Well, the baseball trip to St Louis has come and gone.
My first impression of the city was “What the heck are we going to do for five days here?”, as there was pretty much nothing going on and the streets were pretty deserted. We started out with a riverboat cruise (the customary trolley wasn't running on Mondays) and then we went to the Gateway Museum, which is under the Arch. It has some great exhibits, and of course the elevators to the top.
Dinner was at a place called Pappy's, all four of us agreed it was some of the best 'que we've ever had.
Tuesday morning, off for the stadium tour. The Cardinals have a great history, and their tour reflects their pride. They are number three in winning the NL championship, and are second only to the Yankees in World Series titles.
Bob Gibson had a season ERA 0f 1.12 (!!!!) in 1968. The fans are still mourning the recent death of Stan (the Man) Musial, one of baseball’s greatest hitters.
The Cards clearly out-classed the Mets, winning this one, and three out of four for the series. But, our seats wee good, and close to the food and drink. We found the Cardinals fans to be as fanatical as the Phillies and the Red Sox…..nearly everyone was wearing team colors (although the Pujols jerseys seemed a bit out of place at this late date).
Between the stadium tour and the game, we went over to the trolley tour. It’s not an all day on and off, like many other cities, as it covers too much ground, but you get a great overview of the city and it’s surroundings. After we did the tour, it became apparent that St. Louis was a much more interesting city than my first impression.
The Old Court House, right across from our hotel, was where the original Dred Scott case arose.
Aside from Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis is home to a number of national companies, including Panera Bread (known there as St. Louis Bread), and Tums.
We stopped at Forest Park (bigger than NYC’s Central Park) with the St Louis Art Museum at the top of a hill overlooking the lake and fountains from the 1904 World’s Fair.
We also went over to Delmar Loop, where Chuck Berry was making his monthly appearance the next night at Blueberry Hill (sold out, even next month's show was sold out).
The fountain at the Missouri History Museum sports a map of the Louisiana Purchase, along with a replica of Lindberg's "The Spirit of Saint Louis".
An exhibit on the building of the 1904 Louisiana Exposition had some old field books, but I was voted down when I suggested looking for benchmarks.
St Louis Trip 3
We also saw Scott Joplin's house, which has been restored to what it looked like when he resided there.
And we visited Elizabeth Avenue (Hall of Fame Place), up on the Hill (once called "Dago Hill", to denote the predominant population at the time) the only street in America where three Baseball Hall of Fame inductees lived (Yogi Berra, Joe Garagiola and Jack Buck).
They are getting close to finishing a new cable stayed bridge, just up river from the Eads Bridge, first cantilever steel arch bridge built in the US. When it first opened, locals refused to venture onto the bridge until Eads ran 14 locomotives and an elephant across.
While we were in town, the Mississippi was over 28 feet above normal, and this statue of Louis and Clark showed just how high he water was. One of them is kneeling or sitting, but we never saw him the whole week.
We also rented a car for two days and ventured over into Illinois to see the Cahokia Mounds, the largest mound city in North America (St. Louis was actually known for a while as "The Mound City"), and north of the city to view the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Unfortunately, due to the high waters, the park was closed. The obligatory visit to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery was interesting, although I believe the beer comes directly from the Clydesdales, if you know what I mean.
We also ate in some really good restaurants, and got to try the two local specialties. First, toasted ravioli (actually it's fried, but who's quibbling), which turned out to be a bit disappointing (we tried it in two places).
Second, Imo's Pizza, a paper thin crust with something called "provel" on top, which seemed to be a mix of several cheeses, without having any of their taste. But, the sauce was good and the crust was tasty, so we rated the pizza a plus.
All in all, St. Louis was one of our better trips, although Pittsburgh is still the city to beat so far.
St Louis Trip 3
Sounds like a nice trip. I see what you mean about deserted too. There's hardly any people or vehicles in you photos. That would suit me just fine though. I'm not much on crowds, or people at all for that matter. 🙂 I would love to take a tour of places like this without the congestion.
