St. Louis, MO

As we continue our midwest exploration, St. Louis was the next natural stop to see the sights and enjoy the food. We started with the most iconic structures in the midwest, the Gateway Arch. The museum and movie in the visitor center is well worth spending the time to experience. We learned a lot about the history of St. Louis and the important role it played in the exploration of our country. The movie was a documentary about building the Arch and many of the engineering challenges that they had to overcome to complete the project. I was geeking out. Then we wedged ourselves into the very small capsules that transport you to the top of the Arch. The views at the top were amazing. You are able to appreciate the downtown St. Louis area to the west and the Mississippi river to the east. The river is at severe flood levels right now, which was even more apparent when viewing it from 630 feet. We were able to quickly visit the Old Cathedral that is near the Arch and learned about its historic importance to the area and our country. We finished the day with an amazing dinner at Pappy's Smokehouse where we had the meat tornado. We had the good luck to have the Stanley Cup playoffs in town and we decided to go see the St. Louis Blues play the Dallas North Stars. As is typical for the Gilliam family, the home team loses when we go to the game. The Blues played and looked lethargic, but did make it interesting late in the game. We also had the good fortune to be able to meet some long time friends for dinner at a local winery. The rural areas south of St. Louis are beautiful. We wrapped up our stay in St. Louis with a stop at the Anheuser-Busch brewery for Cinco de Mayo. The tour was a little underwhelming, but we did enjoy the clydesdales and the history of the brewery.