We are back from our trip to St. Louis which turned out to be quite fun! Just goes to show that every once in a while I’m wrong about something and I’m thrilled the Shriner’s event fell into that category. We drove to St. Peters on Saturday and met others from our Shrine unit since we had a block of rooms at the Holiday Inn. I still haven’t figured out why we stayed in St. Peters except one couple got a killer deal on Hotwire and I suspect the wife wanted to stay where she was close to the casinos. At any rate, it was a very nice hotel and we all went out for an early dinner and then one wife headed for the casinos, some of the guys (including Burl) headed to East St. Louis to see the drag races and I resorted to a long walk and an evening in my hotel room with a good book.
Sunday morning we rode the bike downtown for the Shrine Motorcycle Ride which took us south and west of St. Louis into some beautiful countryside and then ended at the Moolah Temple for a picnic lunch. We picked up the car and went downtown to check into the Hilton Ballpark Inn which was fabulous. We had to make our reservations through the local Shrine so had no idea what we were getting but somehow we scored a large suite with a view of the muddy Mississippi and the north base of the Arch along with a beautiful park just north of the hotel. Great digs!
We had dinner with friends Sally and John Sunday night and were thrilled that Sally’s son Scott, who is also my godson, joined us for dinner. He is such a neat guy and while I still picture him as a high-school hockey star he is now 33 and quite successful as a full-time sales rep and part-time hockey referee. We had such a wonderful evening and it was tough to say good-night and drive back to the city – but the night time view from our room was awesome!
Monday we left our hotel after breakfast and did a walking tour of downtown St. Louis – ended up at the Arch where we viewed the documentary film about how it was made and then rode to the top – something neither of us had done in over 20 years. That evening we had tickets to see the St. Louis Cardinals play the New York Mets and the Cards came through with a win in fine style 7-1. We snacked prior to the game and then visited a hospitality suite when it was over, thus avoiding ballpark food and prices!
Tuesday we visited a motorcycle museum which I found quite interesting – especially considering that there was only one Harley-Davidson among the 150+ bikes and we were with a group of Harley riders! We then met my cousin Don and went to Favazza’s on The HIll for lunch. I hadn’t seen Don for several years so we had fun catching up on our families. Next stop – the Anheuser-Busch Brewery where we took the tour and sampled some of A-B’s freshest and finest products. This was another tour that we hadn’t done for many years and since we live near one of the Clydesdale Farms we especially enjoyed the stable area.
The last item on the Shriner’s agenda was their big-ass parade Tuesday evening in St. Louis. None of the motorcyclists wanted to be stuck in a parade for a few hours holding in the clutch so Burl opted to ride on the firetruck with another unit. Several of us walked to a viewing site but after watching a lot of the same stuff for over 2 hours and still no Abou Ben Adhem unit, we bolted back to the hotel in favor of some free food and beer in the hospitality rooms.
Wednesday morning we bid farewell to St. Louis and headed home where Ralph and the kiddos were waiting for a visit. Julia has already discovered the big slide into the pool and Lydia has decided she likes to strut around in her swim suit but doesn’t care much for the big pool or the wading pool. I’m off to play Grammie – that’s more fun than blogging.
