Our trip to Saint Louis

Nothing like returning to a cold apartment and broken heat (although that is being worked on as I write this) after a so-so getaway. I wasn’t expecting St. Louis to be this totally cool place, but there were more than a few things that bugged me, so if you think I’m being overly negative, well so be it.

We left yesterday morning at 6 am and arrived in St. Louis at 10:30 am. We got stuck in a bit of traffic as we got into the city, but it wasn’t too bad. Since check-in time at the hotel was many hours away, we headed straight to the zoo. Not being familiar with the area, we opted to pay the $8 parking fee instead of looking around for street parking. The thing that irked me, however, was what little thought these people put into their parking lot/paying set up. Check out this photo and not tell me that is the stupidest thing you’ve ever seen. In case it’s hard to tell, the booths where you have to pay are immediately off the road that runs along the front of the zoo. Which means you have gobs of traffic backed up in either direction while each person stops and pays. And god forbid they have all three booths in operation … no, that would make sense. What they should have done was put that entrance to the lot at the beginning, instead of the middle, and have the drive wrap along the outer portion of the lot so that cars would clear the street while waiting. This is what they do at Milwaukee Zoo.

Despite the parking fiasco, the zoo itself is laid out nicely, and the exhibits are nice, with lots of opportunities to take up-close photos of the animals. Perhaps a bit too up close, in some cases. I was a bit thrown by the cheetah enclosure, if you could call it that, as I could not see any reason that this 80 mile-per-hour cat could not easily jump the very short, and not so deep, ravine and maul a zoo visitor.

Other than that, the zoo is quite impressive, especially considering the fact that admission is free. Of course, because of that, and the gorgeous weather (I got sunburn on my face – doh!), it was quite crowded. Luckily, the Insectarium, which does have an admission price, wasn’t heavily populated. I was pleasantly surprised, too. After our horrible experience at the butterfly dome in Milwaukee, I was leery about paying admission and not being able to get any photos.

In all, I was quite impressed with the Saint Louis Zoo. It’s much larger than Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago’s free zoo), and set up and landscaped way nicer than the “critically acclaimed” Brookfield Zoo. I wish it was closer so we could visit on a regular basis.

After the zoo, we decided to locate our hotel, which was in the downtown area. It was right off the interstate, which was convenient. But don’t let that photo on their site fool you – that is an artist rendering of what the area surrounding the hotel will probably someday look like, because there was no ramp there, or all that grass. The whole park area is currently under development.

The hotel was very nice inside, and I chose it because it had a nice pool/jacuzzi area, and since they purchase services from the company I work for, I was able to get half price on the rate. So maybe I’m just cheap, but I was peeved to learn that our $49 rate was more like $63 after factoring in the $14 parking fee. Call me crazy, but why in the world would you charge your guests to park in your hotel lot? That’s just insane! Furthermore, they neglect to mention it on their site. Had I known that, I would have booked elsewhere.

Oh, and just as a side note, I think room service is the biggest waste of money, not to mention an easy way for a hotel to screw their guests. You might as well just bend over. I never order it, but I always look at the menu for the hell of it, and I couldn’t help but laugh at the note below the menu that states “Your meal is guaranteed to be delivered within 30 minutes. In addition, for your convenience, a gratuity of 18.25% will be added automatically to your bill, as will a $2.50 delivery charge”. For whose convenience? I could get a cheaper meal at a restaurant, and in less time. Outrageous!

Anyway, after we got settled in, we decided to head over to the historic Union Station for some lunch. Had we known we’d have to pay for parking there too, we would have walked (it was only a couple of blocks away). So that was aggravating. What kind of place charges per 1/2 hour for parking to shop and eat? That’s a total turn-off. Once again, had we known the area a bit better, we probably would have found somewhere to park on the street, but we’re stupid tourists, you know. ;)

We browsed for a bit, and then had a late lunch at the Route 66 Brewery & Restaurant (which apparently, I just learned from checking their website, validates parking, but since we didn’t know, and no one offered, we didn’t get). I was not impressed with my main course (pecan chicken), but the appetizer, fried dill pickles, was quite tasty. We then grabbed a sandwich from Subway for later in the evening, and had some TCBY as dessert. Yes, we ate poorly, cause I figure vacation calories don’t count, right? Right?!? ;)

We then went back to the hotel and spent some quality time together before deciding to head to the pool. Well, that completely sucked, because there were like 25 teenager girls in there. I am totally not exaggerating either. Most of them were in the jacuzzi too, so we ended up leaving.

Furthermore, and I know this is bad, but they made me feel really self conscious about my own body. Here I am, still chunky in mostly the belly area, wearing a one-piece suit, and all these slim girls are running around in bikinis. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I felt disgusting. So much so, that we ended up changing and going back to the floor where the pool was, but into the fitness center instead. It was dead, which was nice, and they had a ton of machines. So we worked out for about an hour, which made me feel a little better about all the shitty food I ate earlier in the day. By the time we got back to the hotel room, we were pretty pooped. Joe watched tv while I read a magazine and we ended up going to bed around 10:30 pm.

This morning we got up around 7 am and ate our sub from yesterday (never ended up eating dinner), and then checked out of the hotel. When we drove downstairs and parked the car, the valet guy tried to get Joe to give him the keys to our car, claiming he might have to move it while we were inside. Joe refused, and I know it pissed the guy off, but come on! We were checking out, which took two minutes, and there weren’t any other cars parked out front. Give me a break. I was so glad to get out of there because even though we had a nice huge room with central heating, I was aggravated with the parking fees and the fact that we didn’t get any time in the jacuzzi because of those little teenagers.

Our first stop of the day was The Butterfly House. Thank god THEY didn’t charge for parking! I had a Buy One Get One Free admission coupon too, so it only cost $6 for the two of us instead of $12. I’ve been to a few similar set-ups before, and this one was really nice. It wasn’t overly humid inside, although I came prepared and had a tank-top underneath my shirt so I wouldn’t sweat too much. We got there just a bit later than I had wanted (closer to 9:30, and I wanted to get there at 9 am when they just opened), but it wasn’t very crowded. We walked around taking photos until it did get so crowded that it wasn’t fun anymore and we left.

We went directly to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery for a free tour (and free parking, woo hoo!). The tour was a lot longer than I expected (an hour), but was interesting. There were a couple of people on the tour who were annoying (like someone who kept stepping on the back of my feet), but it was cool seeing the Clydesdales, even if they were “behind bars”. Those horses are HUGE!

Is it just me, though, or do you also find it odd that people would bring their children to a brewery tour? Maybe I am old-fashioned, but I don’t see how it’s a good idea to introduce children to alcohol-themed places at a young age. What kind of message is that sending them? I dunno, like I said, that’s just me, but I thought it was weird. Plus, after the zoo and the butterfly place, I’ve had my fill of rugrats. I’m sorry if you have children and find that offensive, but kids are annoying and I’m tired of them being everywhere we go, tripping over strollers or them because they run right in front of you. Enough already with the excessive procreating! </rant>.

After the tour, we got the hell out of dodge, as they say. We made quick and minimal stops and arrived home within a little over four hours. And it was only a day, but I’m so happy to be back home in my comfortable apartment with my even more comfortable bed. I slept terribly last night. We’re definitely going to have to make sure we don’t get screwed when we go to the East Coast in two months. I think we’ve learned a thing or two from this experience, however.

So my final scores for our getaway are as follows:

Saint Louis Zoo: A- (cause the parking situation sucked)
Sheraton Hotel: C+
Union Station: D-
Butterfly House: A+
Anheuser-Busch Brewery: B
People we encountered: F+++

I did get some really nice photos, however, that I will be putting up either later tonight or tomorrow. So keep an eye out for those!