Visiting the Redbird’s Roost in St. Louis

In September, with the Major League Baseball season coming to an end, and the Mariners unfortunately struggling (again), Ray and Traci decided to follow their team to St. Louis. The Cardinals have won 11 World Series, second only to the Yankees, and St Louis is the definition of a “Baseball Town.”

On Saturday morning, Ray and Traci flew non-stop on Alaska Airlines from Seattle to St. Louis, and boarded the metro light rail train which took them directly to the baseball stadium station. The first thing one sees when leaving the station is the brick building boasting 11 World Championship banners. 

Walking past Busch Stadium and “Cardinals Village” they arrived at the Hilton St. Louis Ballpark hotel and checked into their room which overlooked the baseball complex. The hotel had many St. Louis fans visiting for the weekend as the Cardinals attract legions of followers outside the relatively small 300,000 person city. Ray and Traci found their room decorated with baseball photos and paintings. It was a pleasant place to stay.

 The travelers left the hotel and entered the entertainment/museum complex. Their first stop was to have a pre-game meal and decided to eat at the Cardinals Nation Restaurant. Ray enjoyed a blackened Caesar salad while Traci had a Turkey Club Sandwich. By Seattle baseball park standards, the restaurant prices were a bargain and they didn’t even charge Ray and Traci for soft drinks. With two hours remaining before game time, the Mariners fans decided to visit the Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum. Unlike the small Mariners Hall of Fame located at T Mobile Park, the Cardinals HOF is a separate building charging $12 to visit. Celebrating the careers of many Baseball Legends including Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith and Alber Pujols, the museum boasts 4 of the team’s 11 World Series trophies.

Ray wondered where they kept the other 7. The fans left the impressive museum and entered Busch Stadium. The current ballpark opened in 2006, replacing the old Busch Stadium which opened in 1966. Even though the Cardinals were having a down year with an almost identical record as the Mariners, their loyal fans filled the stadium with red and white jerseys. After wandering around the stadium during a beautiful evening, Ray and Traci found their seats in the second row behind the Mariners dugout. Many of the seats behind the dugout were occupied by fans wearing Mariner jerseys, like Ray and Traci. Directly behind the center field scoreboard, the famous St. Louis Arch stands like a target for home run sluggers.

The game turned out to be a microcosm of the Mariners season – pitcher Logan Gilbert throws a gem of a game giving up 1 hit thru 7 innings. In the eighth he hits a batter and the next batter hits a home run. The Mariners wasted another pitching masterpiece by scattering 5 hits, leaving 10 runs stranded and scoring no runs. After the disappointing game, Ray and Traci left the stadium and had dinner at Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria in the Ballpark village. Ray had a very good pasta dish fiama mafalda bolognese while Traci enjoyed an arrabbiata pasta dish with roasted chicken. Stomachs full, the couple retired to the Hilton for the evening.

Sunday was another beautiful day. Ray started it with an early morning run around the St. Louis Arch National Park. He decided to take the path across the Eads Bridge spanning the Mississippi River and found himself crossing the border with Illinois.. The border between Missouri and Illinois splits the Mississippi River in half. After a walk around Arch park, the next stop was back to Busch Stadium for another Mariners game. When planning the trip, Ray was wary of Sunday afternoon tickets in one of baseball’s warmest stadiums. As it turned out, at game time the temperature was only 68 degrees (cooler than Seattle was that day). But because of the potential for uncomfortable heat, Ray purchased tickets in the Cardinal’s National Car Rental Club which included a buffet lunch and air conditioned seats much like the Mariners Hit It Here Café. The National Car Rental Club spanned the 3rd base line. Lunch included Caesar salad, barbequed beef, pulled pork, and pasta with cheese. Unlike Saturday’s night debacle, the Mariners scored 5 runs before Ray and Traci even finished their lunch on the way to a 10-4 drubbing of the Cardinals. The Mariners fans found the club area quite nice with good food and drink and the Red Bird fans were quite friendly despite the disappointing performance by their team.

After the Sunday afternoon game, Ray and Traci headed to the St. Louis Arch Park to take a Riverboat Cruise on the Mississippi River. These one hour narrated rides are on 19th century replica boats that cruise down the river and return – highlights of the city included great waterfront views of the Arch and the Budweiser Plant. St. Louis’ waterfront doesn’t have the marquee architecture of other cities but it is accentuated by the Arch. As with New Orleans area cruises, just riding along the Mississippi brings one back to the era of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

For Sunday evening dinner, Ray and Traci decided to walk to St. Louis Union Station, a National Historic Landmark that once was a very busy train station but in the 1980s was repurposed as a hotel and entertainment complex. They decided to eat at a restaurant called the Train Shed where Traci enjoyed an arugula and beet salad, while Ray thoroughly enjoyed one of his favorite comfort food dishes – country fried steak. An Uber ride took the couple back to the Hilton for their final night.

Monday was their departure date – but before leaving St. Louis, Ray and Traci had to ascend the famous Arch. The Gateway Arch National Park celebrates the Louisiana Purchase and subsequent western expansion of the United States. It is on the St. Louis waterfront and is the smallest of America’s National Parks. Most of the visitor areas are actually subterranean – visitors watch a movie on the Arch construction and visit a museum with artifacts and information about its construction. Visitors then board a tram car that holds up to 5 people, 16 of these cars form a train that ascends the arch. During busy times trains from both legs of the arch bring visitors to an observation area at the top of the arch. At the top, visitors leave the train and the cars are filled up with the previous group – Arch climbers only have a short 10 minutes at the top and then have to go down. There are small windows in the observation areas, more like mail slots, where people can see the surrounding territory and city.

After their morning visit to the Arch, Ray and Traci walked back to the Hilton, gathered their belongings and took the Metro back to the airport for the flight back to Seattle.