St Louis Trip

[miraclemommy]

My family and I are going to Saint Louis the July 4th week. Please tell the not to miss places to see and eat. It will be me, DH, DD-9, DS-15.

Thanks,
Jennifer

 

[marybyrd]

My family and I are going to Saint Louis the July 4th week. Please tell the not to miss places to see and eat. It will be me, DH, DD-9, DS-15.

Thanks,
Jennifer

There will be lots of activity downtown and a great firework display to watch. Our zoo is wonderful and free ( you can even park on street and save parking fee). If you want some wonderful Italian food then check out the hill. You could google it and look at several eateries! The arch is always popular, and we have a great science center. Your kids are old enough to enjoy the city museum, very cool place and several places to eat are close. Six flags is also only a 40 minute drive. Have fun!

 

[nchulka]

Whatever else you do or don't do DO NOT MISS THE CITY MUSEUM!!!!! It is truly unbelievable. 12 bucks a person to get in, and well worth it. It is fascinating and your kids will love it. You can climb on anything and everything. They have 2 planes suspended over the parking lot, you crawl through metal human slinkys to get to them!!! Check out the enchanted cave area and crawl through pitch black tunnels, that lead you to more tunnels, and more tunnels! Then go down the 10 story slide. Climb underground on the first floor and discover more slides and places to hide. You can't miss it, it's the only building with a ferris wheel on the roof (and yes you can ride the ferris wheel)!

http://citymuseum.org/site/

ETA They also have a cool art area. They supply paper, paint, random things to make stuff with, and balls of clay to mold all included with admission. We always come home with many treasures my DD 10 has made while taking a break from all the running/climbing etc.

 

[Eeyore98]

PPs have already mentioned some great ones.

Fair St. Louis will be going on to celebrate the 4th while you are there. Most of it is your basic fair, but watching the fireworks from the Arch grounds is the best fireworks viewing experience I've had outside of WDW.

If you like musical theater, the Muny is an outdoor theater in Forest Park (same park as the zoo) that's a St. Louis institution. They have ticketed seats and free seats too! Starting July 5th, the show that week is Aladdin.


Also in Forest Park, you can rent paddleboats or canoes to go around the waterways of the park, which is always fun.

If you are into history or archaeology, Cahokia Mounds is just over the river in Illinois - it's what remains of a large Native American civilization that lived in the area. Their guided tours are also free.

Grant's Farm is another free zoo-esque attraction. It starts with a little mini-safari with buffalo and antelope and such, and President Grant's cabin, and then drops you off in an area with other animal exhibits. They have a bird show and elephant show, kids can feed milk to baby goats, you can feed pellets to llamas and camels. It's owned and run by Anheuser Busch, and they give out two free beers to each person over 21. Oh, and this is where they house the Clydesdales!

Food - Ted Drewes frozen custard is a local famous thing. Another St. Louis food thing is toasted ravioli; pretty much any of the Italian restaurants in The Hill neighborhood that marybyrd mentioned will have them.

Gosh, this is making me miss St. Louis!

 

[rluey29]

I love Saint Louis, grew up going to Cardinal games. We love the Zoo and the City Museum is very cool. Not sure you want to do it with kids but the brewery used to offer tours as well.

 

[ICF]

The Cardinals were offing $4 tickets to some of their games next week...not sure if that's still going on or not.

Pappy BBQ (on the north side of downtown -- 29th & Olive or so) is great. They were on Man vs Food before and the lines can get crazy. We got there a couple of weeks ago when we visted around 11 and had only a 10 minute wait. Last year when we went for the 1st time we showed up at noon and waited for over an hour.

City Musuem is awesome....zoo is free and fun...and a ride to the top of the arch is a must, although it is a bit cramped in the elevator pods going up and back down.

We love St Louis and visit usually once a year.

 

[TiggerificTigger]

Just a weather warning, it is going to be hot! We are looking at 100+ temperatures until Tuesday (when it goes down to 98).

Things to do . . . the zoo, Card's game, the City Museum, Grant's Farm, the Magic House

Places to eat . . . Rigazzi's (Italian, on the Hill), Fitz's (bottling rootbeer, burgers, in University City), Ted Drewes (dessert)

Stay cool and enjoy!!

P.S. Fair St. Louis (on the riverfront) is running July 4, 6, and 7th. It can be busy and pricey, but the fireworks are free and fun.

 

[CinderellaMouse]

ITA on the City Museum. Definitely a must-see. Also agree about having a meal (or two or three) on The Hill. Any restaurant there is a good one, but my favorites are Zia's and Cunetto's. Also grab lunch or at least a malt at Crown Candy in North St. Louis. It's an old soda fountain from 1913 that has somehow survived the death of the neighborhood around it. The malts are AMAZING and the atmosphere is very fun. It's in a rough area but it's right off the highway, so as long as you aren't wandering the streets around it late at night you're fine.

So much in St. Louis is free: Zoo, Art Museum, Science Center, and History Museum. All of those are in Forest Park, which is my favorite part of the city. I love just wandering around the Grand Basin fountains or having a picnic there, especially in the early evening. As PPs have mentioned the Muny is also in the park. It's the largest open-air theatre in the US, and there's a different musical there every week. It's almost 100 years old and is definitely a don't-miss St. Louis institution. Tickets are anywhere from $10-$70, and there are free seats way in the back which are still reasonably good. (I wouldn't recommend trying the free seats the week you are here - the musical is Aladdin and naturally Disney is always popular, so the free seats will be hard to get unless you are willing to get there hours ahead of time.)

I also recommend the Missouri Botanical Gardens. They are holding a Chinese Lantern Festival this summer with 25 gigantic handmade lanterns set up all over the gardens. They're lit at 8pm on Thurs Fri Sat Sun, and they're gorgeous and unique. Admission is pricey ($22 each, I think the 9yo gets in a little cheaper) but worth it.

I think the tour of the Anheuser Busch brewery would be fun even with the kids. I've seen quite a few kids on the tour, and it's all very interesting about how the beer is made and the history of St. Louis brewing. My boyfriend and I don't drink but we still enjoyed it.

And yes definitely prepare for HEAT - we are in the midst of a record-breaking heatwave. This Friday is supposed to be the hottest June day ever. (Guess who has Muny tickets? )

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I remember the zoo being very nice.

 

[FoundMyPrince]

My family and I are going to Saint Louis the July 4th week. Please tell the not to miss places to see and eat. It will be me, DH, DD-9, DS-15.

Thanks,
Jennifer

http://www.familyattractionscard.com/pdfs/FAC_Coupons.pdf

Sign up below and receive a coupon for a free child's ticket to the top of the arch. We did this a couple weeks ago and had no problems with the coupon.

http://mail.ezemailmarketing.net/phase2/survey1/survey.htm?cid=kdwilt

As others have said, the City Museum is a must-do. They are open late on Fridays - remember to bring a flashlight and wear pants.

The zoo is great. It's free, but all the extras within the zoo are additional. If you a zoo member at another zoo, check out the StL zoo page to see how much of a discount you'll get.

Something we did on our most recent StLou trip was visit the Elephant Rocks State Park. It is about 90-120 minutes south/southwest from the city, but so fun. It's a great hiking area and fun for taking photos. Depending on where you are from, it might be a great bonus for the trip. Check out the site to see if it's something you'd like:
http://mostateparks.com/park/elephant-rocks-state-park

 

[Disneycrazymom]

I do NOT like City Museum. My niece (16 at the time) got hurt very badly. She broke her leg coming down the slide and had to have surgery to have pins in it. City Museum didn't even want to call the ambulance. They didn't try to help her at all! There are more injures there then one would think. Many locals including myself won't go anymore.

 

[JB2K]

City Museum is strictly a matter of personal preference -- if you have little ones and you want a more "kid-friendly" museum experience, "The Magic House" more than fits that bill.

Also, if you have baseball fans, the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals will have home games all week long (3 against Pittsburgh, 3 against Colorado, and 3 against Miami). Tickets are generally inexpensive during holidays such as the Fourth of July.

And here's the Disney hook -- a PP mentioned The Muny -- what they didn't mention is that Disney's Aladdin will be on stage July 5-13 (and it's a genuine Disney stage production, much like their Broadway shows).

Have fun!

 

[JB2K]

Pappy BBQ (on the north side of downtown -- 29th & Olive or so) is great. They were on Man vs Food before and the lines can get crazy. We got there a couple of weeks ago when we visted around 11 and had only a 10 minute wait. Last year when we went for the 1st time we showed up at noon and waited for over an hour.

That's "Pappy's Smokehouse"...

 

[merekc]

We always enjoy Blueberry Hill. Decorated with lots of pop-culture memorabilita and pretty good food (burgers and such). Fun for the kids.

http://blueberryhill.com/

Also Ted Drewes (previously mentioned) is on old Route 66 if that excites your group.

 

[nchulka]

I do NOT like City Museum. My niece (16 at the time) got hurt very badly. She broke her leg coming down the slide and had to have surgery to have pins in it. City Museum didn't even want to call the ambulance. They didn't try to help her at all! There are more injures there then one would think. Many locals including myself won't go anymore.

The problem is that everywhere else you go anymore everyone is so concerned with making everything absolutely safe and IMO boring! Places are so afraid of lawsuits that they have such stringent "rules" about everything, one at a time one the slide, feet first, blah, blah, blah. Then when people go to the City Museum and they are free to do anything they want they don't have the common sense to think for themselves and be responsible for their own safety (not saying this was the case with your DN). People do all sorts of stupid things and injure themselves and then try to bring frivolous lawsuits against the museum. I hope that at point the museum doesn't get sick of these people and shut the whole place down, we NEED a place like the City Museum. It is wonderful! Last year my son who was 7 at the time ran through some of the cave area, he scraped the top of his head on some concrete. made a huge bloody mess and we had to throw away his shirt. He was doing something stupid, running in pitch black through concrete tunnels! We were still back a few weeks later!

 

[TiggerificTigger]

Another Man Vs. Food place is the Crown Candy Kitchen. Good food and fun; however, with the holiday, it might be busy, too.

 

[CinderellaMouse]

I think you should take the injuries at City Museum thing with a grain of salt. I don't doubt that the PP's niece did break her leg there, but that's very much an exception and not a rule. CM is basically a playground (on a much bigger and much cooler scale), and like all playgrounds you could get hurt. That said, a scraped knee is vastly more likely than a broken leg, and the vast majority of people leave totally unscathed. You are probably more likely to be seriously injured in a car accident on your drive to St. Louis than at CM.

Also, while I think Magic House is great and I loved it growing up, IMO the 9yo is borderline on being too old, and the 15yo is definitely too old to fully enjoy it. (But I haven't been in quite awhile, so maybe there is now more stuff for older kids?)

 

[ICF]

I think you should take the injuries at City Museum thing with a grain of salt. I don't doubt that the PP's niece did break her leg there, but that's very much an exception and not a rule. CM is basically a playground (on a much bigger and much cooler scale), and like all playgrounds you could get hurt. That said, a scraped knee is vastly more likely than a broken leg, and the vast majority of people leave totally unscathed. You are probably more likely to be seriously injured in a car accident on your drive to St. Louis than at CM.

Also, while I think Magic House is great and I loved it growing up, IMO the 9yo is borderline on being too old, and the 15yo is definitely too old to fully enjoy it. (But I haven't been in quite awhile, so maybe there is now more stuff for older kids?)

agreed with all this.

We've been a few times to the CM and never had an injury of any sort...nor heard screaming from anyone with a broken bone.

The Magic House is a great place that I went to as a child and took my kids too many times as well. However, the ages to really enjoy it probably top out at about 9 (maybe 10) years old. At any older of an age, there may still be a few things that they like...but not nearly as much as when they were little.

 

[Mrs.Malone]

Is City Museum still do-able on a very hot 100 plus degree day?

 

[CinderellaMouse]

Absolutely! Quite a bit of CM is indoors. You probably won't want to spend a ton of time in the outdoor playground (which is a shame because it's this awesome "city" built out of trash), but there's still a TON to do inside. The cave and forest playgrounds are inside, along with the aquarium, the shark slide, the arts and crafts, the 3-story slide, and the carnival museum.