Today, we explored St. Louis as unabashed tourists. With cameras in hand, Brian and I hit the typical tourist sights here in The Gateway to the West (or..another nickname for St. Louis..."Mound City"). This doesn't seem to be a city worth repeated visits (i.e. San Francisco, New York, Miami, LA, Austin, Boston, Vegas, et al), so I figured that we might as well maximize our day here seeing a few major attractions.
The absolute coolest part of the tour was getting to walk onto the field and into the dugout. This was the first time I have ever stood on a MLB field. The perspective was amazing. It's funny how a stupid little 15 minutes on a MLB field can shave 25 years off your life and make you feel like a kid again.
This was a cool perspective from behind the netting separating the dugout from the playing field. The tour was worth every bit of the $10 per ticket, and it put the Fenway tour to shame due to the stroll onto the field. Busch Stadium is a top-notch facility. Expansive concourses. A great retro feel with modern amenities. Excellent party rooms (kind of like luxury boxes for which people can easily purchase tickets).
Our seats for the actual game were way up in the top deck of right field. Cards won 9-4.
Next, onto the Anheuser-Busch tour. The tour itself was free. I was trying to calculate how many people tour this particular facility every year. Our tour guide gives 4 tours per day, but she's not the only guide. Our group had about 40 people. Figure 8 tours per day of 40 people each, 6 days per week. Almost 2,000 people per week, over 100,000 per year. All free. They must make it up tenfold with the branding extended to all tour participants.
We started out at a 9:30am tour of the new Busch Stadium. The 2006 Cardinals are one of the rarest of the rare - a MLB team to win the World Series and move into a new stadium during the same season.
Our tour guide was great, and our tour group was small, so we had time to ask many questions - something I very much enjoy doing. Never did she lose her patience with inquisitive me.
The absolute coolest part of the tour was getting to walk onto the field and into the dugout. This was the first time I have ever stood on a MLB field. The perspective was amazing. It's funny how a stupid little 15 minutes on a MLB field can shave 25 years off your life and make you feel like a kid again.
This was a cool perspective from behind the netting separating the dugout from the playing field. The tour was worth every bit of the $10 per ticket, and it put the Fenway tour to shame due to the stroll onto the field. Busch Stadium is a top-notch facility. Expansive concourses. A great retro feel with modern amenities. Excellent party rooms (kind of like luxury boxes for which people can easily purchase tickets).Our seats for the actual game were way up in the top deck of right field. Cards won 9-4.
Next, onto the Anheuser-Busch tour. The tour itself was free. I was trying to calculate how many people tour this particular facility every year. Our tour guide gives 4 tours per day, but she's not the only guide. Our group had about 40 people. Figure 8 tours per day of 40 people each, 6 days per week. Almost 2,000 people per week, over 100,000 per year. All free. They must make it up tenfold with the branding extended to all tour participants.
The A-B campus was beautiful. Very well maintained, with clean, architecturally appealing buildings. We saw the clydesdale horses, beechwood aging room, brewing tanks, canning facility, and the many lobby displays featuring all of their marketing and beverage brands. At the end of the tour, we sampled two 12-oz glasses of beer, and then ate lunch at a nearby restaurant. I tried Michelob Ultra Amber, which is much better than regular Michelob Ultra, and gives straight up Michelob a run for its money (Michelob is my favorite mainstream mass-produced major beer, but I'm pretty open to trying any beer).
We ventured over to the Gateway Arch, and took the ride up to the observation deck. The arch is quite an impressive structure. Simple, yet imposing. The view OF the arch were much better than the views FROM the arch. The arch itself is 630 feet tall, but it seems much taller.
We ventured over to the Gateway Arch, and took the ride up to the observation deck. The arch is quite an impressive structure. Simple, yet imposing. The view OF the arch were much better than the views FROM the arch. The arch itself is 630 feet tall, but it seems much taller.
The ride to the observation deck consisted of cramming into small 5-person pods that were built in 1968 for Americans much smaller than the people presently walking our streets.
Overall, a good day in St. Louis. The weather cooperated, we succeeded at seeing the core sights here, and are leaving St. Louis satisfied enough to cross it off of our list of cities to which we need to return at some point in our lives.
1 comment:
well i learned something new today. i had no clue there were pods on the arch and an observation deck. perhaps the police can use it to survey the rampant crime in east st. louis:)
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