Day 2 - St Louis

For some reason, we just couldn't sleep this morning. We were up and getting ready to start the day by 4:30 AM. As you would suspect, there wasn't much going on at that time so we watched the weather channel and hung around the room until breakfast time.

After breakfast, we traveled to Gateway Arch along the Mississippi River in St. Louis. At the last minute, Tex chickened out and wouldn't go to the top of the arch with me so he stayed in the museum at the bottom of the Arch and I boarded the "pod" to travel to the top. The pods were little cars that held five people each and looked a lot like a giant egg. It took 41/2 minutes to get to the top and 3 minutes to go back to the bottom. The view at the top of the Arch was spectacular. The sun was shining and the weather was clear and beautiful. What a cool experience! Tex doesn't know what he missed.

After the Arch we checked out the old Courthouse and looked at the historical displays. Then it was time  to travel the the Anheuser Busch Brewery for a tour.

At the Brewery we saw several Clydesdales and were actually able to see the stalls where they stay. Our tour guide told us about the history of the company and pointed out that the name "Budweiser" was selected because Augustus Busch thought it sounded like a "strong" name and it was easily pronounced by both Americans and Germans. As we visited the vats and then the packing lines, we learned a lot about the brewing process. The guide made sure that we would not be able to leave without remembering that the beechwood aging process and the addition of rice to the recipe are what makes Budweiser unique. The tour was interesting and the sampling room was fun too.

Later in the afternoon we attempted to visit the St. Louis Car Museum but found out that they are only open by appointment. That left us nothing to do but come back to the hotel and crash. Relaxing is great but I think Tex may wear out the remote control for the TV before we check out tomorrow. Is there such a thing as TV channel ADD?