Missouri-- 8 of 50

Saint Louis Day 1 (05/24/2010)

When I woke up this morning I had plans to go to Minneapolis, Minnesota but you know what…. Just like last time I had plans to go to Minneapolis… it didn’t work out. I landed in phx and found the next open flight to anywhere that seemed cool. Forty minutes later I boarded a flight to Saint Louis Missouri. For some reason the flight was on a mechanical delay and we waited for about an hour on the plane before it pushed out of the gate. I am going on this trip with a coworker, Jeremy, but I guess he didn’t wake up in time because he didn’t fly with me to PHX. Haha! Well I didn’t want to wait and have the possibility of being stuck so I left and he should be arriving in about 40 mins. There is an interesting trend in airports these days to have rocking chairs (I have only seen this one in CA--- San Diego) and I am currently sitting in one watching people and hearing the announcements overhead. About thirty mins ago they paged a Michael Hall. I was very curious if it was THE Michael Hall from Dexter, but I guess I will never know. Oh and the airport doesn’t have free wireless! What kind of airport in the year 2010 doesn’t have free wireless?! Even Fayetteville, NC has free wireless.Well, Jeremy's flight is almost here....

Oh my gosh it is soooo hot here! UGH! We walked outside to get the shuttle to our hotel and it just felt like the hot air was sticking to your body with every step. After checking in at thte hotel and putting on some more breathe-able clothing we attempted to get to the downtown area. With every new city, finding your way around is the first adventure. We knew we needed to catch the metro, but it was across the 5 lane freeway by the airport. There were three options: 1) run across the freeway 2) walk to it or 3) get there via vehicle. The third sounded the best to me. The both of us waited for the bus for a while to take us to the metro. I got tired of waiting so I walked over to the National rental car place for advise. The kind man offered the rental car shuttle to us since the metro station was at the airport and all. Against Jeremy's wishes we took the rental car shuttle over to the airport metro station. Free transportation! Of course before we got on the meto we had to take a photo with Lambert Field.

The $7.50 Metro ride (all day pass) was a nice one simply because of the air conditioning in the cars. Watching the buildings and scenery pass along with the different people getting in and out of the cars was my favorite part of Saint Louis. I love experiencing a city through the eyes of its people. We werent in a brand new rental car, we werent being driven around on a tour bus... we were in the public transportation using it just like everyone else who was going to work, going to school, going from east side to west side. Yes, I admit. I would have been much easier to get around and see everything with a car, but this way made the trip what it was.

We eventually got to the down town area of Saint Louis, just one stop shy of crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois. I could have very well crossed over and said "Hey look at me Im in another state!" but i didnt want to. I want to be in Illinois and see it more than just a few hrs.... I'll leave the few hr trips to the states that sound a little less exciting. But who knows... maybe ill be surprised with what i find in those "Few Hour States". Anyway, we walked around the downtown area and attempted to find Broadway Oyster Bar that Jeremy read about somewhere. The street we walked on was full of over priced tourist targeted restaurants. We didnt go to any of those places but I did spot this hilarious sign!

I loved what I saw next and only pictures can describe it:

Lets just say... I loved the arch and I could have spent hours there just taking pictures of it from all different angles

For dinner we found the oyster bar and I just had to order alligator. What a different taste that is! I guess you can say it tastes like chicken... but really, it doesn't. Chicken tastes like chicken. This tasted like alligator--it was tough, hard to chew and... when I thought about it... eating alligator was just so odd. Our late night stroll around Saint Louis after our local brewed beers was a warm, delightful one. Lets see how hot tomorrow will be and how many more beers we will need in order to forget the weather.

Saint Louis Day 2 (05/25/2010)

Tere's nothing like waking up in the middle of the night sweating from how hot it is! I feel like this is all i have to say about Saint Louis... HOT! After eating our luxury breakfast we hopped back in the Metro link toward the downtown area for the highlight of the day-- the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour. We smelt a variety of smells and felt a variety of temperatures but finally we got the sample some good ol beer straight from the source. Now if you remember from Wisconsin, I sure enjoyed this.

Classic.....

More wandering around the city and using public transporation that we would have other wise been unable to use without our smart phones we ended up at Schafly Brewery and Tap House. A very interesting place with a HUGE selection of bizarre beers and the food was no different. Jeremy, the "vegetarian" got a bratwurst and for myself i ordered a turkey burger, but it as no ordinary turkey burger. It came with two different kinda of never-hear-of-before cheese that I

of course told them to hold off on and a mango chutney which tasted sort of sweet-tangy-BBQy. It was surprisingly very good! In all these places I try to sample different things that are outside of my normal foods and I figure, if its on the menu then its gotta be good to someone! (lets hope...) I embarrassed Jeremy by asking a bunch of touristy questions. I used to be afraid to be a tourist, but now I love it. :)

We did a lot of walking and waiting for transportation for the remainder of the afternoon. We attempted to go to Forrest Park, but it is so huge that you need a car to get around and by the time you get the a place of interest, say the science museum, its closed :( But it was a beautiful place and if you didnt know if the humidity was at about 1000% percent youd think it was a beautiful day!

Saint Louis Day 2 (05/26/2010)

At the butt crack of dawn we got up. I was grumpy and tired cus Jeremy had this genius idea to walk to the airport since our hotel didnt have a shuttle on wednesday mornings and he didnt want to steal transportation anymore. We did anyways because about 20 ft from our hotel another hotels shuttle was picking up their customers. I sneaked in and told Jeremy he could meet me at the airport. He hopped in too. :) We got to the airport way too early because we didnt know about the employee line. With out that line Im pretty sure it would have taken us 2 hours to get through security! There was about an hour onboard delay waiting in STL and the people around me were bitching. It was kind of annoying. We got to PHX and had to bolt it to our gate. We made it just in time for our flight to SBA. I am so tired from the heat that I just cant wait to sleep... really wish i didnt have to get up tomorrow for work at 345am!

Unitl next time USA!