2014-10-24 River Cruise Aboard Tom Sawyer

Karen and I have never met a river cruise we didn't like. We jump at the chance to take one anywhere and anytime we can.

Today's cruise is on the Tom Sawyer out of St. Louis. It's only a one hour cruise but it gets us on the Mighty Mississippi River, our favorite.

As we're walking down to the dock, about 80 elementary children are headed in the same direction we are. This should be interesting.

The kids are eating lunch as we get on board. That leaves the upper deck for us to find a spot before the boat leaves.

The boat HAS a paddlewheel. It doesn't propel the boat nor does it turn. It's just there to complete the "look" of the boat.

The Tom Sawyer blows her whistle at noon and off we head upstream against the 3 MPH current of the river.

There just isn't a way to take a bad picture of the Gateway Arch from the river.

Along the river we saw one of the newest towboats sitting on the riverbank waiting for another towboat and barge to come downriver.

The new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge just opened this past February. It looks very similar to the Alton (Clark) Bridge a few miles upstream.

We turned around about 30 min into the trip. Here's a picture looking back at the Eads Bridge with the Metro train on the lower level.

Pretty ladies.

The dock is just below one of the Arch legs. Taking a picture of the arch on the way back to the car is a no brainer.

We drove around town taking pictures of buildings with great looking architecture. There weren't many.

In contrast, the old Union Station was great looking - inside and out.

Union Station was built in 1894 and by the time the World's Fair of 1904 opened in St. Louis there were 22 railroads using the station. The trains would back into the trainshed to load and unload passengers. The roof covering these trains was the largest roof span in the world.

Here you can almost get an idea of how wide the span is.

Eventually airplanes took away the business of the railroads and in 1978 the last train left the station. The building was converted in the early 1980s into a hotel, shopping center, and entertainment complex.

The hotel has over 500 rooms.

The shopping area had MANY empty storefronts.

There were as many employees eating lunch in the food court as there were shoppers.

Our finale for the evening was a projection show on the ceiling inside the sitting area of the Grand Hall of the Hotel.