St. Louis is one of my favorite cities…there is so much to do and so much of it is FREE! We went to see our son one weekend in February and the weather was absolutely AMAZING! We walked through Forest Park on our way to the zoo, which is of course free…

 For lunch, we ate at Adriana’s On the Hill ~ a wonderful spot to get Italian food (the meatball sandwich is delicious, and I ate it so fast I forgot to take a picture! And what is “The Hill” anyway? It’s a St. Louis neighborhood (one of many fun to explore neighborhoods). From Explore St. Louis website, “The Hill’s roots are interspersed with the history of St. Louis, generating two of the region’s proudest exports – world-class athletes and Italian cuisine. Baseball’s Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola grew up here, and today it maintains a traditional collection of authentic Italian bakeries, grocery stores, restaurants and mom-and-pop trattorias.”

Then we did some shopping and walked to the Arch – a must see in St. Louis!  Here are some little known facts about the Arch…the Arch is as wide as it is tall, it’s 630 feet wide and 630 feet tall. Doesn’t look that way, does it?! And if you want to walk to the top, there are 1,076 steps. (By comparison the Washington Monument has 897. The Willis Tower in Chicago, on the other hand, has 2,109 steps.) Despite its seemingly small appearance, the Arch’s observation deck at its top can hold up to 160 people!

We finished the day with a meal at Missouri’s only Afghan restaurant – Sameem. If you like ethnic food, it was superb! 

We ended our weekend with a stop at White Castle for burgers (not that great).

Even though we didn’t fly, we did accumulate some points charging all that delicious food!  (:

Next up, spring break in the islands…