We’ve discovered that, when we are going to be in a city or location for a short time, we rely on organized tours to give us an overview of the locale. In this case we opted for the services of the Grayline Tour folks. The tour bus picked us up at the Cahokia RV Parque at about 8:45 AM for our spin around Saint Louis, MO.
Because we were the second couple picked up, we spent the greater part of the next picking up other members of our group. That wasn’t a bad thing. We got to know our driver/tour guide and learned miscellaneous stuff along the way.
Our first stop was a little unscheduled because we were waiting for a couple to arrive. We wandered inside the ornate old Union Railroad Station, portions of which had been turned into shops. Due to camera problems, most of the shots inside the station were useless. However I did get this one ofthe Tiffany stained glass window above the Station’s main entryway features three women representing the main U.S. train stations during the 1890s: New York, St. Louis and San Francisco.
One thing that made it interesting was that we were having our tour on All Star Baseball Day. Many of the downtown roads were closed to traffic. They even had this red carpet running for several blocks for a parade of the players.
Statues of all sorts and nationalities of dignitaries strewn the avenues.
We had the option of touring the Gateway Arch, the nation’s tallest monument, or Anheuser Busch factory, home of Budweiser Beer. Since we knew we’d be thirsty, we opted for the latter.
The Arch, however, is hard to miss when in the area. You see it everywhere. When you’re trying to take a picture of a church…….
Or in the reflection of other buildings.
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Saint Louis was the site of the 1904 World’s Fair. Most of the buildings from the fair were torn down after the exhibition. A few still remain. Here are a couple of examples.
At the site of the old fairgrounds, there is a park which houses several museums, gardens, golf courses, and beautiful homes. Here are a couple of examples.
The History Museum was one of our stops. Notable exhibits were those of The 1904 World’s Fair and of Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis.
They even had a mock-up of the plane’s cockpit.
They had a statue of Thomas Jefferson looking a lot like Abraham Lincoln. He was president at the time of the Louisiana Purchase (Including Missouri) back in 1803.
We have a really lousy connection at the moment and will continue later.
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