Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Show Me!

Yes, we are in the Show Me State! Welcome to Missouri! Now this is bad. I don't know if I've been to Missouri or not. I've been to Kansas City but I don't know if I was in Missouri or Kansas or both! Hmm...

Someone will have to tell me... is Missouri flooding, too? It's just south of Iowa but I haven't seen them in the news.

Let's start with the big cities. Let's Explore St. Louis! I'm going to pick a couple of things to do from the 25 Things to Do in St. Louis list but you can explore them all. The first thing I think of when I hear St. Louis is that big arch thing... no, not McDonald's...it's official name is the Gateway Arch. There are trams that get us to a certain point up in the arch but if you want to go to the top you'll need to be able to climb at least 90 stairs and endure a lot of standing. Check. Our work out is done and now we can go eat. But before we go off to eat let's stop at the Anheuser-Busch Consumer Hospitality Center. Okay- wow. I've never been carded for a website! One Saturday a month, you can pose with the Clydesdale's for a photo. I'm not sure if they give autographs or not. It doesn't say whether or not you get to taste but SURELY! But, let's skip dinner and go straight to dessert at Crown Candy Kitchen. I think I'm going to have either the Swiss Chocolate Sundae or the Chocolate Marshmallow Sundae. And don't forget you can always go and cheer for the Cardinals, Rams or Blues.



Next stop, Branson! Get ready for entertainment. Magic shows, variety shows, concerts...you name it, it's available in Branson. They have something called 57 Heaven at Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater and it looks like the car-mans dream. Well, if you like cars that were built in 1957, anyway. I think it looks it cool but it may just be all the shiny colors. Another popular show is the Dixie Stampede that describe as fun-filled and action-packed including buffalo, horses and stunt riders. All that with dinner and dessert. Our next attraction in Branson is Celebration City. We'll pretend we're kids again and go on every ride, play every game, take a break at the shows and watch the fireworks light up the night. I just hope I don't throw up.



I'm a little nervous about taking you to Kansas City because I want to be sure we stay in Missouri for the day... I hope I don't get confused and wander over to Kansas. They'll have their own day. We can cheer for the Royals but can we cheer for the Chiefs?

One of the first events I found in Kansas City was Scottish Highland Games. Men in kilts. Sounds interesting. There will be bagpipes, music, dancing and lots of competitions. Oh, but darn we already missed this years event. We'll have to mark it on the calendar for 2009. The Crown Center looks like another good spot to visit in Kansas City. It is located in the heart of downtown with free summer concerts, shopping and dining. Let's also check out the Beers & Brats Festival at Westport Plaza. Beer and sausage... I see a theme developing. And what about BBQ? They say it's the best. They all look delicious! And because they all looked so good, I picked Arthur Bryant's Barbecue over the others because I liked the cartoon below.



Some other fun and big things I found in Missouri is the worlds largest Goose and the world's largest pecan and Jim the Wonder Dog. And, the town of Chillicothe claims to be the home of sliced bread.



I know there's a lot more about caves, and places to camp, and at least 100 small towns and communities that I missed in Missouri so you let us know about them.

Fun facts for Missouri are: The Floral emblem is the Hawthorn Blossom, the state bird is the Bulebird, and the state aquatic animal is the Paddlefish.



All Missourians meet on the BBQ deck on Friday, June 20th to tell us what makes Missouri the Taste of USA!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Treye and I have been to St. Louis. We took a trip there last year (I think).

The zoo is awesome; but Treye and I are real zoo people. We hope to see every zoo in the country before we die (bucket list!!!).

We also made a stop at Anheuser Busch. The tour is really cool but the beer at the end is even better. Not only is it free beer, but it's the freshest beer you'll ever drink! A-mazing!

We also went to the top of the arch. I hate heights so this wasn't my favorite part of the trip.

Finally, thanks to the Food Network, we had dessert at a custard stand called Ted Drewes. I LOVE me some ice cream/custard...and this may be the BEST I've ever had!

Anonymous said...

I took a trip to St. Louis when I was young and crazy. I had a friend call me one evening when I was in college at around 10 pm asking if I wanted to take a road trip to St. Louis (about 5 hours away) I was game so we hopped into the car and headed on the way. It wasn't until we were a few hours out that we realized we were in a stick shift and none of us had ever driven one except the current driver. Needless to say we quickly learned. At around 3 pm we rolled into St. Louis, quickly bought a newspaper and headed to the arch. We left the car running, ran up, touched the arch, hopped back into the car and drove home so that we could make it back JUST in time for our 8am classes.
I had a test in my 8am class and the professor said I looked "under the weather" and offered me to go home and take the test later. I happily obliged.