting a Mothers Day brunch that was apparently very popular. The entire visitors parking lot was full but luckily we found parking in the adjacent neighborhood. After entering the huge brewery we signed up for the “Day Fresh” tour. The gimmick for this tour was that you were given a beer made within the last 24 hours, hence “Day Fresh”.
The tour was pretty neat. It started off going into a small stable, which held some of the famous Clydesdale horses. Julie & I had both been around horses before (as well as myself being kicked by one while on a horseback riding tour of Yellowstone NP 1 ½ years prior) but the Clydesdale horses are just plain HUGE. They are absolutely massive. After a few picture taking opportunities we were lead through a history of the brewery and the brewing process. At a few points along the tour we were given samples, most being Budweiser or Bud Light. At one point we were able to try a few of their newer flavored beers, lime & orange. We both thought that these were pretty bad. The tour lasted a little over an hour and at only $10 each we thought it was well worth it.
After leaving the brewery we walked though its home neighborhood of Soulard. The Soulard neighborhood is one of St. Louis’ oldest dating back to 1779. This neighborhood was tight and compact with neighborhood gardens and baseball fields. Here we stopped for lunch at one of St. Louis’s BBQ gems – Bogart’s Smokehouse. We apparently had arrived for lunch a little late (around 130pm) as they were sold out of almost everything for the day. That’s ok though we both really enjoyed their pulled pork, beans, coleslaw and potato salad. BBQ makes everyday a good day.
Overall we really enjoyed our time in St. Louis. From its iconic Arch, stately neighborhoods, beer & bbq, it’s a great town!
Next up……A college town, the state capitol & the Ozarks – Central Missouri!
