St Louis was a way to check Missouri off of our list...turns out we'll be back, I think.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before, but we have a goal to visit all of the lower 48 with the kids and the Airstream.  This past spring, we decided to add 4 more states to the "visited" list during a central states trip.  The first of those was Missouri and of course St. Louis.  Other than the arch, we really had no real plans in the city but figured we could find something to occupy 2 days in town.  As I now go through an blog it...this was the most eventful stop of the entire trip.

So first, we did indeed do the arch.  It's big.  The view is really good and we had a great weather day for the visit.

Outside the arch

When you ride up to the top of the arch, you must ride in a little pod to the top.  Not for the claustrophobic.

At the top of the arch, it's a bit like being in an airplane.  You have to lay down on the sides and look out of little windows.

The river on one side

St Louis on the other

During our visit, it was the 250th birthday of St Louis.  There were commemorative "cakes" all over town.  It just so happened that one was painted on the lawn below the arch the morning that we were there.

It was not a planned stop on our visit because we are more wine drinkers than beer.  But, what the heck, it's Anheuser-Busch.  It's a staple of St Louis.  Besides, they had Sunday tours and the reviews say it's kid friendly.  They were right.  Yes, the place makes beer.  But, the place is fully of history and they keep some Clydesdales there.  It's overall a highly commercial tour and not so much informative.  Nevertheless, at the end you rare treated to a full glass of whatever draft beer AB makes.  Some of them are only available at the AB BierGarten in St Louis.  I had a Shock Top Pretzel (one of the unique ones at the time) and I suggested that Andrea get the Shock Top Honeycrisp Apple since she doesn't like beer and I wanted to try it.  She finished hers before I did mine!  Thankfully, she gave me a sip and we promptly went to a store later and bought 12 of them.  The kids were allowed to have a soft drink, which for our kids is a treat since they do not often get them.  I think they were as happy with a root beer and a Sprite as much as Andrea and I with a beer.  In the end, a very good stop that was just a "what the heck" decision.

Same day or not...I can't remember, but we decided to hit "Pappy's" for lunch.  It's one of those BBQ places that's been on every food show so it's incredibly popular.  We decided to get there right when it opened in order to mediate the line as much as possible.  We were there at 10:20am; the place opened at 11:00am; and there was already a line of about 50 people.  We waited, and thankfully they opted to open a bit early.  Service was expedited in my favorite fashion: order and pay at the counter, go sit down, they bring your food to you.  No wait staff other than to bring you your food and refill your drinks.  It was good BBQ, but not so great that you need to travel to St Louis for it.  Any BBQ joint that doesn't fold after 3 months in business would be this tasty.

The final chapter of this visit, and one that makes me want to go back because it seems there is nothing else like in the country was the "City Museum".  We should have gone here first.  We would have never made it anywhere else in the city.  When we checked in to the mom&pop campground in St Louis proper no less, they were highlighting things on the city map and the guy said, "The city museum is just 4 blocks from here.  Definitely want to take the kids there."  We've been to kids' museums before.  Usually rather pricey for some over-sized science experiments that our kids don't take much interest in.  So I wasn't enthused.  Ever the online review reader though, Andrea pushed that we had to go there before we left.  So I gave in to the impending cost of visiting.  We went, found one of very few places that our tow vehicle could park in, and entered.  Even from the outside, this place was weird.  I didn't change much inside.  We were surprised by the suggestion that you write your cell phone number on your kids' wrist band.  We didn't do it.  We should have.  There's places in here that you kid can get to that YOU can't.  You will for sure lose your kids here.  All you can do is sit and wait for them to come back by.  Thankfully, there are employees stationed at key locations to make sure un-escorted kids don't get to places that they shouldn't.  After about 2 hours of our visit, I was ready to leave.  It was sensory overload for me and too many people.  Then we found the patio and the bar.  Now I was good for the rest of the day.  We found some chairs outside, a couple drinks, and let the kids continue to play.  We stayed until the place closed.  We would have been back the next day, but our loosely planned itinerary said we had to move west.  I plan to go back to St Louis someday while the kids are still young just because of this place.  I've looked.  There really is nothing else like it.