As we got closer, I took some pictures while Brent knocked on the arch. "It's steel," he said. ??? I asked him what he thought it was made of and he said concrete. Hmm. History Channel needs to play that Modern Marvels episode more often I guess. Brent marveled. I took pictures. then Brent had to take his pocket knife to the car. I took pictures while he was gone. Then we went underground. And unbeknownst to me, there was a museum down there!! And a really cool one at that!
It was the Museum of Westward Expansion. It had animatronic indians, explorers, and soldiers that explained their viewpoints on westward expansion. There was an extensive exhibit of presidential coins that was kind of cool to see. The whole room was set up like a wagon wheel or something, which was kind of confusing. At the hub of the wheel was the earliest information on the timeline of westward expansion and on edge of the wheel were massive wall photos of the wilderness encountered along the way. Those would make anyway want to drop the life they knew and march off into an uncharted wilderness just for giggles.
I didn't realize the timeline part until the end. It probably would have helped to see the ceiling in the beginning and it would have made the museum a little less hodgepodge like.
I didn't realize the timeline part until the end. It probably would have helped to see the ceiling in the beginning and it would have made the museum a little less hodgepodge like.
One of my favorite exhibit signs... "Please do NOT touch. Only live animals can grow new hair."
After aimlessly wandering through the exhibit, we got tickets to ride the tram to the top of the arch. This was an interesting experience. It was more of a pod than a tram. It could sit five people in a circle and almost touching knees. It looked like an egg, bright white and kind of oval. It was tall enough for someone sitting down but you had to curve your back to the shape of the pod so as not to bump your head. It was a four minute ride to the top. Out tram swayed back and forth and it did it's best to keep us level on our journey upward. From the top, we got a bird's eye view of St. Louis!
After hanging out in the top of the arch for about 20 minutes or so we hopped on a pod for the 3 minute ride down. Of course, we hit the gift shop and then trucked across the park to waterfront. The might Mississippi River wasn't so mighty from where I was standing. At this location, it wasn't very wide and it didn't really smell like I thought it would. Brent and I debated our planned helicopter ride and decided to go for it before lunch. Neither of us had ever been on a helicopter and now we're so glad that we decided to go that day. It was awesome!! There really are no words for the awesomeness.
When the helicopter returned from fueling up we got taken out onto the deck. One at a time we got loaded into our seats. Brent first. I was left standing at the nose of the helicopter with the whooshing of the blades going overhead. Then I was loaded up. Seatbelts secured and headset on, we were welcomed by our pilot. He explained takeoff and said we would be tilting forward and flying off the deck. He said not to freak out we really weren't going to be falling forward into the river. It was a blast!!
Once we got air born I started snapping pictures like crazy...
Back on the ground and super excited about our tour around St. Louis, we grabbed lunch just down the riverfront at the Riverboat Cafe. Simple food with a great view. Brent had shrimp, I think I had a corn dog. Good stuff!
The tour was about an hour long and it took us from old building to old building. We got to see the Clydesdales and their dogs. All of the buildings were all incredibly well preserved and filled with so much ornate detail that Brent and I were in awe. My photos just don't do the place justice. The stone and brick was amazing. And inside the brew house the metal chandeliers and railings were so cool! To see the bottling plant we took an escalator up seven floors!! And then took them all down to the canning floor. We saw the massive tanks that hold 270,000 6-packs worth of beer. It's aged before bottling. One room alone had six tanks, each about 75 feet long and 40 feet in diameter. That's a lot of tasty beer!!
The tour ended at the tasting room. I tried the Pumpkin Spice brew. It was yummy! Very seasonal! We finished off the tour by hitting the gift shop. We found the coolest Budweiser St. Louis fishing sign. It now hangs proudly in the kitchen!!
After aimlessly wandering through the exhibit, we got tickets to ride the tram to the top of the arch. This was an interesting experience. It was more of a pod than a tram. It could sit five people in a circle and almost touching knees. It looked like an egg, bright white and kind of oval. It was tall enough for someone sitting down but you had to curve your back to the shape of the pod so as not to bump your head. It was a four minute ride to the top. Out tram swayed back and forth and it did it's best to keep us level on our journey upward. From the top, we got a bird's eye view of St. Louis!
After hanging out in the top of the arch for about 20 minutes or so we hopped on a pod for the 3 minute ride down. Of course, we hit the gift shop and then trucked across the park to waterfront. The might Mississippi River wasn't so mighty from where I was standing. At this location, it wasn't very wide and it didn't really smell like I thought it would. Brent and I debated our planned helicopter ride and decided to go for it before lunch. Neither of us had ever been on a helicopter and now we're so glad that we decided to go that day. It was awesome!! There really are no words for the awesomeness.
When the helicopter returned from fueling up we got taken out onto the deck. One at a time we got loaded into our seats. Brent first. I was left standing at the nose of the helicopter with the whooshing of the blades going overhead. Then I was loaded up. Seatbelts secured and headset on, we were welcomed by our pilot. He explained takeoff and said we would be tilting forward and flying off the deck. He said not to freak out we really weren't going to be falling forward into the river. It was a blast!!
Once we got air born I started snapping pictures like crazy...
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| A small part of Budweiser factory. |
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| Botanical gardens. |
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| City Museum, complete with dangling school bus and ferris wheel. |
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| Busch Stadium |
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| The postcard shot. |
Back on the ground and super excited about our tour around St. Louis, we grabbed lunch just down the riverfront at the Riverboat Cafe. Simple food with a great view. Brent had shrimp, I think I had a corn dog. Good stuff!
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| View from out cafe table. |
After lunch we wandered back to the car in hopes of making it to the Budweiser factory for a tour. After a wrong turn and trip over the Mississippi and back, we track down the factory and found parking (harder than it sounds). We got on the next available tour and killed time looking at their exhibit cases while we waiting. Budweiser survived Prohibition by making de-alcoholized beer and ice cream. I want some Budweiser ice cream!
The tour was about an hour long and it took us from old building to old building. We got to see the Clydesdales and their dogs. All of the buildings were all incredibly well preserved and filled with so much ornate detail that Brent and I were in awe. My photos just don't do the place justice. The stone and brick was amazing. And inside the brew house the metal chandeliers and railings were so cool! To see the bottling plant we took an escalator up seven floors!! And then took them all down to the canning floor. We saw the massive tanks that hold 270,000 6-packs worth of beer. It's aged before bottling. One room alone had six tanks, each about 75 feet long and 40 feet in diameter. That's a lot of tasty beer!!
The tour ended at the tasting room. I tried the Pumpkin Spice brew. It was yummy! Very seasonal! We finished off the tour by hitting the gift shop. We found the coolest Budweiser St. Louis fishing sign. It now hangs proudly in the kitchen!!
With the day winding down, we decided it was time to track down some good St. Louis BBQ. We went to Pappy's Smokehouse, another Food Network featured hometown favorite. You have to enter a side door in order to get to the back of the line. Like Arthur Bryant's, Pappy's walls were covered with photos of celebrities who had visited and news articles about the place. The place had some of the biggest picnic tables I've ever seen. There was no room to sit while we were standing in line but by the time we ordered it had slowed down considerably. The red shirts had slowly disappeared as the St. Louis Cardinal fans left for the game. Our food was ready in a jiff and we sat down at one of the massive picnic tables.
On the menu was shredded pork for me and ribs for Brent. We both got the sweet potato fries, which were awesome!! I also tried the deep fried corn on the cob. That was interesting but not that good. I had a few bites and that was it. I prefer normal corn on the cob, I learned. While eating, a chef came out to talk to us. He and Brent were quite gabby. Then the guy brought Brent a shirt. Before we knew it, some people sat down and starting talking to Brent about his Wyoming shirt. It never failed on this trip, whenever either of us had a Wyoming shirt on, someone would ask us if were from Wyoming. This time, it led to Brent meeting people in the HVAC world that consult with engineers for the City of Ft. Collins of all places. One of them was from Wyoming. It was bizarre. I can't take him anywhere. So, our short dinner trip to Pappy's turned into a longer one. We got out of Pappy's later than expected and still had a few hours of driving to get to Springfield, Illinois for the night.
Needless to say, Brent was proud of his visit to Pappy's. And proud of his shirt. He wore it for three days straight when we got back home.
We passed over the Mississippi one more time and bid goodbye to St. Louis. It was a blast and worth the one day stop.
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