After our trip to Omaha, our second adventure was a weekend trip in Saint Louis. I last visited St. Louis in high school. We did a big cross-country road trip when my sister was looking at colleges, and we visited Washington University in St. Louis. Mac had never been, so we took the chance to visit a new city, collect more NPS stamps, and cross off another baseball stadium. Here’s how we spent our weekend in Saint Louis.
Where we stayed in St. Louis
We wound up at the Holiday Inn Downtown Convention Center. The original hotel I found booked up before I made a reservation. We used rewards points and stayed (and parked) for free. I would absolutely recommend this hotel. The location was good, and the hotel runs a free shuttle to the Cardinals stadium.
Where we ate in St. Louis
A few of my coworkers are from St. Louis, so I asked for some food suggestions. The main place to try is Imo’s Pizza. Imo’s is a Saint Louis icon. It’s a counter service pizza place that uses provel (not provolone) cheese. We split pizza and an order of toasted ravioli. Overall, we liked the food. Later, we grabbed dinner at the Cardinals game and tried another batch of St. Louis’s other big food item: toasted ravioli. I think we liked the stadium toasted ravioli better.
We found Chris’ Pancake and Dining, a brunch place close to the zoo. I ordered biscuits and gravy, Mac tried a breakfast burrito, and we split mozzarella sticks. Yes, we eat fried cheese for breakfast. #America. We got there about 10 minutes after they opened, and the food and service were good. It definitely filled up by the time we left.
What we did in St. Louis
Our original plan was to visit the St. Louis Zoo first. It took us about 30 minutes to get from the zoo exit off the interstate to the completely full zoo parking lot, so we reorganized our plans. From there, we drove over to the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site. We then headed to Illinois to explore the Cahokia Mounds, the main city of the Mississippian mound-building culture. And finally back to Missouri to visit the Gateway Arch and its new museum.
We checked into our hotel, dropped off our bag, and grabbed the shuttle to the St. Louis Cardinals game. I bought $15 nosebleed seats with a great view of the field, the Arch, and the skyline of St. Louis.
We decided to hit the zoo on our way out of town. Keep in mind that you have to pay to park at the zoo, but admission to the zoo is free. Overall, the St. Louis Zoo is nice. Since it was so early, a lot of the animals weren’t out and about. But it did get pretty crowded by the time we left about two hours later.
Have you ever visited Saint Louis?
What a fun trip!! I haven’t been to St Louis since I was a kid. I was just talking to someone about how neat the whole arch experience is. I’ve got to plan a weekend trip like yours for my family 🙂