Missouri, St Louis: Gateway to Beer and Food

St. Louis, Missouri, was located at the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and was commonly referred to as "The Gateway of the West". In fact, the explorers, Lewis and Clark, stopped in St. Louis for provisions whilst on their historical and famous expedition across the United States. They set a standard for future pioneers who were also searching out new places in the western half of the United States and, therefore, the city became a manufacturing centre for wagons, guns, blankets, saddles and everything else a pioneer would need on their journey.

To commemorate the Lewis and Clark expedition and also St. Louis as America's "Gateway" city, construction of a large steel arch began in February 1963 and was completed in October 1965. The Arch was the tallest national monument in the United States at 630 feet (interesting fact: the Arch was exactly as wide as it is tall!); it was the city's best known landmark and a popular tourist attraction, one that we chose to visit when we travelled to the Missourian city during our 2007 "US and A" trip. We were shocked and impressed to learn that 900 tons of stainless steel were used to build the Arch, more than any other project in history.

Blueberry Hill was located in The Loop district of St. Louis, a six block area with many places of entertainment, shops, restaurants and bars

With St. Louis having grown to a population of 160,000 people by the year 1860, it became a centre for government offices and financial trade as well as the growing manufacturing industry that we mentioned earlier. Also, the World Fair came to St. Louis in the year 1904, bringing increasing growth and diversification to the city's marketplace, expanding the city's offerings to the many people who continued to settle there in the 1900's.

Besides St. Louis' famous learning institutions, such as Washington University and St. Louis University, the city was also famous for beer - the Budweiser and Anheuser-Busch breweries were located there - and baseball - we definitely had to check out Busch stadium, where the well-revered St. Louis Cardinals professional baseball team (interesting fact: 2006 World Series champions!) play their home games. Unfortunately, there were no in-town games during our couple of days there, so we didn't get to watch a game. We also didn't get to tour the Budweiser and Busch breweries, which ironically was because we had drunk too many Budweiser beers the night before we were supposed to go on a tour.

The visit to St. Louis was Dan's first trip but Kyle had been a couple of times as a kid and once during his freshman year of university. When he was a youngster, Kyle's dad took his family to a couple of baseball games to see his favourite team (the Cardinals) play ball, and when Kyle was attending Southwest Missouri State University (now called Missouri State University), he was required to go to a basketball conference tournament there to support the team. Kyle was on the varsity cheerleading squad and all of the members of the squad went to support the team. Speaking of cheerleading, one of the members of the squad was Karen, our primary reason for visiting the city during our year-long travels around the world.

For those of you who have been really good and have already read our Kansas City, Missouri, journal entry, you will know that Karen (don't confuse this Karen with the one whom we visited in Springfield, Missouri) met up with us and our mutual friend, Heather, who lived there. "St. Louis" Karen had offered to drive us to her home city from Heather's after our visit there and, when we left Heather's, we found ourselves enjoying a four hour drive, catching up with Karen during the entire journey. We talked about our trip over the past 6 months, Karen caught Kyle up on the whereabouts and activities of people that he cheered with and Karen also told us about her time living in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband, Dave, and her recent time living in St. Louis.

The journey went by very quickly and, before we knew it, we were at Karen's and Dave's house in "The Hill", which was the Italian district of St. Louis. The area was really cool and rich in history and Italian culture, with many old, unique houses, restaurants, bars, churches and cafes. The fire hydrants and trash cans (that's the same as rubbish bins for the British people reading this) were painted to look like the Italian flag and we were even told that some of Karen's and Dave's neighbours "no speak-a da English". It was a really great area and a definite place to visit should anyone travel to the city for a holiday or to work there.

The house where we spent the next couple of nights was just as unique as the ones we passed during our drive into The Hill. Karen told us that they were in the middle of some renovations and we could imagine how nice everything would look once they finished the final changes; for example, they had a really cool basement area that they were going to turn into a relaxing lounge. The house was very cosy and we felt very much at home as soon as we walked in the door. We were greeted upon entering by Dave and their dog, Acadia. It was great to finally meet Karen's husband; we had both seen Karen a couple of times in the past few years, once in Springfield at "Springfield" Karen's wedding, and once in London when "St. Louis" Karen was sent there for work, but neither of us had met Dave before.

Acadia was a hoot (that's the same as a laugh, or fun, for the British people reading this). The dog was a mix between a border collie and a greyhound. She was mostly black but had some pretty white features in her fur. We were definitely getting our fair share of dogs on the trip in the United States, which was fine with us, since we both love animals very much. Acadia was a little reserved with us initially, but she soon warmed up and, throughout our time there, we ended up making a new friend.

We had arrived at The Hill in the evening and it was time to eat dinner after our tour of the house. Karen and Dave decided to take us out in their neighbourhood, so we could get a feel for the place. Regazzi's was the restaurant of choice that evening and we enjoyed some St. Louis style pizza, which was covered with provel cheese, a cheese that was unique to Missouri and had a rich, creamy taste. As a table, we ordered a couple of appetisers to share before the meal, some fried ravioli and fried provel cheesesticks; both of these were really, really tasty, if not a little heavy on the stomach. The pizza was very delicious, too, and we drank goldfish-sized beers that complemented the meal.

After dinner, we headed to a nearby pub to see if we could play bocce, an Italian game that was brought to St. Louis with the immigrants who decided to settle there. It was similar to the British game "bowls" and the French game "boules", and if you are not familiar with any of these games, you can go look up the definitions on Wikipedia; we want to continue on with our story, mostly because we were not able to play bocce at the pub we visited, because a private party had taken over the courts, and we don't want to waste time defining something we weren't able to do.

Even though bocce was not available, other games were not in short demand at the pub and we still managed to break out our competitive spirits, which were a nice match for those of Karen and Dave. We played electronic ten-pin bowling for quite some time and we also played one of those electronic pub trivia games. Several pitchers of beer - most likely some kind of Budweiser - helped us enjoy the games, but also meant that we became increasingly sloppy throughout the evening.

We were the last people to leave the pub, but the owners and staff knew Karen and Dave and we weren't rushed out of there; they actually waited for us to finish our last game of bowling before we settled our bill and left. The evening was a little bit fuzzy towards the end, but we think that Karen and Dave bought many, if not all, of the pitchers of beer, so we kindly thank them for helping us adhere to our travel budget this year!

The games didn't end when we returned to Karen's and Dave's house in The Hill. "Scene It", the DVD movie trivia game, was popped into their DVD player and we were challenged to a round against them before calling it a night. We held our own pretty well, based on our love of the movie industry and movies, but we ultimately lost the game. There may have been a slight disadvantage, as we thought that Karen and Dave had possibly played the game many times before, thus experiencing some repeated questions. But, we'll never know, and we conceded their victory nonetheless.

St. Louis was definitely the tip of the iceberg in the United States, with regards to our futile attempts at retaining our Asian trip health (i.e. the fact that we were eating sensibly and doing a lot of walking and trekking on that continent). It was during this portion of the trip that we both started feeling the effects of the American way of life, with very large portion sizes, a lack of walking from riding in cars, the increased intake of alcohol (mostly beer) that seemed to be required with every reunion made in the United States, and so on. As you read our future journals for the summer portion of our trip, you will no doubt hear about many, many, many nights out on the town, but eventually we will get to our road trip across the southwest United States, where walking and some hikes will be in store for us, as well as very little or no alcohol.

So, after a big night out in The Hill, we woke up feeling a little bit groggy and in need of some kind of greasy food to kickstart our day's activities. Can you see the greasy food and beer combination that was confronting us? It was a deadly one for our waistlines and our overall energy levels, and it was not ideal, but definitely required for us to keep going. "Adriana's on The Hill" was the answer to our semi-queasy stomachs and fluffy heads because they offered humongous sandwiches that were doused in cheese, meat and sauces.

After waking up around noon from a much-needed rest due to the previous night's activities, we were very hungry when we arrived at the deli. It was a good thing that we didn't have to wait very long for our food, but when the food arrived, we were astounded at the size of the portions. Each sandwich was cut in half and each half looked like it was nearly a foot long. Even though we have complained about the size of American portions, we still ended up eating our entire sandwiches, because they were delicious; however, we felt miserable afterwards and we had to remind ourselves to share portions in the United States to avoid getting sick from overeating! Karen and Dave made some suggestions when we ordered; Kyle ate a meatball sandwich called "Meatball" (go figure) and Dan ate a roast beef one called "Mary's Special".

Walking was the best thing we could do after such a large lunch, so Karen and Dave drove us to the riverfront where we started our tour of downtown St. Louis. We bid goodbye to them because they had to attend a tea party that afternoon, something that preceded a baby shower and that we found quite amusing. Once they had dropped us off, we made our first stop of the day at The Gateway Arch. Hopefully, the photos from that afternoon will do The Arch justice; it was a spectacular sight and, with the sun shining and no clouds in the sky, we really enjoyed walking around the area. We chose not to ride the elevator (that's the same as a lift for the British people reading this) to the top of The Arch in order to save time; instead, we chose to spend the time walking around outside during the hot, sunny afternoon.

Across from The Arch, not on the riverfront side but on the downtown side, we walked to the old courthouse, a splendid white building that looked very elegant with a large lawn on one side and a beautiful fountain on the other. We took a stroll down to Washington Street so we could gain views of the early 1900's architecture. Many old warehouses and buildings were being converted into loft apartments and offices, so several places had been restored to their original beauty. From Washington Street, we cut across downtown St. Louis to check out Busch stadium. Downtown and the stadium area were both very quiet, since it was a weekend. Many American city downtown areas were quiet on weekends, with most of the pedestrian and automobile traffic happening during the week when people were at work.

Karen told us that we should take the metro to the Union Station area. We were pleasantly surprised there because we had expected a large train station that still looked like a train station, but with some shops. Instead of this, we were presented with a unique metal structure outside the station and a large pond and canal on one side, with some restaurants and bars along the waterfront. Inside the station was a shopping mall and the actual train station section had been beautifully converted into a fancy restaurant and bar with many ornate statues, paintings and mosaics adorning the walls. The station section even had its own whispering gallery, similar to the one in St. Paul's Cathedral, but running overhead in an archway instead of around a circular room.

Inside Union Station, we watched some very energetic people making fudge on tables made from huge marble slabs. They were gaining audience participation and were putting on an entertaining show. We also stopped in Starbucks to get some iced tea to cool off from the heat outside that day. After spending about half an hour inside the shopping mall, we left and hopped back onto the metro, headed for the Central West End district. Karen told us that the area reminded her of a smaller version of The Village in New York and we definitely saw the resemblance when we walked along the main road in that part of St. Louis.

The main reason that we went to Central West End was to find a coffee shop so we could work on our travel journal, since we were starting to fall very behind during that part of our United States trip. No doubt people will start reading this entry over a month after we actually visited St. Louis, but we always say, "better late than never". Coffee Cartel was another recommendation and Karen was once again thanked, because the place had good iced coffees and a relaxing atmosphere, where we could work on our stories but people-watch all the same.

Dinner that evening was going to be at Blueberry Hill and we were supposed to meet Karen and Dave in that area, but we decided to meet them at Coffee Cartel instead. Once the tea party was finished and the baby shower was completed, they came to see us at the cafe and, after hanging out for a while there, we went across the street to a wine bar. We shared a nice bottle of white wine while we sat at a large picnic table outside the bar, enjoying the weather and atmosphere.

Blueberry Hill was located in The Loop district of St. Louis, a six block area with many places of entertainment, shops, restaurants and bars. The houses in the area were very large and beautiful with a style of their own, too. The St. Louis Walk of Fame ran along the sidewalk in front of the restaurant and was put in place to advance the knowledge, awareness and appreciation of great St. Louisans and their accomplishments; we walked across John Goodman's and Nelly's stars on the Walk of Fame, to name a couple.

Parking was not easy to come by in The Loop but Dave found a spot outside a bar that was conveniently located across the street from Blueberry Hill. We decided to have a drink in the bar before heading to eat dinner, so that we didn't have to feel bad for using one of their parking spaces. After a quick beer, we headed across the street. There was a dilemma when we tried to get into the place, because Dan had forgotten his passport. Even though he had turned 30 years old just over a month before, the girl attending the door to the place decided that he didn't look old enough to be let in without showing some form of id. Normally we both carried photocopies of our passports with us wherever we went, but this time we didn't have them because they had pretty much disintegrated after spending 6 months in a wallet. We made new copies of them the next day, to avoid a similar situation in the future!

Dave and Karen spoke to the manager of the restaurant and he agreed to let Dan in on this occasion, so we were able to sit down at a table and order some food. Whilst we waited for the food to be served, we left the table to walk around the place, admiring all of the collections displayed on the walls, memorabilia from the Simpsons, the Beatles, the Smurfs, South Park, Austin Powers, Elvis Presley, etc. Probably the most fitting memorabilia for the place was the Chuck Berry display, because the musician still plays live at Blueberry Hill every so often; by the way, he definitely had a star on the Walk of Fame, but we didn't manage to see that one.

We shared a hickory burger at Blueberry Hill, to avoid too large of a portion and to think of our poor stomachs, with fried potato slices to accompany it. The potatoes were basically like homemade chips (that's the same as crisps for the British people reading this) and were really yummy when dipped in ranch salad dressing, a sauce that was quite American but one that both of us loved dearly. After the meal was finished, competitiveness broke out again and this time we played darts against Karen and Dave.

A loss on the Sparks and Wills side was experienced, yet again, but we held our own against the couple, who previously owned a bar in Nashville and evidently had a lot of practice. The games were played down to the wire, with the winners claiming victory at the last minute. Talking about the evening whilst writing this journal entry, we have decided that we actually won the first game of darts, so a good show was put on by ourselves before Karen and Dave won the next game. What were we to do after we finished playing darts? Play more games, of course, and this time we headed to a pub called Friendly's, which was closer to their home in The Hill.

Friendly's was a small pub and it was packed with a large Saturday night crowd. First, we played pinball. Second, we played shuffleboard. Last, we moved on to play some games of pool. Again, we were the final people in the bar to leave but, this time, since Karen and Dave did not know the owners, we were made to finish our drinks, our last game of pool and get the heck out of there. Before going home, we both decided that some food was in order, to avoid headaches the next morning, and since we were in Missouri, we asked to be taken to a White Castle fast food joint.

If anyone reading this has seen the movie "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle", you may think that the place was a glorified eating establishment in America. Don't be misled; we were both visited by the D-monster the next day and we will likely never eat there again. Despite the stomach problems, the burgers also tasted horrible, like some chemical experiment gone wrong. No wonder we had several trips to the bathroom in store for us!

An American diner called "City Diner" was our first activity that next morning, but on the way we drove through Forest Park, where we passed by the St. Louis Zoo and the St. Louis Art Museum, two very impressive areas within the park. We were then taken through a neighbourhood with huge stately homes before making our way to breakfast. At City Diner, the service was really poor and slow, but the food was delicious. We ate too much again and rolled out of the place with Karen and Dave following suit.

A quick driving tour was next; Dave was at the wheel and took us to the Budweiser and Anheuser-Busch breweries whilst Karen narrated. We only stopped to take a photo because the last thing we wanted to do that morning was to smell or taste beer. Plus, we were running out of time because we had to catch a flight back to Little Rock, Arkansas, so we could head back to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where we had been basing ourselves at Kyle's mum's house. When we got to the airport, we checked in and we were able to go through a quick security checkpoint due to our Platinum status on American Airlines. Not long after, we were on the plane and both taking naps, exhausted from a couple of fun and crazy days in St. Louis.