3 Reasons to Visit St. Louis Now
I’ve got to tell you, I’ve always wanted to visit St. Louis, but I never wanted to specifically fly to St. Louis to do so. I wanted to say I saw the Gateway Arch and that would be that. I mean the Gateway Arch is that iconic. So I thought this roadtrip would be perfect! Stop through St. Louis and check that off my bucket list. This is preciesly why we chose to go through St. Louis instead of driving south to Nashville from New York. I’ve always wanted to go to Nashville and still do, but if I had the choice to fly to St. Louis or Nashville, I would have always said the later. But that was two weeks ago. Never would I imagine I’d be sitting here now telling you that I loved St. Louis and I would without a doubt go back. There are three reasons why you should bump St. Louis higher on your bucket list:
1. CITY MUSEUM
Yes, this is going before the Gateway Arch on my list. You already know I’m going to say the Gateway Arch, but have you heard of City Musuem? It was like an adult disneyland well that kids love too. Let me figure out how to explain this place to you because it’s unlike anywhere I’ve been before. This “museum” is really not much of a museum but more like a giant playhouse that you can literally climb on anything. It has slides, ladders and tunnels galore, a hollowed out plane and schoolbus and even a 10-story slide. It was started by acclaimed artist named Bob Cassilly who decided to make art out of unique objects he found. You can climb on and touch any and every piece of art, though. Kids love this place, but adults will love it too. Trust me, there’s a bar on the roof.
I’m sad to say we planned poorly, had a little too long of a boozy brunch and didn’t check to see what time the Museum closed, so we only had 20 minutes to soak it all in. But man, did we get our fill in those short 20 minutes. First of all, we not only talked the parking attendant to let us park for free, but also the front entrance with a long sob story of how we’re driving across the country and a bunch of pleases. We got an, “Ok, just don’t be the last one’s out”. I would go back to St. Louis just to spend a full day at the City Museum.
2. GATEWAY ARCH
Of course, you can’t go to St. Louis without a visit to the Gateway Arch. It’s known as the gateway to the west, which was extremely fitting for my friend, Hannah. We were, after all, driving west to move her from Boston to California. I’m not sure I realized how large the arch was until I saw it. It was definitely crazy cool and worth the photoshoot you can do in front of it. If you want, they also have a tram ride you can take inside the arch to an observation deck at the very top of the arch. You can actually see the small windows at the top for views of the city.
P.S. There are great views of the arch from the Four Seasons Terrace. You can sit have a drink (or two) with an amazing view.
3. ST. LOUIS BBQ
I didn’t realize that St. Louis is known for its barbeque. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try it while I was there. The struggles of spending less that a day in a city. But apparently, it's amazing so I did get you some amazing recommedations from a very trustworthy local aka my friend Mike. Who, by the way, was the best tour guide while we were in St. Louis. Did I mention I want to go back to St. Louis? BBQ is definitely one of the reasons why. Try these places out:
Pappy's Smokehouse
Bogart's Smokehouse
Sweetie Pie's Kitchen
Moral of the story go visit the Lou (as the locals call it).
Yours Truly // Shannon