Skip to My Lou

So about a week ago I had the chance to visit a city that I had never been to, and a part of the country, the midwest, that I haven't spent much time in. I worked an event the took place at the arches park in St. Louis, MO, if you haven't seen this American landmark, I strongly suggest you make it a stop on your next road-trip. It is something that is so simple but for some reason you can't stop looking at it. You also have the opportunity to travel up an elevator and get a great view of Downtown St. Louis and the Mighty Mississippi River. (does anyone else still spell out Mississippi in their head like they teach you in elementary school) I met a friend for dinner and we walked to Union Station, which when it was built in 1894 was the busiest terminal in the world. It is now a really cool retail and dining area that also holds a free summer concert and movie series. We tried to go to Hard Rock but it was a long wait so we went to Houlihans which was a pretty good restaurant with a really cool patio which always makes the food taste better. I would definitely recommend stopping there if you are downtown, its about a 30 minute walk from the Arches Park but it is a beautiful walk strait up Market Street and you get to see a lot of beautiful architecture like City Hall.

Day two in St Louis was amazing we went to the St Louis City Museum (look at the picture gallery) which I guess is more for kids but we had an amazing time there. This place is truly imaginative there is a school bus hanging over the edge of the roof, a rooftop ferris wheel and a 5 story spiral slide. This place pretty much substituted stairs for slides on all of its seven stories, there was a room that was a huge cave, they had an outside play-place that made McDonalds look like, well McDonalds. Everything was made from rod iron or steel or some sort of metal all recycled from the city's buildings. After that we went to grab a slice or 6 of Imo's Pizza, a St. Louis legend. It was as good as any pizza I've ever had. If you are downtown you have to get a pizza from there, and do yourself a favor, get the pizza to go, walk across the street and have it at Kiener Plaza, trust me. After lunch we went to the St Louis Zoo which is a gorgeous zoo, full of animals and FREE! That was the best part, the price of admission was zero and everything in the Zoo was priced reasonably unlike the usual airport-like prices you would find for food and drinks at other city zoo's. The zoo is located in a really cool park called Forrest Park which has a golf course, art museum, plenty of walking trails, and is right across the street from Washington University in St. Louis which is an absolutely beautiful campus. You could walk around the zoo, park and campus for hours and not feel like you were still in St Louis at all. That night we went to a really cool part of town known as the Central West End of St. Louis. Yes it's as cool as it sounds. We went to a really cool place called Culpeppers Bar and Grill, we sat on the patio and had a few local draft beers, ate some delicious burgers and had a St. Louis delicacy known as Toasted Ravioli, which is basically deep fried ravioli, that just happens to be delicious!

Day 3 we went on a tour of the Budweiser Brewery. We went to beer school to become a certified Beermaster where they brought us into a classroom with 8 other people and showed us the ingredients of their beer, the brewing process, and how they manipulate the ingredients to make their different beers. Throughout the lesson we got to sample 4 different beers that Budweiser makes, Shock Top, American Ale, Bud Light Lime, and Amberbach. They teach you the proper way to pour a beer (hint its not down the side of the glass like you might think) how to determine the body, and pick up on the different aromas and flavors of the brews. It was awesome. After graduation, really you get a certificate and all, you go on a tour of the grounds, you get to see the Clydesdales, and the all the processes you just learned about in the classroom, they take you through all of the buildings on the premises. After that we got lunch at a little deli called Mom's Deli in the St. Louis Hills which has great fresh subs. The last thing I did before I went to the airport to head back home was stop at another St. Louis legend, Ted Drewes for some custard. I got cookie dough with vanilla custard, but the oatmeal cookie one was definitely way better.

All in all St. Louis was a great city to spend 2 or 3 days in I give it 3 out of 4 stars, a perfect destination for a long weekend.