A Mini Epic Road Trip 2016: St. Louis

A few weeks ago I started to recap #AMERT2016 (A Mini Epic Road Trip), but in the past few weeks, I've been distracted or lazy and haven't finished it. I'm determined now. :)

For the recap of Day 1, click here.

I was gonna put the rest of my pictures into one post just to get it over with, but man, that would be a lot of pictures, so I'm breaking it up into a few more posts. You are welcome for that by the way. :)

Day 2- St. Louis: Mel, Aaron, and I were in St. Louis for day two. We only had a day to spend there, so we did as much as possible. I have to go back because there is so much I didn't get to see.

Of course we had to go to the Gateway Arch. This was a big deal for me because I don't really like heights and I'm a little claustrophobic, but I'm so glad I did it. If you go, I recommend that you watch the movie about the construction of The Arch (it's in the theater near the gift shop). It was neat! Also, GET THERE EARLY! It opens at 8:30a and we got there about 8:40ish. There was hardly anyone in line. We honestly only spent about 20 minutes at the top of the Arch (you can only look out for so long), and when we got back down, the line was SUPER LONG. And this was on a Thursday. Also, tickets are time stamped, so get them in advance if you can. It will save you the hassle and time later on!

This is what you ride to the top of the Arch in. Doesn't it look like some kind of pod from a Sci-Fi movie?

It was quite cozy inside of the pod...

A slightly nervous Rachel at the top of the Arch...

Feeling brave enough to look out

The view was nice

Touching the top of the Arch

I made it!

One more Arch picture

Just a short walk from The Arch was the Old Courthouse. This is where Dred Scott trials took place back in the 1800s. 

Normally you are not allowed to go totally inside the courtroom, they have a barrier stopping you at the door so you can only get pictures from there. When we were at this particular courtroom, a special tour came in and the park ranger giving the tour let us in with them. It was cool to sit in chairs and think about all the trials that were once held there. I'm such a history nerd.

After our tour of the Old Courthouse we decided to walk the short 18 blocks to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. It started raining pretty hard (and of course my shirt was white), so we waited under an awning to catch a bus that took us to the Hard Rock Cafe. I'm now the proud owner of a Hard Rock Cafe umbrella (since it was still raining when we left).

Picture stolen from Mel's Facebook page. You can see me struggling to get my new umbrella open. Lol.

Aaron wanted to tour the Budweiser brewery so we took a bus ride over to that part of town (it was NOT within walking distance). I'm not a beer drinker, but I enjoyed seeing the Clydesdale horses. :) There are different tours you can take. We took the free tour, which was about 45 minutes long and gave you a pretty good tour. For you beer drinkers, you get two free samples of beer on that tour. If you don't drink beer, you can trade in your beer token for a free soda or bottle of water.

We decided to get the souvenir picture they took at the beginning of the tour. :)

I actually saw some of the Clydesdale horses back in 2004 at the State Fair of Texas. Good grief I was so skinny. And blonde. Ah, the good ol' days...

That evening we went to a Cardinals baseball game (which was honestly what started this whole road trip to begin with). Since I'm trying to see all the MLB ballparks, I had to cross Busch Stadium off my list eventually (as painful as it was for my Texas Rangers heart). If you have to ask why, then just don't ask.

I will not confirm or deny that I spit on the sidewalk

A view from our seats

It seems I can only get Mel to a baseball game when we are on a road trip! :) 

A new spit cup for my sunflower seeds

I made friends with the guys sitting next to us- they were Royals fans. They were happy with the outcome of this game

This was on all of the rows

We left the car parked at our hotel and walked or took public transportation while we were in St. Louis. Aaron was tracking our steps, we took approximately 23,890 steps that day. Yes, my feet were sore by the end of the day. 

After this trip, I was able to update my 101 in 1001 list (which I've been HORRIBLE about- next time I need to do a better job with my list):

4. Attend games at five MLB ballparks I've never been to before (4/5)

This was my fourth one since I started this challenge. 

XOXO!