Well, we wish the Cards could have had a slightly (or MUCH) better game for us, but Josh and I still had a great time on our trip to St. Louis. We got into town at about 10:30, and took the MetroLink to the Arch for our first stop. It's been a long time since I've been to the arch, and I'd forgotten how really huge it is up close. We waited in this gigantic line until they told us that they weren't selling tickets for the trams because they were having some problems with the North tram, and were trying to get the people who had already bought tickets through on the South tram. We went ahead and went inside, just to wander around the museum and the stores. When we'd been through those, they still weren't running, so we decided to head to lunch rather then wait around all day. So we headed out to a place called Dooley's, which Josh had found on the internet as "The Best Place to Eat Before the Game." So we had to try it out. It was pretty darn good. They serve their burgers cafeteria style, you just tell the guy "medium well with lettuce, tomato, and sharp cheddar" and they make it up for you right there. Josh got their famous burger; I got toasted ravioli, which was also awesome.
After Dooley's, we hopped back on the metrolink and headed to Union Station. We wandered around there for awhile; it's a really neat place. They have more Cardinal stores then should be able to coexist in one mall! I can't even count the number of jerseys and hats we looked at! But we weren't really there to buy, so once we'd seen all of the stores, we decided to head back to the arch and see if they were running the trams again... and they were! :)
So we bought tickets, waited our hour (and ate some really good fudge from the museum shop, it was like eating chocolate frosting), and headed down to the tram. Now, I've been up in the arch before, but Josh hadn't. Though he had been warned by Uncle Steve, who said we should prepare for the tram ride by climbing into the dryer. Looking at the picture above, that's not too far from the truth! So we crammed into our tram car with 3 complete strangers, and headed up the arch. It was PACKED at the top. I remember the windows being much bigger, but it was still cool to look out and see the city. On the river side we could see the shadow of the arch, which was also neat. Anyway, after much ooh-ing and ahh-ing we crammed into the tram with another 3 strangers, and headed back down. As we were leaving we watched some morons get arrested for scratching on the Arch. There are like 5 park rangers at every entrance, and these two ladies were just scratching away like it was no big deal. HELLO?! It's a national monument, you don't scratch them!!! They had kids with them, too, what a great example! Then it was off to the game!
The new stadium is very neat looking. I love the color of the brick they used, a really dark red. There are lots of details that make it neat, too, like a cardinal at the end of each row of seats. And our seats were really good... we had 3rd baseline seats, and we were facing east (a good thing at a six o'clock game!) and the people around us weren't idiots. Actually, the 3 strangers we rode down the arch with were sitting in the row in front of us. Turns out they were part of a big family visiting from somewhere out east, one of the Carolinas, I think. We ate all of the typical ballpark food... hot dogs and peanuts and soda! The game was not a good one; the Braves just kept hitting the ball. It actually got pretty sad near the end... the Braves' relief pitcher hit a home run; never a good sign! His batting average was .105. We were going to stay for the whole game (never say die) but in the top of the 9th inning the Cards stopped caring, and they put players in random positions. So Molina, the catcher, went to first base and everybody else got moved around. So we decided if they didn't care, then we would just go ahead and leave. We rode the VERY CROWDED (the word sardine comes to mind) MetroLink back to our car, and headed home. Not before a stop at White Castle (YUCK) and Krispy Kreme (YUM) at Rte. K, of course. It's a tradition after the game! :)
Anyway, as bad as the game was, we both had a great time in St. Louis. It was nice to just get away for a day. And we forget that there are really neat places pretty close to us! Now I'm just enjoying my days off before VBS! :)
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