St. Louis Gateway Arch/Hannibal/KC

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St. Louis Gateway Arch

Day 4 – June 28

Before we got very far from our friend Emily’s house in Cincinnati where we spent the prior night, and had breakfast this morning, we stopped after about 10 minutes in Crestview Hills, Kentucky at an old, tiny stone chapel that we found via the Offbeat Attractions app. In order to walk to the Monte Casino Chapel we had to park in a bank parking lot and walk down a small embankment behind the bank. The chapel, built in 1878 by some Benedictine monks nearby, and then moved to this spot in 1965 was in disrepair and not maintained at all, but an interesting bit of history nonetheless.

On the road again, after about an hour, we took a small detour in LaGrange, Kentucky to hopefully see a freight train that runs down the middle of a fairly narrow Main St. along with the cars, as found on Offbeat Attractions. Though no train was going by at this time we did see the tracks running down the center of the small town, and walked the town for about 20 minutes. It was another neat little town, with friendly people that we would otherwise never discover. We really enjoy these stops in these little slices of Americana. We got in to St. Louis around 4:00 P.M.

First, we met up with our friend Robert for dinner at Surefire Smokehouse on the western outskirts of the city. Robert, who is in the moving business, was coincidentally in St. Louis for one day to move a customer to California. Surefire was a busy, loud, messy, counter-style BBQ restaurant with excellent food. After dinner, Robert headed in his rented U-Haul westward, and we decided to stay at the Hyatt Regency downtown, very close to the St. Louis Gateway Arch. It was a good deal at $109 per night.

We checked in and then walked across the street to the old courthouse which is famous for being where the Dred Scot case was heard. It is a beautiful building that looks like a state capitol building. We then walked to the Gateway Arch along the Mississippi River to check it out. It was now getting dark, so there were few people around. We then walked a few city blocks to check out the area. We got to the very nice, renovated Kiener Plaza with its colorful fountain and killer view of the Old Courthouse in the foreground of the Arch behind.

Other than the plaza which was somewhat active with people, this downtown area was not a very happening place at night, so we had a drink at the hotel bar’s sidewalk tables, which surprisingly did not face the Arch or the river. Surprised there were no nightspots along the riverfront or with a view of the Arch.

Off to bed around 11:00. We had forgotten about the time change and so it was really midnight for us.

Gateway Arch – City Museum

Day 5 – June 29

Breakfast at a downtown cafe that catered mostly to the corporate crowd, so it was not crowded at all since it was after 9:00 A.M. The very friendly staff gave us helpful insights about some of our plans for St. Louis after we were done with the Arch. We had 10:30 A.M. tix for the Gateway Arch so we headed over after coffee. There was construction around the grounds of the Arch but what grounds we had access to were very nice, and always under the shadow of the awesome structure.  Even though we knew it was big, it still seemed bigger than we imagined.  Viewing it from the outside was just as inspiring as the views offered from the inside.

Upon entering, we first viewed the excellent and enlightening short film in the Visitor’s Center about the making of the Arch, and then we went up in a very cramped tram car which is too small to stand in, shared with 3 other people. Claustrophobics beware! We had an uneventful 2-minute trip up and then we fortunately had ultra clear views from the top. It was a bit dizzying for me, but it was very cool.

The viewing area is like a long, carpeted hallway with seats and curved windows on both sides. People just mulled around, most standing, and taking in the various awesome viewpoints. We stayed up in the viewing area, looking down at the Mississippi River, Busch Stadium, etc. for about 15 minutes, then queued up for a tram car down. The wait was only a few minutes. Once down we headed out to check out of the hotel.

We then drove to what turned out to be a highlight of the trip: City Museum. We found $3 parking on the back side of the museum, avoiding the $12 charge by the lots near the entrance. City Museum is truly amazing. There is nothing like this hands-on interactive science museum/art playground/museum of contemporary Dr. Seuss. It is run by artists and museum curators. We rode the Ferris wheel on the roof of the building which used to be an industrial factory.  The adventure included us crawling through caves, monkey bar mazes up walls, airplanes and buses hanging over the edge of the roof, and tubes on the ceiling. We slid down a 5-story slide and a 10-story slide, saw huge metal sculptures of things like a praying mantis, and climbed inside and up 20-foot high human bird cages. It is utter chaos.

It was here that we got our first taste of gooey butter cake at the eclectic cafe in the museum. What an awesome local treat! The museum was exhausting, and made good use of the knee pads and head lamps we brought in with us. We were two of the few adults crawling and climbing, but not the only ones. There were also a great deal of very interesting educational exhibits and artifacts, such as an electric chair and endless dead insects. This is a must for anybody visiting St. Louis.

 

From there we headed to the insanely elaborate Cathedral Basilica in a residential neighborhood of St. Louis. This was one of the most beautiful churches we had ever been in, rivaling any we had seen in Europe. The cathedral has 41 million pieces of glass tesserae. The Cathedral is known for having one of the largest mosaic collections in the Western Hemisphere.

After our self-tour of the cathedral we did a drive through the expansive Forest Park with a couple of photo-op stops. This city park is larger than Central Park in NY.

We then went to the Loop section of the city for dinner and with it our discovery of the happening scene in St. Louis. This is where the restaurants, bars, people watching, and music venues are. We ate at a sidewalk table of the fair but available Three Kings Pub restaurant, then walked around looking at the dozens of “Walk of Stars” on the sidewalk (Harold Ramis, Redd Foxx, etc.) and checking out the landmark Blueberry Hill restaurant and concert venue. There were thousands of rock memorabilia all over the place in this place, including a complete set of the very same Beatles Sgt. Peppers coat hangers that I own 1/4 of (I have John Lennon, my sister has the other three).  The restaurant was like a museum with so many artifacts.

 

Emilie then took a pic of me with a Chuck Berry statue outside.

At around 7:00 P.M. we headed off toward the Mark Twain capital of the country: Hannibal, MO.

Got to the EconoLodge in Hannibal at 9:15 P.M. We got a very large and quiet room tucked in the corner along the balcony. The night front desk person said we got the room he would stay in if he were staying there.  At first we thought that was just his way of saying, “you’re getting the only room we have left”.  But we were wrong. We were lucky to get such a quiet room since the motel was right on a major road and at the junction of the highway.

 

Hannibal, Missouri

Day 6 – June 30

Breakfast at the motel. Our first stop was the Mark Twain Historic Boyhood Home and Museum tour, which started with his boyhood home, and did Becky Thatcher’s house. This was all fun, and we even got to whitewash a fence, just like Tom Sawyer did. Then, on foot, we found really good coffee and pastry at the cavernous yet cozy, and colorful Java Jive deli and bakery on Main Street. They consider themselves the first coffee shop west of the Mississippi. Excellent pastry, but they were out of gooey butter cake…damn! Then we did the Twain museum across the street which had some very cool exhibits and insights. We even got a photo taken of us with Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher actors. We walked around Hannibal, which, we learned is to Mark Twain what Philly is to Ben Franklin. Seemed like everything was named for Mark Twain.

We walked to the end of the fun main street of town, and walked back along the Mississippi, past the Mark Twain Riverboat and then up the exhausting 260 steps to the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse. Our loop walk got us back to the Mark Train riverboat just in time for the 1:00 one-hour cruise tour. This was my first riverboat ride on the Mississippi. It was a fun ride, but an hour was enough, any longer and I may have constructed a raft of my own.

After the boat ride we had lunch at the Java Jive Cafe and then headed to the Mark Twain Cave tour about 10 minutes out of town. This one-hour cave tour was actually very fun. The caves were apparently Mark Twain’s influence for the cave in Tom Sawyer. There was even a 100-year-old advertisement reference in the cave (the only one in the cave, scrawled on a rock) to the original company that owned the building that the City Museum in St. Louis is in (the museum we went to the day before). The tour guide was elated when she asked if anybody had been to the City Museum in St. Louis, and that we said we were there just the day before.

After the cave tour we made a quick stop at the steep “Lover’s Leap” viewpoint, the perch of which we were shown from the riverboat cruise. This provided an exceptional vista of the Mississippi River.

We then headed to Florida, MO, about an hour away to see the birthplace home of Mark Twain. This was on the grounds of Mark Twain State Park and Mark Twain Lake. The home is housed inside a museum called a shrine, but the shrine closed about 45 minutes prior to our arrival. Luckily, a very nice park ranger who we met outside let us in and gave us a personal tour! We got to see the house all to ourselves! Very cool.

Off toward Kansas City. We stayed at a Days Inn in Blue Spring, next to the town of Independence. This was a good jump off point to visit the Harry Truman presidential library there the next morning. Got there around 9:15 pm and went next door to the Mexican restaurant for a late light dinner and beer before bed.

Kansas City

Day 7 – July 1

Breakfast at the motel and on to the Harry Truman Library and Museum. Got there around 10:30 A.M. It was very interesting, we were there for 3 hours, and it flew by. We learned that even though he looked meek, Truman was a tough bastard.

On to KC to find a famous bbq restaurant for lunch. The first place we went to was “Joe’s Barbeque” which was top rated on a few web sites and confirmed as such by our Mexican restaurant server the night before. Joe’s was actually in Kansas. When we got there around 2:00 P.M. however, there was a line of probably 100 people lined up outside of the restaurant, which is actually attached to a large gas station.

We decided not to wait in the line in 85-degree heat. So, we went to the second best bbq in KC per the internet, which is in the Country Club Plaza district of KC, Missouri. This area closely resembled Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills…in other words, not too shabby. We found the Jack Stack bbq restaurant and had a great lunch, smartly sharing one sampler entrée. Not only was the bbq excellent (especially the burnt ends), but the coleslaw was so good we each got seconds!

We then briefly walked around this swanky section of KC, Missouri, including a river walk, pics in front of the restaurant, and then back in the car toward Dodge City. Unfortunately, I left my “man-purse” on a bench near the river walk. We lost the chargers to devices, hard copies of the trip itinerary and supporting documents, and some of Em’s papers for school. Bummer! But at least the iPad was still with us.

Next: Dodge City and Manitou Springs