St. Louis- first trip-need lots of ideas
 

We are making our first trip to St. Louis this summer. Our main reason for going there is for the Cardinals! We also are hoping to see anything else that people think are the must do things in St. Louis. Other than the games we are going to, we will have one full day and two half-days to do some sightseeing. So if any of you have some ideas of things you think are must do's in St. Louis please write back. Trying to figure out our itinerary. Thanks for any information you have :-)
p,.s.- Looking for some great bbq places, thanks alot

One more thing I was wondering about....where are the best seats in the stadium for avoiding the really hot sun...first base side? third base? if you are in the lower level???

For BBQ I highly recommend Super Smokers. www.supersmokers.com

Other ideas are as follows:

Anhueser-Busch Brewery Tour
Cahokia Mounds- across the border in IL- World Heritage Site
Forest Park

Not sure where you are coming from, but St.Louis can be extremely hot and humid in the summer. I still call it the hottest place on earth. Have a good time!

I assume you will see and ride in The Gateway Arch.

The Hill area is like a Little Italy- I would eat there for a meal.

If you have kids with you or just want to see something really unique, go to the City Museum off Washington Avenue. There's nothing else like it out there. Look for the ferris wheel and the giant insect - both on the roof.

Pappy's BBQ, in midtown is delicious and was recently featured on one of the food network shows.

Also, there's a really fun, new sculpture park within walking distance of Busch stadium with a glass-enclosed restaurant that looks out on it.

Can't help you out with the stadium/sun question, though there are definitely shady places in the stadium...and also places where you will be directly in the sun, and as Cadgirl says, St. Louis can be nasty hot and sticky in the summer. Watching a Cards game at home is a great experience. Though I suspect there will no longer be a Big Mac area in the nosebleeds. Sigh. You will love the fans. Have fun!

Number 1. Gateway Arch. Do a bit of reading about the construction ahead of time. It is an amazing piece of architecture.

The St. Louis Cathedral has some of the most beautiful mosaics in America.

Second the rec. on visiting Cahokia Mounds.

St. Charles, nicely restored old city with restaurants and clubs in the evening.

The Jewel Box - small glass building housing lovely plant displays.

Botanical gardens.

Forest Park Zoo, for walking and riding the train about.

Cyrano's for ice cream.

The Art Museum

Check to see what shows or concerts are scheduled. St. Louis has good theater.

As others have said, St. Louis can be hot, hot, hot in summer, but it is a great city to visit!

I have not yet been to the new Busch Stadium, but I do know that when you buy baseball tickets to a day game that you want to get on the side of the field where the home team dugout is. They put the visitors in the sunny dugout.

I looked at the seat map at the Cardinals website and saw that the first base line runs east-west and figured the Cards dugout must be on that line. The seat map at stubhub does label the dugout on the first base side as the Cardinals'.

So, the first base side is what you want. Judging from the position of the field, the shade would come in from from the outfield and from top down.

Missouri Botanical Gardens
http://www.mobot.org/

The Arch
http://www.gatewayarch.com/Arch/

Anheuser-Busch Tour (see the Clydesdales and the beer)
http://www.budweisertours.com/

Cahokia Mounds (if it's hot/sunny/humid, save for another trip)
http://cahokiamounds.org/

Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis (New Cathedral)
http://cathedralstl.org/intro/

Campbell House Museum (one of the most accurately restored 19th Century buildings in America, reflecting the high-Victorian opulence of the 1880s)
http://stlouis.missouri.org/501c/chm/

In Forest Park:

St. Louis Art Museum
http://www.slam.org/

St Louis Zoo
http://www.stlzoo.org/

The Muny (oldest and largest outdoor theater in US)
http://www.muny.org/
Don't know if they've announced the 2010 season yet, but if you're going to a daytime baseball game, it might be something to do at night.

I try my best to not go to daytime games in the middle of the summer and it's hard to tell about the sun, since sometimes games start at 1:15 and sometimes at 3:15 so the sun will be in different places. Generally the 1st base side is better.....

I really don't know why people think St. Louis has great bbq, it's all at the other side of the state in KC.
But, the best in town is Pappy's http://www.pappyssmokehouse.com/

There is no reason to drive to Eureka to go to Supersmokers unless you're already going to Six Flags
http://www.sixflags.com/stLouis/index.aspx

Ted Drewes ~ Chippewa Location (frozen custard)
http://www.teddrewes.com/Drewes.asp

Where are you staying and do you have kids with you? I can give you some more ideas with some more info from you. Also, what do you like to eat besides BBQ?

GO CARDS (winter warm-up is this weekend:) )

A lot of good ideas here! Add Grant's Farm, we love it and it is free http://www.grantsfarm.com/

Just topping so Palmtree can find the thread and so any one else can add suggestions.

Thank you all for the information. Just to answer a few questions: No we will not have kids with us. My husband and I are in our late forties and have been die-hard Cardinal fans forever. We are from the Northwest, so no we are not used to quite as hot or humid as what you are saying but we are prepared, I guess:-) Someone asked what other kind of food we liked besides bbq, and I would say steak, italian, mexican. Does anyone else have any other ideas about the ballpark as far as best seating. One person said first base side but they hadn't actually been to the new park. So just wondering if anyone else had other ideas or should we just make sure we are on the first base side and as low as we can get. Also, how long should we plan on being at Forest Park, I heard it was huge?

We stay at the Chase Hotel every summer to attend the Muny theater productions. The Muny has 11,000 seats and is located in Forest Park, right next to the Chase. Yes the park is huge. You can rent bikes there and it's fun to ride to the boathouse to eat and rent a paddleboat. The summer schedule for the Muny is up on their website. We'll be coming again in July for Damn Yankees!
www.muny.com

Make sure you are on the first base side, but if you are really concerned about the sun, then you don't necessarily want as low as you can get. The field level seats by the dugout will be among the last seats on the first base side that would get shade.

Great sightseeing suggestions so far. Annheuser Busch tour, City Museum (especially if you're a kid), St. Louis Art Museum, the Arch (note that the elevator pods are not for the claustrophobic however), Cathedral Basilica (stunning mosaics), Campbell House, and Botanical Gardens are all well worth a visit. Would also recommend the Old Courthouse, Fox Theatre, the Old Cathedral (near the Arch), Missouri History Museum, and Scott Joplin House.

Italian food and steakhouses are easy to find in St. Louis, and The Hill is loaded with the former. Will second Ted Drewe's (get a "concrete," soft ice cream loaded with extra add-ins). Saleem's (anything with garlic) and Fitz's (they make their own sodas) are good spots near Washington University.

And definitely find a shady spot to watch the Cardinals game if you can. It can get upwards of 100 degrees F or more in the stadium during a summer afternoon game quite easily, and the sun is blazing hot and the air oppressively muggy. The bleachers there really earn the name during a summer day game here.

I highly recommend the Drury hotel downtown. It is an historic building, with a great breakfast and cocktail hour included, at a very good value. It's about four blocks' walk to the stadium, and it gets so many baseball fans staying there, that their cocktail hour always has some friendly rivalry going on. Lots of restaurants you can walk to from there, also. I think they have parking at a structure a block away.

I reccomend the Chase park Plaza for your Hotel. It is in the Central West End near Forest Park and a short dirve down town.
It has been fabulouly restored. There is a small theatre, a couple of really good restaurants and bars there. Most weekends there is live music to listen and dance.
Nearby are several really good restaurants.
One is called Scape. They have a very cool patio in the back as well as the front.

You can rent bikes and ride through Forest Park. There is a fun restaureant called The Boat House. YOu can rent little paddle boats and go through the old canals from the 1904 Worlds Fair. The free Zoo is a must -do!!!
The art museum is a beautiful building and there is often good exhibits.
Have fun!!

All good advice. My favorite place in St. Louis is the Cathedral. So..check. My sister spent several summers and a couple years after college digging at the Cahokia Mounds (she has two degrees in Archeology/Anthropology from Northwestern), so...check. :)

And, of course, Ted Drewes. Second on the "concrete". :)

You will love St. Louis. It is a wonderful midwestern city.

Take tours! The Art Museum has free tours, usually at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Check with the Botanical Garden; do at least the tram tour to get an overview, and then walk to what you want to see close up. It's literally a cool place in the summer. Visit the sensory garden and smell and touch there.
Don't eat there; go a mile away through Tower Grove Park with its variety of pavilions toward So Grand, with many ethnic restaurants. Try Lemon Grass or Pho Grand - outstanding Vietnamese places
For Cahokia Mounds, allow half a day; start with the film for background, and then wander. Amazing - and they offer classes so you might check their website. Basketmaking a la 1100 A.D. was pretty cool.

Here's my list: Ted Drewe's for a "Concrete" with M&M's or other mix in's (it's frozen custard), go to Clayton for breakfast or lunch at City Coffeehouse and Creperie (can be very crowded on weekends and you order your meal and pay, then it's delivered to your table), City Museum, in South City near Tower Grove Park try Pho Grand for yummy Vietnamese food, Forest Park, History Museum, and the Zoo.

I can't really add anything to the above except to say you will have a great time--I love St. Louis--it's a great city with SO much to do, much of it free or low cost.