I can't believe it has taken me this long to blog about our quick trip to St. Louis this past December!
Last fall Matthew mentioned that we should try and mark off every hockey arena in the country by attending an away Predator's game or two a year. I loved the idea and we started looking at away games for the rest of the year. We had already planned to take some time around Christmas off, so we found an away game a couple of days after Christmas and purchased our tickets!
Two days after Christmas we packed up and headed towards St. Louis. It was a about a 5 hour drive and it was one of my favorite parts of the trip! We listened to Christmas music and talked about everything under the sun to pass the long, very flat, trip!
We got to St. Louis a little after lunch and we were greeted by the Arch! We headed to our hotel to get settled and refresh for the game that night. Matthew surprised me and booked our stay at the Union Station hotel in downtown St. Louis. It was in the perfect location for us as it was a short walk over to the arena. It was absolutely beautiful and it was still decorated for Christmas.
It was bitter cold when we arrived and the wind was harsh. I'm almost positive we lost feeling in our hands and face walking into the hotel.
We added on a couple of layers of our Pred's attire and then headed to the game! We got an Uber to take us over to the arena because it was just so cold, but ended up cutting our ride short and walking the rest of the way due to some unexpected road closures.
We had originally thought it would be fun to eat at every arena and compare the arena food, but quickly changed our minds after dropping over $30 for a "snack" because they had already sold out of pizza...we're too cheap for that, ha!
The game was so good and we won, 2-1! The fans around us were actually really friendly, we were a little worried about being fans of the away team, but they were all nice.
Our goal is to get a picture in front of every hockey arena and make a collage one day! We saw a small group of Pred's fans and asked them to make our picture in front of the arena. Turns out, their parents go to our church, such a small world!
If our red noses didn't give it away, it was even colder that night! It was about 8 degrees and there was a little snow on the ground.
We decided to just walk back to our hotel and ended up eating a late dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, since it was the only place that was still open. Such a fun night and the atmosphere was even better!
The next day we decided to see the Arch while we were in town and it was awesome. There was a ton of construction going on around it so that led to about 30 minutes of parking frustration, but we finally found where to go. Thankfully we didn't have to stand in line long at all and we got right in.
We took our time and looked out all the windows to take in the views. So incredible and because it was windy that day we could definitely feel the Arch sway a bit- not the most pleasant thought, but we learned that it was built to sway with the wind a bit. So cool, but still a bit scary!
I picked up this beautiful ornament in the gift shop to remember our trip by as well as a post card to add to our travel postcard collection!
After the Arch we had lunch at an adorable Italian restaurant right down the road from the Arch,
Angelo's Taverna. I think it is safe to say, we had the best thin crust pizza ever there. The sauce was absolutely incredible. We also had a pretty great view of the Arch from our new lunch spot!
After lunch we hit the road and headed back home. It was a quick trip, but it was so fun and we got to do quite a bit! A huge thank you to my sister for staying at our house with Reagan while we were gone. Reagan loved some time with her Aunt Mady!
We are eagerly waiting for the Pred's to release their schedule in a few months so we can decide on which arena we want to mark off our list next!
