M – I - Crooked Letter – Crooked Letter…

Don’t worry, we didn’t go to Mississippi.  We got our first glimpse of the mighty Mississippi in Memphis, but as we headed to St. Louis, we decided we had to find a Mark Twain– esque trip to the river. 

The Gateway Arch as seen from the Mississippi River. 

Before we get to that part of our trip, we have our Saturday night.  We tried desperately to find something to do on Saturday night in St. Louis with few results.  Every show we wanted to see started the next week, and dinner cruises on the Mississippi started in April.  Sigh.

There was Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream.  K refused.  I think mostly because he knew it would end up in the blog. 

So I happened to find a mystery murder dinner theater at the Bissell Mansion.  Now, we lived about ten minutes from two of these places for three and a half years in Williamsburg and never went, despite K’s regular requests.  Now here we are in St. Louis and K finally gets his wish!

It was a classic whodunit.  We were out to solve the murder of Norma Lee, the leader of the Dapper Flappers,  a female bootlegging gang.  I was Rita the Rat, a former WWI spy who was fourth in succession for the Dapper Flappers.  K was Wynn Stun, don of the Stun Family mob.  Sadly, I cannot report that we were dressed in costume as we would normally do for such an event.  But hey, it was last minute.

Anyway, it was mediocre acting and mediocre food but it was fantastic.  So silly that it was fun.  K refused to get out of character all night, even to talk to the other people at our table.  Who is surprised?? 

We all thought it was actually Wynn Stun who killed Norma because he was sweet on her.  Turns out that it was one of this other girlfriends who found out he was trying to woo her.  Jerk. 

The only downside was that this place was in the ghetto.  The serious ghetto.  As someone who has lived outside DC and in Savannah, I can honestly tell you that this was ghetto like we had never seen.  So we had a cab waiting for us before we would walk out of the building at the end of the night!

Luckily, I just so happened to remember that one of the folks at our table recommended a BBQ place called Pappy’s.  We decided to drive by at 10:30 on Sunday morning, even though they didn’t open until 11, just to check it out.  The smokers smelled absolutely amazing, and the parking lot was actually getting a little full so we decided to stay.  It’s a good thing we did, because they let us go in early.  We walked in and there was a line all the way through the place.  

The smokers at Pappy's. I wish you could smell how amazing it was!

Note the Adam Bomb, named after Adam Richman. 

Pappy’s is one of St. Louis’ best known BBQ places, visited by the likes of Iron Chef Mike Symon and Adam Richman of Man v. Food fame.  We got beef brisket and pulled pork to split accompanied by fried corn on the cob and green beans. 

It was delicious.  Kansas City better bring it to beat this BBQ. 

So after BBQ, we got our wish and went on a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi aboard the Tom Sawyer.  At this point, I will mention that St. Louis was amazingly crowded over the weekend.  Turns out the NCAA tourney games were also in town, so every hotel was booked and the riverboat and Gateway Arch were both crazy busy. 

As we were waiting to depart for our riverboat cruise, we saw the North Carolina Tarheels all walk up to the river and take turns spitting in it.  A tradition for good luck, maybe? 

Didn’t work for them, I hear.  Also totally busting whatever was left of K’s bracket!

Anyway, we cruised up and down the Mississippi and heard a surprising amount of information about different docks, barges and the cargo they carry.  The quaint riverfront that we were imagining was a smidge more industrial than we expected. 

Lewis and Clark Statue in the river.  The river was actually up twelve or thirteen feet while we were there.  The week before, none of those cars could have been where you see them! 

 

The old electric company.  

Next it was off to Journey to the Top, a tram ride to the top of the 630 foot Gateway Arch.  (By the way, I know you must be thinking, wow, this sounds like a lot of touristy action for the Macs.  But I will mention that the Arch is a memorial to Thomas Jefferson.  Enough said.)

My favorite picture that I took of the Arch.  From underneath looking straight up. 

K and his homeboy, TJ.  He really wanted to put the UVA hat he is holding on TJ's head, but there was a park ranger standing right there.  Sigh. 

There was a lot of waiting in line inside the Arch.  I will spare you a rant on that (but seriously, what is the point of a reservation??) and just say eventually we made it into the  tram car, a tiny little capsule. 

Then we realized that going to the top of the Arch meant being inside of the Arch.  At 630 feet.  Inside what essentially felt like a metal coffin FULL of tourists. 

We didn’t last too long.  Long enough for me to snap some pictures out of the windows while K stood still in the middle of the thing.  (He is afraid of heights… I am not, and being up here made me a little nervous.  Imagine how he felt!) 

So back down we go.  Enough of the touristy stuff… off to see the Hunger Games finally!  We found a theater in a really cool district of St. Louis, the West End.  The cinema was inside a gorgeous hotel and there were tons of nice restaurants.  We wanted to spend the night relaxing with Banger, so we popped into a cute market, bought a bottle of wine and headed back to our hotel.  (Which, by the way, had free popcorn.  Any hotel with free popcorn is one I like!)

Fun fact about St. Louis: It was home to the Saint Louis Bread Company, whom Au Bon Pain bought and used for its inspiration.  The name Panera Bread came a bit later.  It has the same menu, but the stores in St. Louis got to keep their name. 

And that was St. Louis.