Staycation in St. Louis 8/08/08

To celebrate 080808, a group of friends set out to for a staycation right here in St. Louis. We started our weekend events with food; donuts at World’s Fair donuts near the Botanical Gardens. The place is in a classic old white building and looks much like White Castle. There was a line outside the door and the donut I ordered, a chocolate crème variety was moist, not too sweet and held just the right amount of crème to eat on a street corner. The coffee which is a local favorite was too weak to suit me; I still like Starbucks the best. 

From there, we traveled to the Old Courthouse, famous as the home of the Dred Scott decision. The building which was finished in the late eighteen hundreds is absolutely an architectural marvel. It has the classic dome structure and inside the center portico looks up all four floors. There is woodwork throughout that is absolutely gorgeous. There is a display where you can experience the courtroom where what was at the time, a property case, was handed down. The question was whether not Scott was legally free since living in free territories. 

In St. Louis, most people believe that the local ruling that he and his family were legally free was the end of it. The Missouri Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision, holding that Scott was still a slave. This decision was inconsistent with the Court's own precedents. This was the case that was argued at the Old Courthouse. From there, it led to one of the worst decisions in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled individuals of African descent imported as slaves could never be citizens nor sue in court. 

Visitors can climb the steps and look down as well as up at all the classic art work on the ceiling. There is a travelling display of more artwork hanging on the first and second levels. The display includes art featuring National Parks and historic sites and as we admired the pieces, it felt as though we had just done a whirlwind tour of the entire country, from the Grand Canyon to the Acadia National Park in Maine. There were a sprinkling of Civil War historic sites which seemed more than appropriate to be hanging in the site where a bad court ruling made war all the more imminent. 

Saturday morning started with a stop at Dad's Cookies. This a little storefront in the Dutchtown neightborhood and makes a classic oatmeal Scotch cookie. http://www.dadscookies.com/retail.htm 

From there, it was on to the Eugene Field House which is located very near Busch Stadium, across the street from BB’s Jazz and Soups. Eugene Field was born in St. Louis and became a famous newspaper reporter and author of children’s books. The house is actually a toy museum as well in tribute to Field who really never grew up. Our guide told of us his childhood, how many of his siblings died as well as his mother so perhaps that is why he never let go of being a child. She also told us his father, a property lawyer, was involved in the Dred Scott case and was very anti-slavery. His name was Roswell and according to her, the reason that the house is now a National Historic site. I researched Roswell on the internet however and came up empty. http://www.efhouse.org/ 

Touring a historic home left us hungry so after a quick walk around the stadium to find everyone’s bricks, we headed for lunch a Hodak’s, a classic St. Louis fried chicken destination. http://www.hodaks.com/ 

Lunch left us energized and ready for the day’s main event, a tour of the Anheuser Busch brewery. Now that the brewery is controlled by InBev, the selection of tastings after the tour has actually expanded to include more of "my kind of beer". I tasted a Bass Pale Ale and a very rich Porter. The rest of the gang tried a variety of fruit flavored brews as well as the classic, Bud Light. Carol's favorite is one of the low carb Michelob varieties. http://www.budweisertours.com/toursHours.htm We ended our weekend with this but here is a list of some of our upcoming destinations: Bowling Hall of Fame which will leave St. Louis in November Cardinal Hall of Fame Scott Joplin House Gus's Pretzel's