St. Louis Trip

My trip last week to St. Louis turned out to be a great trip. I typically dread trips for work because they don’t allow any time for fun. However, this one was different. I’m not sure why… possibly because of my flight times… possibly because my constant whining about never getting to do anything fun has caused the folks that I work with to loosen up. :-) Regardless of what it is, it resulted in an enjoyable trip.

On Sunday I left for the airport at about 5 AM in order to catch the only flight to St. Louis that day. That put me in St. Louis by 9:30 AM with nothing to do. I was at the hotel but it was too early to check in. I had no car so I was somewhat limited to the things that were within walking distance of my hotel. Fortunately my hotel was in a great spot and so I took the opportunity to walk down to the arch.

The night before (Saturday night) some folks got stuck in the arch for a couple of hours but I decided to take my chances. I went on in and bought my ticket to go up in the arch, the ticket to watch the movie about the building of the arch and my ticket to take a one hour riverboat cruise. First was my movie… as a Civil Engineer I found it totally fascinating. After that it was my turn to go up in the arch. I didn’t find it scary at all and the view was amazing. Here is a view looking out the small windows at the top of the arch. The tall round shaped hotel in the foreground is the hotel I stayed in all week. The Cardinals stadium is just behind it.


After I got down from the top of the arch it was almost time for my riverboat cruise. It was a nice and relaxing ride that allowed me to get some pictures of the arch like the one below in my Photo Hunters: Creative… Revealed post.

When I got off of the riverboat I still had a little bit of time before I had to meet up with the people from my work. I decided to walk over to the courthouse where they held the Dred Scott trial. For those of you who have forgotten your history lesson, he was the “famous” slave who sued his owners for his freedom. The courthouse was gorgeous. Here is a picture of the rotunda area.

On my way back to my hotel I got this great shot of the courthouse with fountain in the foreground and the arch in the background.


Later that afternoon I finally got checked into my room. The rooms were very modern looking… a little small but plenty big for one person. Given that the hotel is cylinder shaped, the rooms were rather pie shaped… which was a bit odd. The view out the window wasn’t anything great… just a view of the interstate and a view of the right half of the arch if you craned your head way to the left. Here is a picture of my hotel room… it’s somewhat difficult to tell that the room was pie shaped.


Sunday night and Monday were boring work stuff but Tuesday night myself and two of my colleagues were able to go to a Cardinals game. They played the Cubs and they lost but I really enjoyed the game. The stadium is absolutely beautiful and there is nothing better than enjoying a nice summer evening at the ballpark.


For Wednesday night I had quite a treat. When I arrived at the airport Sunday morning I saw an ad for something called “The Muny.” I had no idea what it was or where it was but I saw that they were doing the musical, “The Pajama Game” that week. As a big Harry Connick Jr. fan I really wanted to see it. No Harry wasn’t in it in St. Louis… but he starred in the revival on Broadway last year. So after doing a little research earlier in the week, I found out that The Muny was reachable via their subway type system and so I decided to go.

I didn’t get to take a picture of the stage but it was amazing. It was this huge outdoor theatre that held about 10,000… and it was phenomenal!!! The actors and actresses were fantastic and the whole thing was such a treat. One of the supporting actors was Joe Farrell who was the host of Trading Spaces: Family a few years back. He had a great voice as did the rest of actors and actresses… most of them had been in things on Broadway very recently but were spending their summer in St. Louis. The four block walk back from the subway station to my hotel in downtown St. Louis at 11:30 at night was a bit scary but I survived and it was worth the risk.

Seeing the play did make me sad that I didn’t get a chance to see Harry Connick Jr. in it on Broadway but I was so glad to get to see it in St. Louis. It now goes in my list of top four favorite Broadway musicals.

So that was my trip… I definitely enjoyed the city of St. Louis more than I thought I would. Thanks for indulging me by reading about it.