Tag: st. louis

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It’s Pronounced Missouri, not Misery

This year has been filled with a lot of traveling for the Igoes, and our next big plan was (and is) Hawaii, but in the meantime, we decided to sneak in a quick Memorial Day jaunt. None of the Igoes, save yours truly, has ever visited the great state of Kansas, so we tried to come up with a reason to go.

Those who follow closely are aware that my parents live in St. Louis, which is only a four hour drive from Kansas City. You are probably also aware of our proclivity to attend baseball games. What you may not be aware of is that in addition to the Cardinals and Blues, St. Louis has a new Major League Soccer team, St. Louis City SC.

After very little thought, we bought tickets to St. Louis and home from Kansas City, along with tickets to the City game and Royals game. We woke up early on Saturday morning, hopped on a plane and made our way to St. Louis.

The City SC game was that night, so we had about 8 hours to kill prior to kickoff. One of the landmarks of St. Louis is Union Station. Originally an actual train depot, it has gone through many evolutions, but it seems that the current iteration might actually stick.

The old station now has multiple restaurants, mini-golf, a London Eye-style wheel, ropes course, mirror maze and interactive aquarium, amongst other things. We had done a bit in the past, so this time we decided to ride the wheel and play mini-golf. The wheel is pretty cool, and seats up to 8, but the grand view is primarily of nothing. It is fun, and only about 15 minutes, but it doesn’t compare to looking out over the city of London. The mini-golf was also nothing special, but was a fine, albeit expensive, way to spend the morning.

We got the timing just right, and headed down to our favorite area to get lunch in St. Louis, The Hill. This is an old Italian neighborhood with a restaurant on almost every corner. It is great for dinner, but the Italian lunch sandwiches are one of my favorite things about St. Louis.

This go around, we ate at Adriana’s, which was packed. It was my first time there, and while I don’t think it is my favorite spot on The Hill, I would gladly go back five days in a row and enjoy five different sandwiches.

We hung around my parents’ house for a few hours whilst the baby napped, went to Saturday afternoon church at my high school, and headed downtown. If you are going to an SC game, I definitely suggest getting there early. The game didn’t start until 7:30 but the festivities kicked off at 4 pm, which made parking quite difficult.

It probably took us 20 minutes to find a spot, and it was still a solid 15 minute walk to the field. Next time, we would go on ezpass.com and reserve parking ahead of time. The field, City Park, was amazing. It was at capacity, as usual for this inaugural season; a solid 22,000 people.

It doesn’t hurt that the team is brand new and in first place, and the city of St. Louis has gone crazy for them. I say this having attended multiple sporting events, playoff games, championships; this soccer game was the most vibrant environment in which I have seen a game. The entire congregation was on their feet, singing and screaming, for 90 minutes. Again, I am sure it helped that City won the game, but the atmosphere was insane. That said, the prices were also insane, so come prepared, but if you have a chance to catch a game in a place like City Park, I suggest you take it.

The next morning, we left the house before 8 am and headed for Kansas City. It is about a 4 hour drive, and just outside the city itself is Independence, Missouri, home to President Harry Truman. We stopped at the Harry S Truman National Historic Site, which includes a Visitors Center with a nice video and his house, which you can tour. We didn’t actually do the tour, but the video is interesting, and we got another stamp for the kids’ passport books.

The Royals’ game was a 1:10 pm start, so we ate lunch at Kauffman Stadium. If you have never been, Kauffman is pretty cool. Unlike a lot of newer stadiums, Kauffman is outside of the main urban area, but is done really well. It has a lot of amenities, and everyone was quite friendly. We actually got see the Royals hit a walk-off, which was cool, and that puts me up to 11 home stadiums.

Before we ended the day with dinner, we raced over to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, which may well be the best thing in Kansas City. It is small but packed with great features and information, and fantastic video narrated by James Earl Jones. In terms of a can’t-miss experience, this is at the top of the list.

That night, we ate at the Beer Kitchen, which is exactly what it sounds like, a restaurant with beers. It was quite delicious, kid-friendly and had a great atmosphere.

Now at this point, it might have crossed your mind that as of yet, we still had not actually visited the state of Kansas, as the majority of the experiences in KC reside on the Missouri side. So the morning of Memorial Day, we woke up, crossed the river and drove to Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant. This is a cute little diner with a solid breakfast that is actually delivered by toy trains. It is nothing out of the ordinary, but if you happen to be in the state of Kansas, it is a place to eat.

Our flight home wasn’t until the early afternoon, and we struggled to find something to do with the rest of our day. Kansas City has several waterfalls, but most are not super impressive during this time of year. There is a lot of cool stuff to do in Kansas, but most of it was too far from where we were. We ended up settling upon the St. Rose Phillipine Duchesne Memorial Park and Shrine.

If you are not Catholic, and even then, are not well-acquainted with the Sacred Heart community, this is probably not a good use of your time. That said, my daughters both go to a Sacred Heart institution, and my wife teaches there, so for some of us, this was pretty interesting.

On our way back to Kansas City for our flight home, we stopped at Betty Rae’s Ice Cream, which is just a classic, great place to get a frozen treat. We made it home that day without any difficulty, capping off a great Memorial Day trip.

It was nice for the kids and my wife to cross Kansas off the list, and it was nice to get out of New Orleans for a bit. Next up, the big trip to number five-O, Hawaii.

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Memories in St. Louis

This Memorial Day, my family and I took a quick trip to Missouri to spend the holiday weekend with my parents, brothers and their families. We all grew up in St. Louis, and it is always nice to all go back together, as none of us currently live in the area.

We flew up early on Saturday morning and met my family at the National Museum of Transportation. This is a site that I visited many times as a child, and offers a lot for kids of certain ages. It has a great old car museum, multiple old train cars that you can tour, and a train ride around the entire park. It is definitely geared more towards kids younger (or older) than ours, ideally the 4 through 7 ages, but we enjoyed it.

We went to the Corner Pub and Grill for lunch, which has a vast menu for just about anyone, but is nothing spectacular, then went to relax at my parent’s house. After we unpacked, we went with my brothers to the O’Fallon Brewery. My middle brother, in particular, is a big fan of breweries, and this was a nice way to spend the evening.

The following day, we really kicked off our trip. This was Sunday, and the family decided to head about an hour south to Hawn State Park. This is another location that we visited a lot as kids, and it offers several really interesting hikes.

As my family, in particular, is big into getting our National Park passport books stamped, we left a bit early and took a little detour. In 2018, the Ste. Genevieve Historic Park became a part of the National Park services. Ste. Genevieve is the site of the first permanent European settlement in Missouri and is one of the newest sites designated by the Parks services.

It is so new in fact, that they are still building out the area. The Visitors’ Center offers some very cool scale models and a very informative video. In addition, there are several buildings that are part of site that date back to the late 1700s. The kids got their books stamped and did the Junior Ranger packets, and we pressed on. This is currently not a site that you would want to spend more than an hour or two at, but if you are in the area, it is pretty interesting.

When we arrived at Hawn State Park, we met my family at the Pickle Creek Trail and headed out. This trail follows a very scenic river about a mile deep into the park. While the entire trail is pretty impressive, the end offers several natural water-slides upon which the kids can play. The water was a little cold, but it is a lot of fun for the kids to have something to look forward to at the end.

The park has multiple trails that seem pretty worthwhile, but as we had the baby with us, we decided one good hike was enough for us. The baby fell asleep in the car on the way home, so after we ate and changed, we headed back into town and spent the afternoon at the City Museum.

If you have kids between the ages of 6 and 16, I would call this perhaps the number one ‘must-do’ in St. Louis. While it says museum in the name, there is very little educational about this attraction. The City Museum consists largely of repurposed architectural and industrial objects through which the kids crawl, climb and tunnel. It is hard to do this museum justice in print, but it is the first place that Jonathan and Eileen ask to go every time we are in St. Louis.

We went to the City Museum without the rest of our family, as my brother’s kids are just a bit too young for the experience, but we all met back at the house for Imo’s Pizza. If you watch Jimmy Kimmel, you may have heard one of his rant against Imo’s, but if you are from St. Louis, like Jon Hamm, you understand that this pizza isn’t just from St. Louis, it is St. Louis. There is nothing in the world that takes me back to my formative years than eating one of these thin, provel-covered delights.

The next day, we hit the Zoo, and while I have been there many times, it never fails to impress. The St. Louis Zoo is regularly ranked as one of the top five in the country, but perhaps the most attractive feature is that the zoo is free. Our zoo in New Orleans, which is fine but nothing special, costs almost $20/person. Getting to see fantastic zoo with great animals and enclosures, for free, is a reason to go to St. Louis in and of itself. My kids, who only go to St. Louis once or twice a year, have probably been a dozen times, and it never gets old.

We left the Zoo and headed to The Hill for lunch. The Hill is an old neighborhood in St. Louis that was settled by Italian immigrants. While it has produced some notable people, like Hall of Famer Yogi Berra, the best product of The Hill is the food. There are bakeries, delis or restaurants on every corner, and this time around, we picked Joe Fassi’s. Joe offers about 20 different sandwiches, and while they all sound good, I cannot never pass on the salami. If you are visiting St. Louis and looking for a really unique, high quality restaurant, I recommend just about anywhere on The Hill.

Before we headed for the airport, we made a quick stop at Ted Drewes. I feel like, aside from the Cardinals who were on the road at the time, we really hit all the St. Louis classics. Ted Drewes is an old drive-in/diner-style frozen custard shop. Their specialty is called a concrete, which is reminiscent of a blizzard, from DQ, but so much better. It is hard to choose, but I think I have to recommend the Oreo concrete; it may well be the best desert I have ever enjoyed.

Since my parents live their, we visit St. Louis a lot, but we try to do something different every time. I think we hit the nail on the head this Memorial Day, and the kids really seemed to enjoy. If you are going sometime soon, please reach out as I would be happy to give you suggestions for families of all shapes and sizes.

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Louis and Antonio: Saints for the Holidays

Those of you who follow us regularly know that while our Igoe family has lived in New Orleans for over ten years now, we have no family who live in the area. As such, we have become accustomed to traveling for the holidays. Thanksgiving and Christmas almost do not feel right when we celebrate at home by ourselves. This year was no different. On December 23rd, we hopped a Southwest flight to St. Louis and spent Christmas with my parents.

With the pandemic going strong, we all got tested before leaving, and even in St. Louis, we were more reserved than normal. Not wanting to unnecessarily expose my parents, we tried to refrain from doing anything that would include a large crowd. We arrived on a Wednesday, and on Thursday, Christmas Eve, we headed down to Union Station.

For those of you not familiar with Union Station, it is an old train depot that has been through many iterations. In fact, once as a child, I fell into a water feature in winter. It is a story my older brother loves to tell now, but at the time, it was quite unpleasant. At the moment, and hopefully for good, the station has been converted into an aquarium, amongst other things, and in terms of aquariums, we thought this one was fantastic.

It was basically an interactive tour with several really cool features. The kids got to feed turtles, have fish eat dead skin off their hands and pet sting rays. Having been to multiple aquariums over the years, I was pleasantly impressed.

What really makes Union Station great is that in addition to the aquarium, there is shopping, food and several other entertainment. There is a mirror maze and a London Eye-style Ferris wheel, as well as indoor ropes course. We decided forego the first two, but the kids loved the ropes course. There are two courses, based upon height, and Eileen and JR were both big enough for high course. Since JR is under 13, I had to go with him, but it was a lot of fun. There were several cool features, zip lines and overhangs, and it was a great way to finish the excursion.

On the way home, we stopped at a sandwich place The Hill called Joe Fassi’s. My biggest frustration with eating on The Hill in St. Louis is that we are never there long enough to try everything on the menu. I got a meatball sub which was arguably the best one I have ever had. My wife got a salami sandwich and both of the kids got turkey. To say that everything was good would be insulting to Joe’s. This place was so good that we almost went back two days later. If you are in St. Louis, and you want a great sandwich, nothing beats The HIll, and Joe Fassi’s is one of the best options.

The next day, being Christmas, we spent at home, opening presents, watching A Christmas Story and spending time with family. Saturday, we were back at it again. Recently, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial was converted to the Gateway Arch National Park. We actually took the kids the year prior, but have been unable to find the picture we took of them at the sign.

This year, since we have a new edition, we decided to get a new picture and get Clara’s passport stamped. The Arch has a great museum about westward expansion and Lewis and Clark, and the ride to the top, while claustrophobic, is pretty cool. If you’re looking to explore a city and hit a National Park, St. Louis is a great option.

On the way home, we were forced to hit up The Hill again. This time we hit up Mama’s, one of the places that claims to be the creator of toasted ravioli. If you’ve never had t-ravs, they are basically breaded and fried raviolis, filled with meat and cheese. Why they are called toasted is a mystery, and why they taste so good is beyond me, but they might just be the best thing in the world. We also ordered a pizza, which in St. Louis comes with provel cheese, which again, is a must try.

That night, the whole family went to Garden Glow at the Botanical Garden. Every year, the garden puts up lights and installations that are really impressive. It is cold, but they sell hot chocolate and adult drinks, and the kids love the chance to make s’mores. The garden is really impressive during the day, but lit up at night for the holidays, this excursion is a can’t miss.

We flew home on Sunday, washed all of our clothes and jetted off to San Antonio to spend time with Alyson’s family. This trip was a bit shorter, and we spent most of the time in my in-laws house. We did find time to get outside and explore one of Texas’ many state parks. Because of the viral situation, passes to the parks have to be purchased in advance, and the only one close enough with an opening was Guadalupe River State Park.

I think this park is probably better during the summer, as the river looks very inviting, but we did find a great hike that went about a mile along the edge of the river and provided some really cool scenery. The kids were able to skip rocks, climb trees and overall, enjoy being outside.

On the way home, we ate at Little Gretel’s in Boerne, which is a really great German restaurant that had several options for the kids. Texas is such a big state, and the cities are so expansive that it can be hard to really plan. A good suggestion for one part of San Antonio may be 45 minutes from where you are going. That said, there is so much good stuff in Texas that if you look, you’ll be able to find something worthwhile.

We usually go to St. Louis and Texas at least once a year, and this 2020 was no exception. If you are going, even during COVID, as long as you plan, there are plenty of great things to be done.