Sightseeing in my own city

I have lived in St Louis for around three years, so it’s not like I’m a native.  However, it’s always nice when people come in from out of town because then you do things you wouldn’t ordinarily do.

My parents are visiting and I wanted to show them some of the St Louis sites.  But my dad had the idea of taking a riverboat cruise—he saw them on his bike ride yesterday and thought it looked like a neat thing.  We had all been up in the arch before (and had no desire to do so again) so it seemed like the perfect St Louis activity.

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Great view of the arch!

We considered renting a four person "bike".

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I didn’t get a picture but all four of us piled into the vehicle to see how it would work.  My head hit the yellow awning unfortunately, but the concept is fantastic.  Another time.

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The water level is very high.  We learned that they had actually been closed for 45 days until a couple of days before because the road was slightly underwater.  The normal parking lot was completely underwater.

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Finally it was time to board the "Tom Sawyer."

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Overall it was a great tour!  I had (obviously) never seen that side of St Louis, and I do love being on a ship.  I would probably go again if I were with people who wanted to (Leslie?).  Our captain pointed out all of the barges on the river—we suspected that he secretly wished he were a tugboat captain.

After the tour we decided to go to Forest Park.  I gave my parents the tour from the car and then we tried to go to the Art Museum.  The parking was a disaster, so finally we parked at the bottom of the hill by the Grand Basin and "hiked" up the hill.  It was less fun than it sounds, but I finally got to see the Art Museum.  My mother was impressed by all of the famous paintings there, and I think we all enjoyed it very much. 

Oh, and we saw larpers!  Can you see them?  I didn’t want to get too close for pictures.

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We made a reservation at Trattoria Marcella for dinner.  I had the shrimp risotto and it was fantastic.  We also split the mushrooms with polenta fries. 

All in all it was a wonderful day! 

Oh, and I got a wedding dress yesterday ;)  I don’t get to see it again until December 1 or so!  But it’s gorgeous :)  (Yes, I just threw that in at the end.)

3 thoughts on “Sightseeing in my own city”

  1. I have been wanting to go on the riverboat cruise, but I didn’t know if it would be fun or lame…sounds like it was great! I’ll have to do that next time visitors come in town. That huge bike looks awesome – can you just rent it near the riverboats?

    I have seen larpers during some of my runs through FP. They always make me laugh and smile a little 🙂

    Looks like you had a great time! I recently posted about sightseeing in the Lou too!

  2. Visiting from the Future Expat St. Louis Link Party. I love playing hometown tourist! There’s so much to do here! Plus, whenever we do stuff at the Arch we end up at the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner–yummy!

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