This past weekend I went up Wednesday after work to visit Zach. He had to work Thursday and Friday but when he got off work Friday, we drove up to St. Louis for the weekend. We stayed at the Drury Plaza Hotel just a block from the St. Louis Arch.
(street view of our hotel)
We got there pretty late Friday night and then got up early Saturday morning. We walked across the street to the Arch. I've driven past it several times coming and going to Kansas City but I had never stopped in St. Louis. We went down under the Arch and toured the museum of the history of the city. While we were walking around, Zach spotted an example of the egg-like pod that takes you to the top. I was inspecting it and began having second thoughts about wanting to go up. Zach told me it was a 10 min ride and that's when I KNEW I wasn't going up. Then someone at the counter corrected him and said it was only a 4 min ride. That, I could handle. Once we got to the top, it was cool. We stared out over the city for probably 20 min.
The Old Courthouse
Busch Stadium
Edward-Jones Stadium where the Rams play
Such a happy couple
As we were leaving
Its crazy how huge that thing is.
If you look in the very first picture, you can just barely see a red roofed building at the top of the picture alongside the road that is to the left of the courthouse. That is the old St. Louis Union Station. Its hard to tell from the picture but while we were up in the Arch I think we counted 14 blocks (give or take a couple) from the Arch to the Union Station. Crazy us decided to walk from the Arch to the Union Station. Neither of us had on good walking shoes, I might add. The station has been made into a hotel/mall. We ate lunch there and walked around for a little while. The hotel part was having some sort of convention for a fraternity and as we walked in, there was a few frat guys walking out and they all yelled War Eagle. Once we got inside several more guys stopped to say War Eagle. Its always nice to hear those lovely words when you're so far from home.
Once we walked all the way back to the hotel, we were both ready to crash but we couldn't crash for long. Zach and I wanted to take a tour of the historic Anhauser-Busch Brewery. I think the tour was one of the best parts of the weekend. As most of you know, I love history. It is just so fascinating to me. We got to see some of the famous clydesdales and tour their stables. Then we got to see a few parts of the brewing process. Then at the end they let you sample some of their products...beer ofcourse. My favorite was just seeing all of the old, ornate buildings and imagining how it would have been to live in a time where things were built to be beautiful and practical. Ornate but simple. Every building was marked with a stone sign with the year the building was built. most of those buildings were built in the late 1800s. How cool is that!?
The "Brew House" (I did not have a good picture so I stole this one...isn't it gorgeous though?)
The building where they produced most of their non-alcoholic beverages during prohibition
A couple of the Clydesdales
These horses are amazing!
I loved all the beautiful buildings
You would have to drink 1 glass every hour of every day for the next 118 years to finish one of these massive drums. I'll take mine in Diet Mountain Dew please :)
Pretty
The ornateness of this place is unbelievable
St. Louis as a whole is such a beautiful city. There is beautiful architecture everywhere. Row houses, old homes, beautiful factories and business buildings. I could drive around all day long and never get bored. Hopefully we can go back. Maybe for a Cards game or something.
