Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis

Schools out for summer baby! And what better way to kick off Summer 2021 than with a Memorial Day trip to St. Louis! This was the first trip to STL for the girls so we did all the touristy things of course!

Trip details:

Where: St. Louis

Campsite: 370 Lakeside Park in St. Petersberg, MO

Length: 4 days

Itinerary:

Day 1 - Travel day

Day 2 - STL Zoo

Day 3 - Gateway Arch National Park & Budweiser Brewery Tour

Day 4 - Travel day

The 370 Lakeside Park was a nice park - but be prepared to have ZERO shade. It's a relatively new park and its right on the lake which is beautiful. But it will be hot in the summer without any shade! They have a brand new dog park and walk/bike trails. The front office seams to rent everything - bikes, kayaks, paddle boats, trikes and surreys... yes, surreys! Prices were a bit much for us so we passed, but if you're planning on staying at the campsite then it might make for some fun activities. Our schedule was pretty busy and we just used our camper as a place to rest our heads for the evenings.

Our first full day in St. Louis was spent at the St. Louis Zoo. This has always been a fun zoo with highlights being the penguin exhibit, the seal show and the elephants!

Once we got in, we headed to the elephants first. There was a huge group of people around the elephant exhibit because one was so close to us! I was SO unbelievably excited to get a photo, I quickly set my girls up for a perfectly posed photo! I was surprised that no one else was taking photos but they were all gathered. Whats wrong with you people? Well... once I actually looked at the elephant I noticed he had 5 legs. So... awesome. I now have a photo of a male elephant showing off.... Let's move on to the female elephants girls... Haha

The Dinosaur exhibit at the zoo but not worth the extra dollars but please go get tickets and get in line a little early to get a good seat at the seal show! We had excellent seats and the show was so entertaining!

The Penguin exhibit was really cool how it was laid out and able to see them up close and personal. For instance, this photo below was not zoomed in at all. Aaron literally raised his arm up and took this photo of the little dude hanging out on the ledge!

Our second day in STL was busy with 10am tickets to the St. Louis Arch. This was a great time to capture the shadow of the arch on the lawn and still give us some time to eat lunch before our afternoon plans. The ride to the top was in a small elevator while the area at the top was spacious and not busy. Since it was COVID they gave each group/family their own windows which was nice!

At lunch at our favorite St. Louis pizza restaurant, Imo's Pizza, we headed to the Budweiser Brewery for a Day Fresh Tour. This was a great tour for both the girls and Aaron and me. We got to tour the campus and learn more about how to brew, bottle and package their beers. We learned a little history about the family and the buildings. The girls loved seeing the Clydesdales and their paddock and stables!

And finally, sometimes beer makes you loose your teeth. Paige ended up loosing her snaggletooth front tooth that she'd been holding on to forever at the brewery!

Thanks for coming on our adventure! Until next time... ~ Mary