With a heat rash in the perfect shape of the Show Me state.

St. Louis was super fun! Getting to St. Louis and home from St. Louis, not so much.  NEVER fly United, especially if you have to connect somewhere is all I have to say, but I'm not going to dwell.

On Saturday, we went up the Gateway Arch.  Did you know that you can go up the Gateway Arch?  I didn't, but you can!  They have these trams with super small capsules that fit five people that go up each leg of the arch to a viewing area at the top.  This involves waiting in many lines, but it's totally worth it.  The view is pretty great.  Here's some Arch-related photography.

Me under the Arch.

So lovely to look up.

View of Busch Stadium from the Arch.

After fun at the Arch, we headed to the Cardinals versus Braves game.  The game was the reason for this trip.  Waaaaaaay back in October, I was watching the Cards in the NLCS and the World Series, and I tweeted that the ballpark looked beautiful and that I wanted to go there one day.  My friend AlieMalie replied that she lives in Missouri and that I should come visit.  Then, our mutual friend Wes tweeted that that sounded like fun, and could he come too.  That's how this trip was born, and I love how it got randomly thrown out there and actually happened.

Panorama of Busch Stadium.  Can you see now why this trip was born?

I love the bird clock so much.  The giant Budweiser sign, not so much.

Blog buddies at the ball game!

The game was fun.  No home-runs, but the Cardinals beat the Braves 4-1.  I've also decided that the Cardinals are officially my favourite NL team because a) they are a bird team and I believe in BIRD ALLIANCE (ppl in bird cities need to stick together, right?) and b) I really St. Louis.

After the Cards game, we went to a really nice neighbourhood called the Loop where we went vinyl shopping.  I got a record by a St. Louis band called Sleepy Kitty.  I've been listening to it tonight and it's rather good.

Then we went for an amazing dinner at a downtown restaurant called Bailey's Range.  My hamburger and fries with sriracha ketchup were amazing, but I died and went to heaven over this bacon/boubon/salted caramel milkshake.

  

On Sunday, the first order of the day was to seek out my Starbucks St. Louis city mug.  I'm glad my friends always tolerate my weird collection.  We had dropped by a couple of locations on Saturday and they did not have mugs.  Then, we randomly drove out to a location near Christy Avenue and boom, there it was.

After that we headed to City Museum.  The only way I can describe this place is that it is a giant indoor/outdoor playground that kind of Tim Burton/Dr Seussian/Antoni Gaudi in its design.  It was so cool.  They have lots of slides, including one that's 10 stories.  Here's a picture of a cone that I climbed up to get to a slide.  It was so much fun.  I hadn't been down a slide in years.

After that we had brunch in the Central West End, and headed off for a brewery tour of the craft brewery Schlafly.   We are too snobby to go on the Annheiser-Busch tour, even though it's the biggest one in town.  It was fun, and they had the most delicious Pumpkin Ale on tap.  We bought growlers of it.

Then we headed to the Schlafly taphouse downtown and did flights of beer.

After that, we tried to get some BBQ at some highly recommended places but they were both sold out of meat for the night, so we just went to a pub instead for dinner.  However, we followed that with frozen custard at Ted Drewes, a St. Louis instituiton.

We didn't give up on our BBQ mission.  On Monday morning, we waited outside Sugarfire, one of the sold out places, to have lunch before dropping off Wes at the airport.  It was rather hilarious to be lined up at a BBQ joint before 11 am on a Monday, but we weren't the only ones.  And after eating the food, I could see why.  I loved how they just serve their meat on a waxed piece of paper on a tray.  And that side of mac 'n cheese.  OMG.

After we dropped Wes off at the airport (he was on his way to LA for more vacation), AlieMalie was kind enough to drive me to the mall to buy a second Cardinals hat.  The one that I bought was for my dad, but look at how cute it looks on me!  The intent was to give my dad the Cards hat with the bird on the bat (his request), but I could part with it, so now my dad and I have matching hats.  I do intend to get a selfie of us.  It'll be hilarious.

And that was St. Louis. SO MUCH FUN.  So much food deliciousness too.