01.05 - Day 107 - St Louis
Wednesday 1st May - St Louis, Missouri (Day 107)
Breakfast buffet on the second floor of our Best Western Kirkwood Hotel surrounded by a group OAPs on a bus tour from Oklahoma City and a bus worth of Track and Field students also visiting St Louis. In trying to balance schoolwork with sightseeing we pack the laptop and ipad with us under the promise it’ll be done whilst we are out.
The fast flowing I44 delivers us right into the riverfront of St Louis where it’s almost eerily quiet on the road parking next to the Courthouse. It’s the Gateway Arch we’ve come to see which at almost 200 metres tall and wide looms over St Louis. The small parkland surrounding it is a National Park which means one thing - Junior Ranger badge time.
Sloping underground is a much larger and more thorough than expected free museum covering the entire history of St Louis in six sections, the last focused on the Arch itself built in the early 1960’s. The Junior Ranger booklet is also harder than expected, especially as we keep changing section to avoid the floods of school children.
The kids are very happy to collect an extra badge and we walk out under the thin clouds around the base of the arch alongside the Mississippi River, fast flowing carrying upturned tree trunks from the recent storms and tornadoes.
Like almost every place we visit we’ve found that when you start looking for activities or attractions there are always plenty available - and it seems even more true in St Louis and many are free - because otherwise most things in the US are inescapably expensive for us with Aussie dollars. Eating out, at least 2 meals is enough to feed the four of us, but if a pizza costs $25 and a burger $20 on the menu, once you add taxes of 10-20%, tips of 20% and a poor exchange rate at 50% that $45 headline price in USD is $90 in Australian dollars. Which as an occasionally outing if we were in Sydney wouldn't be so bad, but we're also eating out far more frequently (woe is us).
It might not be a fair comparison but in Thailand we paid on average $70 AUD for accommodation, in Vietnam it was $55 a night. On the road so far the cheapest has been $120 with an average of $180.
The Tesla hire car might be a good deal at $70 USD a day, but it’s still $105 AUD everyday. Of course we didn’t take a year out to save money but having free attractions in each town / city helps offset that. Also when they’re free you don’t feel compelled to stay there hours on end.
On that theme then; Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate a boutique chocolate factory and store where we don paper netting hats for a 20 minute tour of their factory - the smell of chocolate pervasive, the slow moving travelators of chocolate balls almost hypnotic. They produce 80,000 pieces a day, with one shift a day seeing the guy at the end lay one by one 18,000 pieces onto the travelator before passing through a chocolate waterfall and a lady hand sprinkling red icing sugar atop each one.
Next up is the World Chess Hall of Fame which Kate rolls her eyes at, but Seb is overly enthusiastic for. With the World’s Largest Chess Piece outside their narrow 3 storey museum is open till 9pm, perhaps there's a post school or work rush but we have the place to ourselves at midday on a Wednesday. There’s ornate chess sets in glass cabinets and plastic sets for visitors to use as well.
Unbeknown to us (and, I suspect, most people) St Louis is a hotbed for chess after being one of the 3 cities (+ New York + New Orleans) to host the inaugural World Chess Championships in 1886. In this quiet spot the kids tackle their schoolwork hoping the influence of chess players watching over passes some intellect through by osmosis. Well they like colouring in a paper crown on the craft table anyway.
One block over in this leafy residential neighbourhood we sit outside the Cathedral Basilica of St Louis a giant grey building that inside is adorned with many mosaic murals on the walls. And domed ceilings, sparkling reflections catching the light to impressive effect.
Our last stop is Forest Park, a sprawling parkland home to several museums and galleries, but our goal is the St Louis Zoo, possibly the first full scale zoo we’ve been to that is also free. A bit like the freemium model there are ads, except its sponsorship - everything is sponsored; from the animal exhibits to the greenery to the pavements to the plazas.
Good on them if it means we can walk around watching busy prairie dogs including a pair of puppies, seals and sea lions, penguins and puffins, polar bears, the latter strolling around with his massive paws and shaggy fur. The apes play up for the crowd but stealing the show are three 6 month old tiger cubs outside with their mother springing to life to play fight with one another after one of them is spinning around in the water trying to catch his own tail. A very impressive zoo for locals (and visitors) to have for free every day of the year.
With the mercury almost touching 30 degrees in the late afternoon soon we swing by a local institution called Ted Drewes, churning out milkshakes and “concretes” for 95 years. A peanut butter and M&M concrete is really just ice cream but one regular tub is enough for us 4 to inhale before driving back to our Best Western Kirkwood.
After a quick glass of wine and the kids downloading some new shows for the long car ride tomorrow, it’s back in the car to go to the Dark Room within The Grandel, a music / theatre hub next to St Louis University. Thanks to a post on Reddit I’d stumbled upon this weekly event. 6-9pm every Wednesday - a family friendly (free) jazz show.
In front of the horseshoe shaped bar is a small raised platform where the house band of pianist, double bass and drums have a first timer saxophonist with them. The kids drift in and out whilst eating, while Kate and I enjoy a drink. After an interval chatting to the double bass player’s mum and some other regulars including two guys who were watching the tiger cubs with us in the zoo, the second set is a jam, come-one-come-all with a new pianist and drummer, revolving singer, new saxophonist and trombone player.
It’s a great little find and is a very casual affair, but with very very talented musicians - and proud families and friends watching and supporting. On the way home there's a diversion in place for a student protest on Gaza / Israel outside the front of the university, the type of which is sweeping America campuses currently. But for us, to bed.
