St Louis

St Louis is a pleasant 2 1/2 hr drive south-west of Champaign. We met Sam there as he was on his way up from Nashville after a friend's weekend wedding. We arrived at the St Louis Botanical Garden in time for lunch, and sat at the nice outdoor cafe area for a simple, but delightful meal amidst the beautiful plant life. The weather was awesome, and walking in the Gardens was definitely a much wanted breather. Click here for the [photos].

We also visited the famous arch of course. There is a museum at the base of it. And you can actually go up in it, but we missed the closing time at 5pm.

Downtown St Louis itself was a little quiet. For city like St Louis, it was actually hard to find a place where we could sit down and have a satisfying meal. We walked around the riverside area, saw a few pubs, but nothing eye-catching. We decided to drive around a bit further away from downtown and ended up around Washington University area. But still nothing inviting. We ended up eating at the hotel restaurant, which was actually not bad.

So all in all, a nice day trip, but plan your restaurant locations ahead.