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.

2014-10-23 Meet Me in St Louis Arch

First off, let's get the name straight. Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The memorial commemorates the Louisiana Purchase, the slavery debate because of the Dred Scott case, and the first civilized government west of the Mississippi.

So what's here?
There's a 91 acre park, the Old Courthouse, a museum (Museum of the Westward Expansion) inside the Arch, and the Gateway Arch itself.

Our walk from the parking lot to the Arch was lined with trees dressed in their fall colors. I don't think we need to go to Vermont to see trees change colors. They are everywhere. And Vermont certainly doesn't have THIS as a backdrop.

We bought tickets online last night so that we could get in one of the 8 elevator cars (they hold 5 people each) at the time we wanted. The set of cars leaves every 10 minutes.

Here's what ONE of the elevator pods looks like. As they go from the basement of the Arch, up a leg, and then to the top, and they rotate to keep you level.

The stainless steel arch is such a beautiful structure. The triangular bases are 51' on all three sides at the bottom. They taper to 17' at the top where the observation area is located.

Once you are up to the top you'll find room for about 100 people.

These are the windows you get to look out of. There is a set of 16 on each side.

The Old Courthouse is sitting to our west. I see they are putting a lid over the freeway to make access to the Arch easier.

We can also see the St Louis Cardinals baseball team's stadium. (If they had made it into the World Series this city would have been a zoo this week)

Artsy Fartsy shot of the Arch's shadow.

Karen's dreaming about a cruise on the Mississippi River again.

They are rebuilding their floodwall and McDonald's used to have a floating restaurant on the waterfront.

The Museum of the Westward Expansion is confusing. It looks like 1/2 of a wagon wheel and it doesn't lend itself well to following westward expansion in a chronological order. You just kind of wander around.

The back wall has panels of Lewis and Clark's journey from St Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. The panels use words from the writings of about 6 of the men who kept journals.

There were some working audioanimatronics also. This guy explained how he was choosen to make the peace medal that they took with them.

Sadly, some weren't working and just held their head down in shame.

We walked up to the Old Courthouse and it is really pretty inside.

History lesson time. This courthouse heard the Dred Scott case. Dred was a slave but his owner moved to a non-slave state and then back again and by the laws of the state he should have been free. So he sued for his freedom. The ruling was that Africans could not claim citizenship and therefore could not bring suit in court. The judge basically ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.

The resultant public outrage increased tension between the North and the South, prompted Abraham Lincoln to re-enter politics, and led to the Civil War.

Karen has a great eye for finding these lovely shots to take.