Explore St. Louis

It was hard deciding on which to post first, my highlights from Fashion Week or my favorite hot spots from this past week in St. Louis. It's clear now that the St. Louis tour was the clear winner of that debate. Obviously St. Louis isn't completely new to me being that this was my 2nd year attending STLFW but there's just something about the city that feels like home. It didn't hurt that we stayed in the historic {and ridiculously stunning} Union Station Hotel for our trip. Guys, make that your first stop.
{{image c/o @thesocialideal}}

 Aside from the absolutely gorgeous architecture, Union Station, built over a century ago when it first opened it's doors in St. Louis as the biggest and busiest train station of it's time, it also houses a mall, enormous hotel and all our STLFW events. I would have loved to see it in it's prime. Also Union Station has another epic attraction, the Light Show. It's incredible, and we couldn't just watch once, or twice. I think we racked up a good half dozen views during the 5 days we were there.
While Fashion Week took up a good part of our time over the several days of our trip,  we were able to sneak away to the Zoo one day after lunch and spend the entire afternoon wandering the enormous park, stopping for pictures of Elephants (I kid you not, I have 50+ pictures of these pachyderms in my phone), Tigers, Bush Dogs and Giraffes. This zoo legit rivals the Bronx Zoo on acreage and attractions, I'm ready to admit that it's better.
We also hit City Garden for photo opps with the Arch before heading to the St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park. We only popped in for a moment but I remember it quite well from last year's adventure, it's beautiful. Don't try to take your latte in or they'll make you toss it, lesson learned.
As a gal about shopping I was pretty excited to get to spend a good chunk of our morning wandering around The Loop where we stopped by Avalon Exchange and Bluebird Apparel for a little bit of shopping. I grabbed a few midi rings before I called it a day and headed to lunch at Salt and Smoke for some amazing BBQ. Guys, St. Louis BBQ is it. We also hit up Brown Shoe Co. so we could pile in the giant shoe for another photo opp, naturally.
Last but certainly not least we made a special trip to City Museum for some major playtime. This place is one of a kind, it's a( dare I say epic) museum housed in a 600,000 square foot former shoe warehouse. Guys, it's an adults and child's playground, with a ferris wheel on the roof. ON.THE.ROOF.
Of course these outings didn't even begin to scratch the surface of what St. Louis has to offer, it's a beautiful city with so much culture. I'm looking forward to going back and seeing more, this might be my new favorite vacation spot. 

Check out Explore St. Louis for more!