I've never really considered St. Louis. Yes, that's the end of my sentence. I've never even thought about St. Louis. I knew it existed. I knew the arch was there. However, I've never considered going there, or what it would be like to visit.
Fabio had a 10 day training there last week (and just got home today), and so I joined him last weekend for a fun filled 2 days in St. Louis. I'm sure if we would have looked hard, we could have found more to do, but we really didn't do much. We saw the arch and went up it. We went to the old courthouse where the Dred Scott decision was made. (For those of you who, like me, knew the name but not the case, Dred Scott is the black man who, in the early 1800's, sued for his freedom. According to the museum displays in the courthouse, this was a catalyst for the Civil War.) We wanted to go to the botanical gardens, but on our way, we found a beautiful park and walking path and decided to just walk around there for free. We found a few good places to eat, and spent a lot of time in the hotel planning our trip to Scotland/England.
I wouldn't recommend a trip to St. Louis. It's just a city. The arch isn't that impressive, and there's not much physical beauty. The Mississippi River is muddy and the area around it is industrial. It was nice to be with Fabio for the weekend, since I had spent the whole previous week without him. I came back late Sunday night and was right back to work at 7am on Monday.
The "elevator" to go up the arch looked like the inside of a washing machine. When the doors first opened, I thought, I am NOT doing this! Then, I thought about the $20 we already spent to go up. I ended up doing it, and it wasn't terrible.
On a side note, this is where we decided to have Christmas dinner in Scotland:
