More Good Times in St. Louis

Besides the Arch, there really are a lot of fun things to do in St. Louis.  We didn't have time to do everything, but I think we definitely hit the highlights.

First up is food.  Ya that's right.  The Smith's couldn't really be on vacation unless it involved some culinary overindulgence. 

So we headed to the Del Mar area to eat on the "St. Louis Walk of Fame."  It's sort of a retro area with a walk that has stars for all the famous people from St. Louis.  Here are the girls with Chuck Berry.  He has a star and a statue.

We then ate a nearby place called Fitz's.  This place is a restaurant brewery, but they don't brew beer.  They brew rootbeer and soda pop.  It was so fun.  In addition to rootbeer, they do cream soda, orange, strawberry, and grape pop.  The menu included lots of yummy burgers, sandwiches and ice cream/soda floats.  I ordered a Kobe beef burger with grilled onions on a pretzel bun and Dave had a club sandwich made with turkey breast they smoke in-house.  It was delicious and enough to keep us full for the whole day.

After lunch, we felt like we needed to "walk it off" so we went to the St. Louis Zoo.  The zoo is free and it is really nice.  We had a great time and the sunny weather only made it better.

After the zoo, we headed over by recommendation to Ted Drewes for some frozen custard.  This is famous in St. Louis and there was a line-up.  It was good but a little too melty for me, I prefer a thicker custard, but it was still worth it.

The fun continued the next day for the girls and I.  Dave went into the office so us gals decided to check out the City Musuem.  All the guide books and tourist pamphlets raved about the City Museum.  We have some pretty good museums in Chicago, so honestly visiting another children's museum wasn't high on my to-do list.  I was leaning towards going the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour and seeing the Clydesdale horses, but since Dave wasn't going to be with us, I opted for the City Museum.  And all I can say is wow, I mean W-O-W!  WOW!!!  This place is awesome!  The children's museum in Indianapolis is supposed to be the best in the country, I've been there and I like the City Museum more.

The only caveat about the City Museum is that it is not really suited for little kids. (It actually has late hours for teenagers and adults.)  My girls were the perfect age.  The reason I say this is because it is literally impossible to keep your child in your sight 100% of the time.  Well, I take that back you could keep an eye on your kids if you are willing to climb through the wall, shimmy through tunnels, slide down slides, etc. Otherwise, you just have to accept that your kids are going to disappear for a while as they explore.  My rule was that the girls had to stay together.

Outisde climbing structure



The whole museum is like one big salvage yard.  Nothing here is pre-fab molded plastic.  It's mostly steel and metal welded together into a wonderland of bridges, tunnels, stairways and slides.  The museum extends inside and out.  Outside you can climb into a suspended airplane, climb in a fire engine, or jump in a huge ball pit.  And throughout the whole structure their are slides everywhere.  You never know where you will end up or when you'll find a hidden slide.

You could spend your whole day outside and have a blast but then you would be missing out on all the treasures inside.  There is a whole indoor industrial cave-like exhibit.  The lights are dim and you climb around rocks and ramps and discover hidden holes and slides.  If you stick with it you actually climb up and up to reach the top of the 10-story twisty slide.  Oh yeah!  This was pretty fun.  I did it with the girls twice.  Paige climbed up a third time while Ash and I caught our breath on the conveniently placed couches located at the bottom of the slide.



Not good lighting, since I took this picture while standing underground.
But one of those spiraling structures is the 10 story slide.


Just a little more about slides at the City Museum.  If you love slides this place is for you.  It is slide heaven.  There are literally slides everywhere, seen and unseen.  Why walk down the stairs when you can take a slide?  Want to explore a hole in the ground?  Go for it, it probably leads to a slide.  Big slides, little slides, drop slides, covered slides, slides, slides, slides!

Climbing in a underground cave.  Note Paige disappearing
into a dark hole, that happens to be... a slide

 Here are a few more pictures of the museum, what a great place we loved it!!

Playing on the skate ramps

face painting too!

Indoor exhibit, the walls are mosaic and the ceiling
is feathered ribbon

human hamster wheel

And finally, no St. Louis adventure would be complete without some barbecue and it has to be good.  So it was award-winning Pappy's for us.  If it's any indication of it's popularity.  Pappy's is open most days "until 7 or 8" because that's about the time they run out of food.

Thanks for a good time St. Louis!