Adventuring the Big City In St. Louis
We made a collective decision to get St. Louis Blues tickets as Christmas gifts between Amity’s Dad, the Early family, Asa and Kelsey. It was quite the crew, and quite the time! The Blues are not good this year, but we had a blast in St. Louis checking out all of the things the city has to offer.
Mile - 8,036
Quote of the Blog: “Never go on trips with anyone you do not love” - Ernest Hemingway
Song of the Blog: “Let’s Go Blues” - St. Louis Blues Goal Song
Leading up to our drive to the big city, Mike Sparks came down to spend a night with us at our place. It was a great time showing him the local brewery; Public House Brewery. Amity and I go there all of the time. All of their beers are delicious and well brewed! Their brewery is very nice, and has a large outdoor area we are excited to take advantage of as the weather gets warmer. We had a great time with hosting Mike for the night. It is always smiles and laughs when he comes around.
The drive from St. James to St. Louis is only a 90-minute drive. We hopped on Interstate 44 (pronounced “Farty-Far” by St. Louisans) and zip right into the city. As we got close to our hotel, we realized that something was happening and there were a ton of people everywhere. What we didn’t know was that we were driving right into the St. Patrick’s Day Parade for the city of St. Louis. Luckily, we made all the right turns and our hotel had a parking garage for hotel guests only. Mike Sparks came in as our Lucky Charm!
We had a few hours to burn before the rest of the crew showed up, so we decided to dive right into the St. Patrick’s celebrations and head to the closest bar for a beer and some food. Appropriately, the closest bar was an Irish Pub called, Maggie O’ Brien’s. With the thousands of people lining the streets, Mike and I were both skeptical of our chances of getting a table. Amity found a table, which came in clutch because we were more interested in food than the parade. It was the week before St. Patrick’s Day, so we were surprised that there would be an Irish celebration. Why would St. Louis do their celebration a full week before? We were excited to have something going on, and all of the people watching as at an all-time level!
The Early family arrived in the early evening hours and we headed out to explore. The Union Station in St. Louis has been restructured to be an entertainment district; so, we decided to head down there to check out what they had to offer and get some dinner. The restaurant that we planned to go to dinner had a really long wait, so we filled some of that time going through a mirror maze with Briley, Finley, Baylor and Atticus. It was a really cool, though disorienting experience that the kids loved! We all made it through without smashing our faces into the glass walls. For Atticus, this is a major victory! He usually takes on glass and mirror mazes with the confidence of a king and the speed of a cheetah, which has made for some epic crashes into the glass walls in past mazes!
I am going to be very quick when describing our dinner…. If you are ever in Union Station in St. Louis and looking for food, DO NOT go to The Train Shed Restaurant!!! 1 out of the 10 people in our group enjoyed their food.
The next morning, we went to City Museum in downtown St. Louis. Amity and I have been here before, and we love it! It is an 11-story building that has been renovated into being an 11-story playground with interconnecting caves, trap doors, tunnels that go up into the ceiling & down into the floors and all kinds of other fun things to climb in and on. This is a 10 year old’s paradise, and an adult’s torture chamber. My 10 year old mind frequently takes over and gets my 37 year old body into places and situations that it shouldn’t be.
One of my favorite moments was when Asa, Kelsey and I were walking around and found an innocent looking spiral staircase that goes down in the middle of a room. After quickly descending down the stairs, we found ourselves army crawling on a concrete floor through a small enclosed area. When we were finally able to stand up, we had to climb up into a tunnel that went across the ceiling and down a pillar in the center of the next room. With some tricky movements and some quietly lipped profanities, I was able to get myself out of this pickle and back onto my feet. This place is pretty fun, but now I understand why I am seeing people walking around with knee pads on. After avoiding any major injuries, we headed out from City Museum to get some food and prep for the hockey game.
Amity lived down in this area of the city while attending graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis. She has her favorite spots she loves to eat at. One of them is the Baileys’ Range restaurant. This spot has some of the best Milkshakes in Missouri! Having the ability to make them as an “adult” milkshake is a major perk. After some bomb food we quickly split with the Early family. Asa, Kelsey and Mike joined us for a quick beer before walking down to the stadium. We found a pub close by called, Jack Patricks Bar & Grill. Downtown St. Louis is a funny place. It is a ghost town of sorts. Businesses have come and gone, making places like this pub few and far between. Amity reflects on when she lived in this area, and the amount things have died off since.
Walking into the Enterprise Center, where the St. Louis Blues play, you would not know how bad they are this season. The Blues have a strong fanbase here in Missouri. They played the Las Vegas Golden Knights; who happen to be one of the best teams in the league this year. We did not really know where our seats were in the stadium. All we knew was that when we purchased gifts for everyone, we had a limit of $50/person. We cheated a little and went for $60/seat. This landed us in the last row of the entire arena. Luckily, there is not a bad seat in the entire stadium. We had a blast! This was first NHL game for the Early kids. Seeing them try to understand the game, but have all the excitement of a diehard fan was really fun!
The Blues could not pull off a win. They put up a good fight, but they were out matched by Golden Knights. We did get to celebrate three Blues goals!!! Vegas just happened to be able to put up 5 goals. Even though we did not get the outcome we wanted, everyone had a really good time. I am not a fan of any specific hockey team, but I will be back to cheer on the Blues again! We know we cannot get worse seats; even though they weren’t bad that bad!
Being so close to St. Louis, we are able to make a quick trip back home after the game. Amity, Mike and I hopped back on to Farty-Far and headed back. We did make a stop at Wally’s. This is a massive gas station on Interstate 44 that is themed after National Lampoons Vacation. Super funny and a great way to end a fun weekend in the big city. We cannot wait for our next adventure to St. Louis. It’s already planned and we are pumped for it!