Five Things You Must Love in St. Louis

Photo Credit: Bruce N. Meyer

1. Baseball!

If you’re packing for a getaway to St. Louis, be sure to include plenty of red in your wardrobe.  St. Louis is, above all things, a baseball town, and the people here wear their Cardinal red all year long. With 11 World Series championships to their credit - second only to that team-who-shall-not-be-named from NY - who can blame the Red Bird fans for their mania.  

Getting tickets to a game may be tough in this baseball crazy city where most games are sold-out weeks in advance, but visit the stadium anyway. Busch Stadium provides a spectacular view of the Arch and downtown skyline from almost all if its 46,861 seats. The number of National League pennants flying in the outfield of Busch Stadium are almost too numerous to count. The Stan Musial statue is classic and Hall of Fame members are memorialized in bronze as well.

The Ballpark Village, opened in spring 2014, includes the Cardinal Hall of Fame and Museum, the Cardinal Nation Restaurant, a Busch Brew House and touches of everything that feeds the pride of arguably the best baseball fans in the country.

2.  City Museum

Another great destination downtown is the City Museum. You’ll know you’ve found it when you see a big yellow school bus driving off the top of a ten-story building. But don't worry. It probably won't collide with the airplane lodged in an oversized slinky stretched out into the next building, but it might get hung up on the world's largest pencil protruding from the wall. Nothing here is breakable - everything is to be touch, crawled on, run over, punched, pulled and pounded upon.

In an old shoe factory building, artist Bob Cassilly has recycled the most common, ordinary things into the region's most popular, innovative and truly unique play places. Everything inside is made from things we’ve thrown away over the years.

Crawl inside a dinosaur. Swing from a trapeze. Slide down a shark's tooth. Color your own masterpiece. Gaze upon a part of the building that inspired "The Exorcist."

3. The Loop

One of the fun, trendy neighborhoods in St. Louis is an area called The Loop. Historically, it’s where trolley cars turned around or “looped” back on their route. Today it is home to a funky restaurant/sports bar/ music venue/museum called Blueberry Hill. And yes, the man himself, Chuck Berry still shows up here at least once a month and holds an impromptu concert downstairs in The Duck Room, so named for his dance across the stage with his guitar.

Blueberry Hill is the brainchild of Joe Edwards, a close personal friend of Chuck Berry and the guy who almost single-handedly rehabbed all of The Loop. Look for statues of Chuck Berry, the St. Louis Walk of Fame and oh, spend the night here at the Moonrise Hotel in the Agnes Moorhead Room.

4. Ted Drewes

Ted Drewes is a name you need to know if you’re visiting the Lou. It’s not a person, it’s an ice cream/custard place located on Old Route 66. More than 25 flavors of custard so rich and thick that you can turn the cup upside down and it won't fall out.  It's been like that since 1930 when Ted, Sr. started the business.  

There's no inside seating and only a few plastic picnic tables outside, but each summer evening, hundreds of people fill the parking lot waiting for their concrete, malt, shake, or whatever.

5. Mardi Gras

Other than baseball season, the best time to visit St. Louis is in the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras. Founded by the French 250 years ago, St. Louis is home to the second biggest celebration in the U.S. The Soulard district is ground zero for more than a month of activities, including a Taste of Soulard restaurant crawl.

Pet parades crown the family friendly events, but keep the kids away from Soulard on actual Fat Tuesday. There’s nothing that happens on the streets of New Orleans that hasn’t happened on the streets of Soulard on this day where the party is almost as rowdy as when the Cardinals win yet another World Series.

Which St. Louis activity do you want to try first?

Note: Available plans and coverages may have changed since this blog was published.