St. Louis

As Laura mentioned in her most recent post, Nate and I went out to St. Louis, MO last week with New York Life!  We didn't meet anyone named St. Louis, but we sure did enjoy the city!  Before we left, we took suggestions from friends for all the must-sees.  I think we did pretty well!  Here's our recap.

We spent Sunday getting our bearings, and of course found a place to watch the Steelers game.  We might have enjoyed our Sunday more without that loss.  I blame Laura for not wearing her lucky tutu that day!  We went to the opening dinner and caught up with some friends from the 2010 Executive Council.  Nate made it over to one of the casinos, while I devoured Hunger Games in the hotel room. 

Of course, no trip to St. Louis is complete without seeing the arch.  It's also really easy to see the arch from pretty much anywhere.  It was an especial treat to go up IN the arch on Monday, a perfectly clear day.  We could see for miles!  What an amazing feat of architecture!

Heading to the visitor's center

View from way below

Inside the tram!

 Nate and I decided (gasp!) to skip the NY Life Awards Dinner on Monday night.  Instead, we took ourselves to Joe Buck's BBQ.  Maybe not the most hole-in-the-wall St. Louis BBQ joint, but the food was great and it was fun to walk past the beautiful stadium to get to dinner!

Nate with the arch

Me with the arch

 We didn't catch a baseball game while we were in town, but we really enjoyed seeing the city all dressed in red to celebrate the playoffs!  It was easy for us to cheer for the Cardinals while we were in town - finally a bird team that's winning! 

Nate with the arch with the fountain dyed red!  Go Cardinals!

I was up bright and early Tuesday morning for the NY Life Family trip to the zoo!  The St. Louis Zoo is lovely, with many of the oldest buildings dating to the 1904 World's Fair.  Truly neat.

After the zoo, Nate and I met up with friends for a tour of the Anheuser-Busch Factory.  Seriously, one of the best tours I have been on.  And it was free!  I mean, really - we got to see the Clydesdales!!!  They are just as gorgeous (and big) as they seem on TV.  The whole factory is gorgeous - and immaculate.  It was a really fun way to spend the afternoon.  The free beers at the end of the tour didn't hurt, either!

After the brewery tour, we headed to a dive I'd heard good things about: Broadway Oyster Bar.  It was like stepping into a little slice of New Orleans!  The decor was lots of fun, and I hear the oysters were fabulous.  I was happy with my salad, one of the few non-seafood options on the menu!  Nate shared his meal with Louie the Clydesdale, a friend we picked up for Laura at the brewery.

Nate and Louie at Broadway Oyster Bar

Louie meeting a cousin outside the Old Courthouse

We made our way to the rooftop bar, 360*, atop the Hilton after dinner.  The views up there are amazing.  The arch, obviously, but what a different angle!  And had we had more time, the bar would have been the perfect place to watch the Cardinals game.

The view from 360*

On Wednesday, I went to the City Museum with a NY Life friend for some fun on the slides.  I honestly didn't look too much into this place before going, other than hearing it was "a must."  I figured it would be a neat place to learn about the city.  I was wrong.  There is not much "museum" about the City Museum, but there is a lot of "slide" and "climbing!"  WOW.  I can't even begin to describe (or photograph) how amazing this place is.  A huge collection of found materials turned into a crazy playground.  The slides were awesome, and I have the bruised elbow to prove it!

Wheeeeeee!

We finished out our trip to St. Louis with a Beatles concert.  No, really!  NY Life arranged for the original cast of Beatlemania to play a concert at the closing dinner!  I was dumbfounded!  We arrived at dinner to find basic balloon hats on each seat, and vats of balloons around the room to add our own flair.  These became our Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band hats.  We had SO much fun putting them together!  And an hour into our hat making?  THE BEATLES CAME ON STAGE.  They played all the hits.  So much fun.

It was a pretty jam-packed little vacation to St. Louis.  I'm so glad we had the chance to go.  See you in Vancouver (or the Bahamas?!) next year!

Ticket stubs from the Arch, the Budweiser Factory, and the City Museum