St. Louis: 250 Years (Or, what's with all the cakes?)

We picked a good year to visit St. Louis, even if it was a bad week (tornadoes and record breaking rainfall, what?).  This year marks 250 years since the founding of the city.

There was a special exhibit at the History Museum with influential things from five categories.  50 people, 50 moments, 50 images, 50 places, and 50 objects.  I'm sure it was a hard job to pick just 50 from 250 years, but it gave a really nice overview to the city for someone who'd only passed through once before when she was 16!

In honor of those 250 years there are also 250 large birthday cakes all around the city and metropolitan area in front of large/famous buildings.  I saw 6 while we were there, but one was in passing as I was driving so I got photos of only 5.  It would make for a really fun scavenger hunt as I believe they will be up all year.  Each one is unique and I loved seeing how they related to the building they were in front of.

At the back entrance of the history museum

I was also quite surprised by the heavy influence of the fleur de lis on a lot of them.  I didn't realize that St. Louis had so much French influence, but I suppose it makes sense when you read the history and how closely they are tied to New Orleans since they share the same mighty river.

The history museum is located in Forest Park, which was the site of the 1904 World's Fair.  This cake is in front of the Grand Basin and up on the hill behind is the art museum, the only building left from the fair.  There is one open air pavilion as well though.

For size reference, they were pretty big, and look, I was there!

This one was in front of our hotel, The Cheshire Inn, which is just off the corner of Forest Park.

Yes, we did visit Budweiser, but mainly to see the horses!

This is actually the first one we saw, at the corner of the Arch, but I got a much better picture on the last day there, and I also realized the significance since I'd seen so many by then!

Happy Birthday St. Louis!