The St. Louis Chronicles - Day 2
I am learning that not having a car in St. Louis doesn't limit your options so much as it makes everything take a lot longer.
Today Joanna and I started off with a workout, then ate the hotel's AMAZING breakfast buffet. Included in the room rate are made-to-order omelets and waffles, hot buffet with biscuits and gravy, I could go on. I'm still in disbelief at how much further money goes here though.
So we left and headed to agenda item #1 for both of us - The Budweiser Brewery tour in Soulard, south of downtown. Joanna's husband loves beer and she took so many pictures and called him at several points on the tour to help him feel like he was there. He was jealous. We bought him some beer-themed merch at the ridiculous gift shop so hopefully he'll be appeased.
The Budweiser brewery tour, as you can imagine, is a masterful mix of information and marketing. Every word you've ever heard associated with Budweiser, or its affiliates is woven seamlessly into the tour when speaking about the brewing process, the history of the brewery, even when talking about the horses. These words will sound very familiar: crisp, pure, select, hand-crafted, smooth. The scripts the guides use might as well just be one long commercial. I guess that's really what any major industry brewery tour would be though. I remember going to the Coors Brewery in Golden, CO and that wasn't given by a real person, just an audio tour. My favorite part of that was at various intervals, you'd be listening about the brewery process or the kettles or some other part of the operation and a sexy woman's voice would just randomly interject "Cooooors liiiiiiiiiight" like you're deep into a 1-900 number call.
So the tour was overrun with people. Memorial day and all, it's understandable. It took a lot longer than expected but it was interesting. The brewery itself is pristine and very pretty. I've done lots of brewery tours but this is by far the most ornate, most well-orchestrated tour I've been on. There were trolley rides, escalators, numbered displays on the bottling floor for easier sight reference, holding rooms for up to 100 guests, microphones to help the guides project, and they anticipated every question before we asked it.
I got to try a few beers at the end that I had never tried before. The "Wild Black" is a blackberry lager that's basically blackberry cider. It was pretty good but too sweet to drink much of. I also tried Bud Light Platinum, which tasted pretty much like Bud light. It was a fun but tiring tour. Too many people made it a bit too hectic.
The clydesdales were probably my favorite part. They live in stalls bigger than my apartment. And I guess I didn't realize just HOW gigantic they are. I stood about 10 feet away from one and was bowled over by just how massive they are. They are truly magnificent animals. Their stable is more like a rod and gun club. It had wood paneling and stained glass windows, their harnesses are polished and hung in wooden and glass cases. It must be nice to be a Budweiser Clydesdale.
After the tour, we tried to get lunch in the surrounding neighborhood but it was a ghost town. Everything was closed. So we headed back downtown and thankfully found out that there's a Flying Saucer here right by the stadium. They also, even more happily, had pretzels on their menu. I ordered them and they were about 1000 times better than the ones I had the night before.
A big storm cell was headed towards the city so I walked briskly to the City Museum to see if I could squeeze in a visit but I decided to go another day when I got there and found out the roof was closed because of the weather about to hit. But the brief glimpse I got was enough to whet my appetite considerably for the fun in store when I do make it. I decided to see if I could race the storm to the metro stop and just chill for the evening. I barely made it to the stop and the downpour began. The hotel picked me up at the metro stop and it's been a nice quiet night before the insanity of the conference starts tomorrow. I'll be looking forward to more free time and have lots more to explore.
Today Joanna and I started off with a workout, then ate the hotel's AMAZING breakfast buffet. Included in the room rate are made-to-order omelets and waffles, hot buffet with biscuits and gravy, I could go on. I'm still in disbelief at how much further money goes here though.
So we left and headed to agenda item #1 for both of us - The Budweiser Brewery tour in Soulard, south of downtown. Joanna's husband loves beer and she took so many pictures and called him at several points on the tour to help him feel like he was there. He was jealous. We bought him some beer-themed merch at the ridiculous gift shop so hopefully he'll be appeased.
The Budweiser brewery tour, as you can imagine, is a masterful mix of information and marketing. Every word you've ever heard associated with Budweiser, or its affiliates is woven seamlessly into the tour when speaking about the brewing process, the history of the brewery, even when talking about the horses. These words will sound very familiar: crisp, pure, select, hand-crafted, smooth. The scripts the guides use might as well just be one long commercial. I guess that's really what any major industry brewery tour would be though. I remember going to the Coors Brewery in Golden, CO and that wasn't given by a real person, just an audio tour. My favorite part of that was at various intervals, you'd be listening about the brewery process or the kettles or some other part of the operation and a sexy woman's voice would just randomly interject "Cooooors liiiiiiiiiight" like you're deep into a 1-900 number call.
So the tour was overrun with people. Memorial day and all, it's understandable. It took a lot longer than expected but it was interesting. The brewery itself is pristine and very pretty. I've done lots of brewery tours but this is by far the most ornate, most well-orchestrated tour I've been on. There were trolley rides, escalators, numbered displays on the bottling floor for easier sight reference, holding rooms for up to 100 guests, microphones to help the guides project, and they anticipated every question before we asked it.
I got to try a few beers at the end that I had never tried before. The "Wild Black" is a blackberry lager that's basically blackberry cider. It was pretty good but too sweet to drink much of. I also tried Bud Light Platinum, which tasted pretty much like Bud light. It was a fun but tiring tour. Too many people made it a bit too hectic.
The clydesdales were probably my favorite part. They live in stalls bigger than my apartment. And I guess I didn't realize just HOW gigantic they are. I stood about 10 feet away from one and was bowled over by just how massive they are. They are truly magnificent animals. Their stable is more like a rod and gun club. It had wood paneling and stained glass windows, their harnesses are polished and hung in wooden and glass cases. It must be nice to be a Budweiser Clydesdale.
After the tour, we tried to get lunch in the surrounding neighborhood but it was a ghost town. Everything was closed. So we headed back downtown and thankfully found out that there's a Flying Saucer here right by the stadium. They also, even more happily, had pretzels on their menu. I ordered them and they were about 1000 times better than the ones I had the night before.
A big storm cell was headed towards the city so I walked briskly to the City Museum to see if I could squeeze in a visit but I decided to go another day when I got there and found out the roof was closed because of the weather about to hit. But the brief glimpse I got was enough to whet my appetite considerably for the fun in store when I do make it. I decided to see if I could race the storm to the metro stop and just chill for the evening. I barely made it to the stop and the downpour began. The hotel picked me up at the metro stop and it's been a nice quiet night before the insanity of the conference starts tomorrow. I'll be looking forward to more free time and have lots more to explore.
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