St. Louis as a Tourist

Since I took a number of different trips to Iowa this summer because of my dad's heart surgery and a family reunion of Mrs. Nasty's family in the Des Moines area, well Altoona, to partake in the fun of Adventureland, we really didn't have much of a Nasty family vacation this summer.

So we decided that this past weekend we'd head over to the St. Louis area to act like tourists even though we lived in South City for four years after one year of living in an apartment in the 'burbs.

On Friday, we drove by our old house in Lindenwood Park/St. Louis Hills area and then ate at a place we're quite familiar with, Happy Joe's Pizza Parlor, or, as we became accustomed to calling it during both pregnancies, "Angry Tim's." Mrs. Nasty and her pregnant cravings for taco pizza ... Jesus.

Of course, we had to stop at the famous Ted Drewe's. I fondly remember a summer past when I did a "tour of the concretes," trying every concrete they offer. The Dutchman doesn't disappoint.

Since one of the main attractions of the trip were complimentary tickets we had to the Raging River Waterpark in little Grafton, IL, we stayed in Alton.

As much as I'm not all that fond of swimming pools and water parks in general, I enjoyed Raging River. It's located right beside the Mississippi River right beside the Great River Road, Illinois 100, and it has good slides while not being extremely crowded. We had a beautiful day to enjoy the river as we hiked up the hill to go sliding down various tubular configurations.

One of my favorite signs I've seen in a while was the warning in the massive wave pool that states, "Wrestling, Rough Play or Foul Language Will Not Be Tolerated." I'm thinking about adapting that warning for various venues.

Later that night, we ate at The Melting Pot fondue restaurant located in the Delmar Loop. Good eats.

On Sunday morning we really went tourist by visiting the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

You know, "the Arch."

Yeh, we never went to it when we lived in St. Louis. I will admit that it is an impressive feat of engineering, and the museum at the base level is pretty good. It recounts the role of the Louisiana Purchase in American history and westward expansion in general.

You're high up there when you're in the Arch, but I have little desire to go into it again unless I take the kids back to really take our time at the museum. You're high up and everything, but the Arch itself didn't do much for me, especially since I have claustrophobic tendencies.

We capped off the visit before returning home by going to the City Museum, which is a freaky climbing and sliding extravaganza for kids and parents. We made the rookie mistake of not wearing athletic shoes, however. Duh!

While we had some fun seeing the "sights," the aspects I miss about St. Louis are different: friends, good German sausage at G&W, Francis and Lindenwood Park, solid wine/beer selections at grocery stores, our neighborhood, Soulard Farmer's Market, colleagues in my old department, a diversity of restaurants to chose from, musicians coming to town on a regular basis, etc.

I don't aim to be one of those guys who whines about living in a small town because I actually like living in a small community. However, unlike when I lived in Kirksville, Missouri, it's nice to have an easy drive to larger cities that can offer a lot: St. Louis and Indianapolis.