Busch Stadium


St Louis has the best sports fans! Here's where our beloved Cardinals play their home games--the new Busch Stadium as seen from the outside.

It was interesting going to the games while the new stadium was being built and seeing it engulfing the old stadium.  Half of the old stadium grounds are now part of the new stadium.  The other half is now a parking lot.  (now in 2014 they finally have Ball Park Village built by the new stadium instead of the parking lot.  I haven't been over to see it yet.)

And the inside.

We also fondly remember several "Big Mac" seasons with Mark McGwire in the old Busch Stadium.

Ball Park Village (Aug. 2018)

 

Great Balloon Race

Every Sept. there's the Great Balloon Race in Forest Park. This is the night before the race. It's become another crowd pleaser when they light the balloons for the Balloon Glow.

They haven't had it by any of the pools in quite awhile. It's still a neat scene, but not quite the same without the reflections.

Science Center

This use to be the planetarium in Forest Park. Now it's connected to the Science Center, via a walkway over Highway 40, and acts as a museum, of sorts, for air travel throughout the ages.

Across I-64 and connected by a walkway over the highway to the "planetarium", is the Science Center.  It has over 750 exhibits and is over 300,000 square feet.  It is among the largest of its type in the country.  According to the Association of Science and Technology Centers, it is one of the top 5 science centers in the United States. The first building, the Planetarium, opened in 1963. In 1991, a major expansion increased the size of the facility seven-fold, adding a main building and Omnimax theater across Interstate 64 from the Planetarium.  Admission to the Science Center is free, although there is a fee for parking by the main building (not by the planetarium) and for special exhibits and the Omnimax shows. 

One of the permanent exhibits is the life like dinosaurs.

They also have special exhibits from time to time, such as the very popular Star Trek exhibit.  It was interesting seeing the Trekkies show up in costume!

You can even have your wedding there!

Forest Park

 
Another of our Gems of St. Louis is Forest Park. It officially opened to the public on June 24, 1876 and is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. At 1,293 acres, it is approximately 500 acres larger than Central Park in New York. Within the park is a world class zoo, golf courses, fishing ponds and fish hatchery, ice rink, tennis courts, bike paths, gardens, ponds, museums, and much much more---most of which are free atractions within the park:

Science Center

Great Balloon Race

Jewel Box

Korean War Memorial

 Art Museum

Walking around the park

St. Louis Zoo

Post-Dispatch Lake

World's Fair Pavilian on Government Hill

The Muny

Missouri History Museum

6-Flags over Mid-America

About 30 minutes out of St. Louis is 6-Flags over Mid-America. Even if you're not a theme park fan you gotta love the landscaping.

If you're a roller coaster fan, there are several coasters at 6-Flags.

Soldier's Memorial Military Museum

In 1938, the Soldier's Memorial Military Museum opened in downtown St. Louis. This is another free gem.

Gateway Arch National Park


Downtown is where the Gateway Arch National Park is. The grounds around the Arch have great views of the city to the West and the Mississippi River to the East.

The memorial site includes a 91-acre park along the Mississippi River. Here is one of the many walkways within the park.

The Arch was built between 1963 and 1965 and stands 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide at its base. Underneath the Arch is a visitor center, entered from a descending outdoor ramp starting at either base. Within the center is the Museum of Westward Expansion with exhibits on the history of the St. Louis riverfront.

There are even speakers in the museum.

  A unique tram ride takes visitors to the top of the Arch for an interesting view of the city. Wandering around the grounds and the museum are free, but the tram ride has a fee of $10/adult or $5/child and the theatre shows are $4 and $2 respectively.  But the tram is definately not for the claustrophobic!

The grounds around the Arch are beautiful, too.

 

 Another interesting way to view the city scape is by a replica steamboat cruise.

There is a road that runs along the Missouri River at the base of these Arch steps, but we frequently have periods of high flooding. Usually not as bad as shown here in the floods of 1993, but enough that there are flood walls that have to be closed often. Note the flags in the water--that's the other side of the road.  The pedestrians are standing about half way up the steps from the road.  That's quite a bit of flooding!

This is a view of the city from the windows in the top of the Arch before the old Busch stadium was torn down and the new Busch stadium was built. To the left of the stadium is Highway 40/64. The new stadium comes just to the north of the highway. At the bottom right of the picture is the old courthouse with Kenner plaza behind it. The new court house sits a few blocks west.