With the long weekend upon us, no doubt you've got some cheapy freeloaders crashing on your couch, looking to you for entertainment. Here are eight great diversions to while away the time, selected while we were researching last year's Best of St. Louis awards. Speaking of, this year's Best of St. Louis awards are just around the bend -- have you cast your vote yet? Better get on it.
Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour(12th and Lynch streets; 314-577-2000) What's the best kind of beer? Free beer, of course. And at the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour guests get to indulge in two free samples of A-B products at the end of their visit. But don't get sidetracked by boozy daydreams. The tour itself takes visitors through the entire process of making those delicious beverages. History, agriculture, politics, marketing, baseball and Clydesdales - these are just some of the topics that tour guides introduce guests to while walking along the same path that their beverages follow. Whether they make your drink of choice or compete with it, it's impossible to deny the impact of big brick factory that towers over I-55 south of downtown on the history of our city, and visitors get to hear a big part of the reasons how and why straight from the horse's mouth on the hourlong tour.
Cherokee Street Branching out both east and west from the thirteen-foot-tall Native American standing at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Cherokee Street, no area has seen a greater resurgence in recent years than the strip of shops, restaurants, apartments, art galleries, record stores and more that we call Cherokee Street. Once upon a time, streetcar lines made the area the commercial district of south city, populated by dry-goods stores, theaters, druggists and saloons, Cherokee Street was more recently viewed as a mostly neglected area known only for its Mexican restaurants and antique stores. Today, the street boasts one of the city's most walkable areas. And, of course, it's still home to the best Latin American cusine and antique row in St. Louis. Whether its Cinco de Mayo, the Print League Holiday Sale, Cookie Spree or just a Saturday afternoon, locals and tourists strolling along Cherokee Street always discover new treasures.
City Museum (701 N. 15th Street; 314-231-2489) Simply put, City Museum is a museum like no other. One of the late Bob Cassilly's masterworks, the City Museum allows children to run free and adults to become children. More of a playground than an actual museum, the City Museum engages your mind through activity and whimsical scenery that visitors are not just allowed but encouraged to touch, to use and to walk upon. From its tangled-up and visually jarring exterior, which includes rooftop vehicles, towers and Big Eli, a four-story Ferris wheel, to its colorful and highly detailed interior, where slides, a 76-foot-long pencil and numerous local architectural artifacts wait for your investigation, the City Museum promises an experience unique to our little town on the river for visitors of all ages.
