We haven’t been to the St. Louis area for about 12 years, so we thought we’d take a 3 day weekend trip down there.
Originally we planned to go over Labor Day but now we’re thinking of driving down on 4th of July weekend.
I have a couple of things planned so I need no advice on that. What I want to know is, wheres the best place to watch fireworks on the 4th? Do they shoot any off in the vicinity of the arch?
Here’s the official website for the Fair downtown http://celebratestlouis.org It used to be 3 days, but it appears they’ve cut it back to two.
Yes, they launch an awesome fireworks display from the river directly in front of the arch. It’s real big-city stuff, not like your local JayCees put on in the HS football stadium.
And a couple hundred thousand people are there to watch it. The front-and-center spots on the steps from the Arch grounds down to the river start filling up at 4 pm and people sit there in the hot sun for 4 hours until the sun sets and then another hour until the fireworks start. That’s a bit much IMO.
The whole fair event is big enough, and the fireworks are big enough, that you can be anywhere in the Arch / Cathedral / Laclede’s Landing area and still have a good view. I lived in a high rise in the CWE 6-ish miles west of downtown and enjoyed the show from my balcony most years. It’s still pretty impressive even from that far away.
FYI, the moment the fireworks end, about 80% of the crowd will go directly to their car and sit in gridlocked traffic for 60-90 minutes trying to leave the area.
IMO, the ideal place to watch is on a boat in the river. They’ll let boats be close eough for a good view. But unless you have a local pal with a suitable boat, you’re stuck. Another great option is from a hotel room facing the river. But I hear those are reserved for a couple years out already.
There are lots of smaller shows in the various suburban towns. I don’t have a good catalog of them, nor enough experience to handicap them.
Bottom line:
The downtown event is a spectacle worth seeing. I’ve done it a couple times. If the rest of the fair (really concerts & food booths and kiddie amusements) is interesting to you, and you’re OK with a big concentrated crowd and big concentrated traffic then go for it.
OTOH, if you’re looking for convenient, find another show. There aren’t hidden secret spots to watch from. The demand for even tolerable spots utterly overwhelms the supply. Or at least has done so in past years.
There’s no comparison with any of the community fireworks displays and what you’ll see at the Arch. People who work downtown actually come to their office buildings on the evenings of the Fair to watch.
However this site suggest there may still be tickets available for the fireworks cruise on July 3 (the 4th is sold out.)
On the East side, the Casino Queen hotel and RV park are rumored to have great views of the fireworks, but I can’t confirm or deny.
The town of Webster Groves has one of the better small community shows, paired with their annual carnival, parade, and ‘Community Days’ celebration, which lasts four days. Usually there are fireworks on the 3rd and 4th. The venue is right at Highway 44 and Elm, at the community recreation complex and grounds. This is a very popular event, and like downtown, good viewing spots go early in the day.
Again, this is a larger small community show and certainly not in the same league as the stuff on the riverfront.
I hear it’s possible to see both the Webster AND Arch shows by getting just the right position on one of the 44 overpasses, but it seems to me that would be too far to really enjoy or appreciate the downtown show.
Other communities are reputed to have good shows, but I’m not in a position to rate them.
Then what you want is In My Humble Opinion rather than General Questions.
MOved.
samclem, Moderator
As a Minnesotan, where legal fireworks are tiny and go ‘pop’, I enjoyed my time in Saint Charles, where I done blowed some shit up real good.
“Do they shoot fireworks off near the arch” has a factual answer.
The downtown fireworks are FANTASTIC. Like really really cool. But it’s such a pain to go see them that I haven’t bothered for a few years. Checked them out in St. Charles instead 2 years ago and those were not bad. Last year the weather was gross so I only saw random displays from my car driving by across the burbs. I went on one of the fireworks cruises before downtown and it was awesome. I really recommend getting on one of those, it’s the best seat in the house and way less cramped quarters than the riverfront.
That’s another thing to consider. The weather in St. Louis is almost always gross on the 4th of July. A typical 4th consists of lots of sunshine early in the day to heat things up, then a thunderstorm in the afternoon, that doesn’t cool things down, but adds enough humidity to make a dog sweat.
Having said that, I note that the current forecast for July 3 (haven’t seen one for the 4th yet) is for partly cloudy and a high in the mid-80s, which sounds to good to be true.
The few times that we’ve gone to St Louis to watch the fireworks under the Arch, we’ve taken a couple of blankets with us and sat on the lawn in front of the Old Courthouse. We get there about an hour before the fireworks start, and have never had a problem finding enough room to spread out.
If you are just trying to see fireworks, then avoid a lot of the crowds and go to Kiener plaza. The view from there with the Arch and Old Courthouse is fantasic. There are $5 parking garages off pine street (which is a block away) that can provide easy access to the interstates
We’re back. Heres what we did:
Friday, July 2nd: Drove down to St. Louis (from Milwaukee). It only took 5 hours and 15 minutes. I swear to the god I don’t believe in I didn’t exceed any posted speed limits.;):dubious:
Checked into our hotel and then went and ate at Hodaks. GythaOgg was correct that the portions are generous but the chicken is somewhat bland. The coating is a [I believe] corn meal flour. If you go get the BBQ version. Even bland it is good, and inexpensive. We ate and drank like 2 hedonist on death row and it costs us less than 40 bucks total including a generous tip.
As usual my wife and I entertained ourselves by people watching. There were 2 old whorebucks (75+ years old) that were there with 2 young (older than 18 but under 25) hookers. Hilarious observations and conversations overheard!!!:p:p:p
**Saturday July 3rd: **We had lunch Pappy’s Smokehouse. My son told me about this place. He’s trying to top me in being the travel master. Like our other kids he’s been to 40 states because of his upbringing, and collected 4 more on his own. But he’s still behind his old man!
But he has surpassed his siblings in states visited.
The food at Pappy’s is crazy good. But I rate the sauce (and I tried them all) as being “good”. Not very good or great, and not fair or poor. Just good.
Saturday afternoon we visited Anheuser-Busch brewery. 2 samples my ass. Nobody counted how many anyone had. I drank at least 8
full glasses of brewery fresh beer.
Saturday evening we went to the Gateway Arch. I purchased tickets online to go up. I had already gone up the arch years ago when I was a kid and my Father was doing his 50 X 50 goal. (he failed. He was at 42 when he was 50, and 44 when he died at 55). But my wife had never gone up. She hated the trip! The small capsul they put you in is very cramped!
Afterwords we got on the fireworks cruise that I was able to get otherwise sold out tickets to. The meal was very good and the docking area was perfect to watch fireworks from. Getting back to our hotel after the fireworks was a mother fucker. 6,000,000,000 Zillion people in the downtown area all at once! Khrist!
Sunday, July 4th We went to a couple of wineries just south of St. Louie. Then went back to our hotel and relaxed at the pool sipping wine and Stag beer, which isn’t great, but for $4.49 a 12 pack isn’t bad either. The lable says it’s made by G. Heileman in Milwaukee, but this is bullshit. It’s made in Texas. This isn’t sold anywhere in Wisconsin. There was a city park close to our hotel that was doing fireworks and we got to see those from the pool. Not as spectacular as those down by the arch, but so what?
Monday, July 5th: We slept in and then hit the road. It took us 6 hours and 30 minutes to get back to Milwaukee as the restaurant we stopped for lunch at had the slowest wait staff in the world!:mad::mad:
Having met our goal of visiting all 50 states we’re running out of places to go to in America. Yes, we travel internationally. But not in 4 days.
We’re back. Heres what we did:
Friday, July 2nd: Drove down to St. Louis (from Milwaukee). It only took 5 hours and 15 minutes. I swear to the god I don’t believe in I didn’t exceed any posted speed limits.;):dubious:
Checked into our hotel and then went and ate at Hodaks. GythaOgg was correct that the portions are generous but the chicken is somewhat bland. The coating is a [I believe] corn meal flour. If you go get the BBQ version. Even bland it is good, and inexpensive. We ate and drank like 2 hedonist on death row and it costs us less than 40 bucks total including a generous tip.
As usual my wife and I entertained ourselves by people watching. There were 2 old whorebucks (75+ years old) that were there with 2 young (older than 18 but under 25) hookers. Hilarious observations and conversations overheard!!!:p:p:p
**Saturday July 3rd: **We had lunch Pappy’s Smokehouse. My son told me about this place. He’s trying to top me in being the travel master. Like our other kids he’s been to 40 states because of his upbringing, and collected 4 more on his own. But he’s still behind his old man! But he has surpassed his siblings in states visited.
The food at Pappy’s is crazy good. But I rate the sauce (and I tried them all) as being “good”. Not very good or great, and not fair or poor. Just good.
Saturday afternoon we visited Anheuser-Busch brewery. 2 samples my ass. Nobody counted how many anyone had. I drank at least 8
full glasses of brewery fresh beer.
Saturday evening we went to the Gateway Arch. I purchased tickets online to go up. I had already gone up the arch years ago when I was a kid and my Father was doing his 50 X 50 goal. (he failed. He was at 42 when he was 50, and 44 when he died at 55). But my wife had never gone up. She hated the trip! The small capsul they put you in is very cramped!
Afterwords we got on the fireworks cruise that I was able to get otherwise sold out tickets to. The meal was very good and the docking area was perfect to watch fireworks from. Getting back to our hotel after the fireworks was a mother fucker. 6,000,000,000 Zillion people in the downtown area all at once! Khrist!
Sunday, July 4th We went to a couple of wineries just south of St. Louie. Then went back to our hotel and relaxed at the pool sipping wine and Stag beer, which isn’t great, but for $4.49 a 12 pack isn’t bad either. The lable says it’s made by G. Heileman in Milwaukee, but this is bullshit. It’s made in Texas. This isn’t sold anywhere in Wisconsin. There was a city park close to our hotel that was doing fireworks and we got to see those from the pool. Not as spectacular as those down by the arch, but so what?
Monday, July 5th: We slept in and then hit the road. It took us 6 hours and 30 minutes to get back to Milwaukee as the restaurant we stopped for lunch at had the slowest wait staff in the world!:mad::mad:
Having met our goal of visiting all 50 states we’re running out of places to go to in America. Yes, we travel internationally. But not in 4 days.
Glad you enjoyed. I’m 20 and haven’t been to the VP Fair (riverfront show) yet. I can’t be around that many people, I will go crazy. Also I seen the traffic before, I’ll pass. Plus, why watch fireworks when you can pop them… You probably won’t be back to MO for a while but I heard Branson is nice. Time you start traveling the seven seas.
We have. We’ve already been to Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, Central America, and, yes, Canada.
But now that I’m semi-retired we have to watch the budget a bit.
Stag beer? Yeesh, I didn’t realize they were still making that stuff. I was seriously thinking about giving it a mention in the “What’s the worst beer you ever drank?” thread.
Glad you had a good time though.
Actually I’ve become quite fond of it. It has a decent head and a nice after taste. The flavor in the middle is what I describe as “beery”. For the price it’s certainly better than Milwaukees Best.
I bought a case to bring back. They don’t sell it in Wisconsin (even though it says G. Heileman Milwaukee on the label I believe it’s made in Texas. I did a distributor search and could not find it being sold anywhere in the Land o’ Cheeze.)
But it’s all a matter of tastes. One mans poon is another mans poison. You like what you like and you don’t like what you don’t like and that’s that.
I, for one, can’t stand Miller Genuine Draft and High Life. They taste like soapy dish water to me. It’s too bad. They’re cheap (High Life is, anyway). On a clear day I can see the brewery from my back yard. I’d love to be able to drink/support a local beer. I’ve even tried to get myself to like the stuff. Ain’t gonna happen.
But every one I know loves the stuff. So who’s bat shit nuts, me or everyone else?
Like I said, it’s a matter of taste.
