As we boarded the Becky Thatcher riverboat, you could either choose to sit inside on the first two levels of the boat or you could sit on the open-top upper deck. It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day in St. Louis, so we went to the top level so I could fully take in the sights and sounds (and of course, sun).
One of the absolute best parts about traveling to various race-cations this year is having the opportunity to check out new cities. Most of the time, I am only in the city for a day or so which means I have to make the most of my time. In the case of St. Louis, I was there for all of about 42 hours which included the time to sleep and run the 5K and half marathon, so time was limited to see the best of St. Louis. After Momma K and I made way around the expo, I headed out to do some exploring around St. Louis before getting ready for tomorrow's race. The first stop of the day was at the Old Courthouse. Here you can buy tickets for "Journey to the Top" (go to the top of the Gateway Arch) which I already did online earlier this week. Also inside of the Old Courthouse is a wide variety of exhibits highlighting the history of Dred and Harriet Scott's fight for freedom and the expansion out West. I really wish that I had some more time to been able to explore more throughout the Old Courthouse, but our Mississippi River Cruise was scheduled to board shortly. We took an hour long river cruise down the Mississippi River which was the best $20 spent! I took this tour last year and LOVED it! I knew that Momma K would really enjoy the tour, so it was one of our "must do's" this weekend. As we boarded the Becky Thatcher riverboat, you could either choose to sit inside on the first two levels of the boat or you could sit on the open-top upper deck. It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day in St. Louis, so we went to the top level so I could fully take in the sights and sounds (and of course, sun). Over the course of the hour long tour, we were given a lot of great information about the river's history and its importance on building the city to become what it is today. It was a great tour indeed and you couldn't beat the price of it either. I highly recommend this if you are heading to St. Louis and want a great way to see various sights all while getting to sit back and relax a bit. You can't be in St. Louis and not do the MOST touristy thing there is to do, right? In case you don't know what that is, it is going to the top of the Gateway Arch. The line to enter the Gateway Arch took us about 30 minutes to get through. Once you enter the building, you go through security (much like airport security screening) before entering the museum area. There is a ton of construction going on here right now which I could see a lot of new things since my trip last year. When your ticket is purchased, you are assigned either the North Tram or the South Tram which you line up in the appropriate line and make your way through an interactive queue with a fun video and trivia game about the arch. After going through a mini "tour", you are then loaded into "pods" with 5 people per pod. You might enter as strangers, but when you are sitting this closely for several minutes, you don't stay strangers for long. The ride in the pod kind of felt like a Ferris wheel or elevator ride - you felt a tiny bit of swaying but nothing much at all. After about a four minute journey, we made it to the top - don't worry, it goes by fast. At 630 feet high, you could see so much of the city, Mississippi River, and much more. The corridor wasn't very big, but people were super polite taking their turn to look/take pictures and moving so the next people could look. Overall, we spent about 3 hours or so in the Gateway Arch area between the riverboat tour and the Journey to the Top. It was definitely a wonderful and quite relaxing afternoon. We headed on back to grab some pizza at Pi Pizzeria on the way back to our hotel. After eating dinner, it was safe to say that we were close to being done. We got back to the hotel around 7:30 to rest for a bit and get our race stuff laid out. After that though, I was in bed and getting set for a 13.1 mile tour by foot tomorrow.
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3/27/2020 12:26:04 am
ThisIsStLouis.com is for sale!
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BrandiI love to run and most importantly I love to have FUN while I run....I am the "Funner Runner" Feedspot's Top 100 Running Blogs
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