My third vacation of the summer was to St. Louis!  Rather than telling you about all the awesome things that I did I have decided to instead show you through PICTURES!  From my camera – my camera that’s in my phone!!

First up on the trip was the zooooo!  I had already been to the St. Louis zoo, but since the zoo is free – as is virtually every single thing in St. Louis – I figured I would return to see if the animals remembered me.  They didn’t.  Anyway, this picture is showing not one, not two, but three giraffes!  It may look like there was no fence between myself and the man-eating beasts, but I can assure you that there was.

My second stop was to the Gateway Arch.  The arch sits just on the outskirts of downtown, and it is said if you walk under it you will have magical powers bestowed upon you.

I have a natural distrust for magic, since my mom is Canadian, so I didn’t try to find out.  Anyway, what I didn’t know until I walked up to this magical half-oval was that you can actually go inside – there is a gift shop and everything.  Most notably, if you are willing to pay zero dollars you can take a ride in some space-agey pod thing (pictured to the right) and get lifted up to the top where you can see the entire city, and, if you have a pair of binoculars, you can even watch the Cardinals game.  Yes, someone was actually doing that.

Stop three took me to the Budweiser brewery.  Not that exciting, but you do get free beer at the end of the free tour – which, if you really, really, really like beer – is an amazing deal!  During the tour they show off the Clydesdale horses they keep on site, and walk you through the entire beer making process.  There are some escalators involved (Fun Fact: I love escalators) in the tour and they are absolutely one-hundred percent anti-crocs (those sandal things).  They hate them so much that they will not let you take the tour if you are wearing those ridiculous shoes.  I’m certain there is some special reason for that, but I will be damned if I know what it could be….

My fourth big event was a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game!  The most exciting part of this trip was that sitting about four rows in front of me and just to the left was the family that was directly in front of me on the Budweiser tour.  The odds of that happening has to be astoundingly low.  The baseball game was not free, but should have been considering it was 8 million degrees outside.  The Cardinals somehow managed to fall behind 7-0 in the top of the first inning and never recovered.  Sorry Cardinals – I did buy a Cardinals hat though.  Again, not free – but I love to support local businesses.

The fifth and final significant event was my trip down the St. Louis walk of fame.  The walk featured all sorts of legends from sports, entertainment and everything in between.  I saw a star for famous wife-beater Ike Turner, famed magician turned actor Vincent Price, and the man whom portrayed Egon in the film ‘Ghostbusters’ – Harold ‘effing’ Ramis!  Chuck Berry seemed to be the biggest star as he had both a star and a statue.

Here are some other random photos from the trip.  Baywash – best name I’ve ever seen for a car wash.  ‘Kings Beauty Supplies and Tobacco’ because those two things always go together.  The giant polar bear that tried to stop westward expansion, and finally Cardinals stadium pictured from the Arch.  The rest speak for themselves – I hope.