April 26, 2012 by Rae

The Missouri Museum of History

It was a drive and a half to get to the Missouri Museum of History from downtown St Louis and then back home again, so I’m glad that it was definitely worthy of a detour. This giant building is housed on the edge of the grounds where the 1904 World Fair was held. The museum has many free exhibits and sometimes has pay ones. Today’s $10 museum exhibit was Missouri and the Civil War. That sounded interesting, but I was pretty exhausted by the time I got to the museum and I wasn’t sure I’d have the energy to do it justice so I decided to skip it.

The museum is on a lovely boulevard lined with historic beauties…

… and modern atrocities

Missouri Museum of HIstory

close up of the museum sign

gorgeous ceiling and a statue of Thomas Jefferson

this was a listing of all the plants brought in for the 1904 World’s Fair

entrance to the 1904 World’s Fair exhibit

lovely desk

the desk was created in Chinese fashion, but had drawers to suit Western tastes

the Woven in Time exhibit

love this!

about the shawl and skirt set

my camera actually recognized that the image in this tapestry is a face

about this tapestry

This is a replica of the Spirit of St Louis; you’ll have to go to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in DC to see the real one. I have. 🙂

About Hunger & Resilience exhibit

this man, Martin, sounded a lot saner than he looks!

text about the exhibit Hunger and Resilience

Marian is a teacher in Texas who experience hunger as a child

all the photos had a box like this; you put on the head set and pressed the button to hear the person tell his or her story

more detail on the replica of the Spirit of St Louis

And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time — TS Eliot

more information about the Currents exhibit, saying that it shows that our basic concerns do not change over time

Currents was the exhibit about historic St Louis

Did you know that Missouri comes from a word that means canoe?

Charles Dickens’ description of the Mississippi

Jeannette Forchet was a free black woman who was widowed twice.

Description of where Jeanette Forchet had her home in 1766. There is a replica of her house beside this map and inside there is a narration of the inventory made of all her worldly goods. This narration is in FRENCH!!!!!!

this replica of a burned building symbolizes the perils 19th century St Louis experienced

explanation of where water came from in 19th century St Louis (hydrants that spewed very muddy water)

copy of someone’s water license (late 19th century)

St Louis water was very murky (Mark Twain said it had an acre of dirt in every tumblerful!). The city got a modern water purification system just before the 1904 World Fair

Who minds the baby when the mother goes to vote? The one who minds the baby when she goes to pay her taxes.

what caught my eye is that the meeting is at 7 1/2 o’clock

Portraits can say as much about those who made them as they do about their subjects.

I love this dress!

here’s that TS Eliot quote again 🙂

more detail on the replica of the Spirit of St Louis

this is an exhibit on modern St Louis

this development was only for couples with four or more children

this is a pretty swanky house, but even though it’s marketed for a family of six, it has only three bedrooms and one bathroom

breakdown of the monthly payment for the home, which includes taxes and fire and tornado insurance

the 1950s kitchens were so pretty

“I won’t be through my work until God takes my voice.” Willie Mae Ford Smith

a horrible race riot

April 26, 2012 by Rae

The St Louis City Museum

The only way I can describe the St Louis City Museum is that it is a giant playground. It was apparently first created for adults, but now it is overrun by kids. The highlight is exploring all the nooks and crannies of various structures that let you climb, slide, and crawl. I had a blast but have to say that it would have been even better if there was an adults only time. There are a lot of structures that I would have liked to try but which I knew I couldn’t clear quickly enough for kids eager to get by. I was proven right when I descended a particularly slick structure, kids decided to come up, and one pushed me such that I got disoriented and stood up, right into a steel bar. I have a nice egg on the top of my head tonight. 😀

I’m going to put the rest of the bla bla bla into the gallery because this place is impossible to describe in words! I think that even the pictures don’t convey it really well. At $13 it is the most expensive St Louis attraction that I could find, but since everything else is so cheap or free and you could easily spend a whole day here I think it gives you a lot of bang for your buck. Wear long-sleeved pants you don’t mind getting dirty and closed-toed shoes. My sandals were a bit too slick in some areas.

entrance to the City Museum

cave tunnel to crawl through

or you can take stairs (you can get through a lot of this place without getting on your hands and knees, but you will need to do so to get the full experience!)

another narrow tunnel (writing says that kids must be accompanied by an adult)

turtles

octopus-like sculpture

entrance into a sea cave

This guy decided to come out and say hi by being vicious and hissing at me.

what the heck is that?!

turtle playing by himself

Big Fish is roaming around

Mr. Turtle takes off in a huff

Big Fish obviously does not find me interesting

Great quote by Jack Kerouac, “The only people for me are the MAD ones…”

this exhibit sounded cool but I think it was under repair

giant Sphinx

architecture museum

about the architecture museum (asks if a 100 year old courthouse should be demolished because it is not ADA)

there is an amazing vintage clothing store on the top floor! this is surely a St Louis hidden gem!

racks and racks and racks of vintage clothing; I didn’t see anything over $25!

stairs up to the vintage clothing shop

this is a wall of safety deposit boxes

entrance to the vault

the inner vault door

pretty arch way

deep in the heart of the cave system

I do not recommend turning around too quicky in the cave system unless you want to embarrass yourself by shrieking. I wasn’t expecting a giant dinosaur, okay?

I climbed up a super narrow staircase only to face this. I turned back. 🙂

looking up towards the top of the TEN STOREY SLIDE

climbing up to the top of the TEN STOREY SLIDE; it is a bunch of spiral staircases that get more wobbly the closer you get to the top…

four floors to go, *pant, pant*

Top of the TEN STOREY slide, looking down. I actually slid down it! Wheeeeee!

the outside portion looks like a mess of metal and get every inch of it is meant to be played on

Can you see the kid in the red shirt climbing up in front of the plane?

Can you see the kid in what looks like a giant slinky?

I didn’t break a sweat crossing this!

kids coming out of the giant slinky

Looking down to the ball pit

Close up of the slinky that leads to the plane. Most of the structures were accessible in a number of ways. I would end up getting very close to that plane.

I went over the walkway, but a smaller person could slide under it and crawl across!

I liked the random columns in the parking area.

There is a giant slinky going from the airplane to the top of the keep.

I bonked my head really well coming down this green structure.

bottom of the keep; the ‘stair risers’ would get higher and higher

partway up the keep, looking at the other plane

At the top of the keep. This slinky was short enough that had there not been a bunch of kids in the plane I would have gone over there.

I started up this structure, but it got really narrow and crowded.

it just keeps spiraling up

this is the lobby area where you buy your tickets

This sign announces the ‘circus’, which is a pretty good clown act. Be prepared to tip the clown as she is a volunteer.

April 26, 2012 by Rae

The Museum of Westward Expansion

The Museum of Westward Expansion is located at the base of the Arch and is free. It’s not free with admission to the Arch, but free period. I couldn’t believe that considering the quality of the exhibits!

entrance to the museum

about the museum

prophetic words about New Orleans

I found these words by Jefferson to be ironic because his country has all of that and is still very unhappy

this ad for mail order brides caught my attention

In 1860, the US’s population was just under 31.5 million, which is just about Canada’s population today!

1867 is Canada’s Conferation Year. I am very impressed that this sign mentions that. In fact, there is a ton of Canadian history interspersed on this series of signs.

close up the 1867 sign

I loved this pensive image of Lincoln

I snapped this one because that’s the year the Klondike Gold Rush began (it’s noted on the sign)

ironic words from Orville Wright, who hoped that his flying machine would end the need for war

FDR’s recipe for world peace

Lewis, about penetrating into uncharted wilderness

Lewis, about his first meeting with Sacawagea

stage coach

a migrant worker took to the road because it did not want someone else to feed him

there were several of these eerily lifelike robots that moved, spoke, and even blinked!

inside of a settler’s cabin

cowboys are apparently part human…

thoughts on reaching the imaginary line between east and west (I feel it very much here, on the banks of the Mississippi)

wagon

the wagon trains compared to great serpents

“All this we have overcome now and we are in the golden land.” J.P. Taylor

giant ship’s wheel

General Sheridan felt that westward expansion would only succeed after all the buffalo were gone.

“War is Hell”, General Sherman

“Taps” played for the last time for General Sherman

the face of the Depression-era migrant works; I can’t believe she was about my age

Thomas Jefferson

April 26, 2012 by Rae

The St Louis Gateway Arch

The St Louis Gateway Arch was built in the early 1960s to symbolize America’s westward expansion. In the 19th century, St Louis was the last big city before the unexplored western frontier and was soon established as a railway hub. The Arch is a weighted or flattened catenary arch that measures 630ft.

My first reaction upon seen it was vertigo. I thought, “There’s no way in hell I’m going up that thing!”

As it turns out, the tram to the top is completely enclosed, so the ride up and down in a cramped car is not terrifying in the least. At the top, there are narrow windows through which you can view the Mississippi River and the city, but it’s almost impossible to look straight down. So folks with a fear of heights shouldn’t be worried about going to the top of the Arch.

To tour the Arch, you have to enter below it. There is an airport-style security checkpoint (I got through without incident). You then buy your ticket ($7 today even though it says $10 on the website) and are told when to line up. They are very strict about being at the gate on time and not a second before. You are assigned at tram car, then hustled up to the tram doors.

The trams sit five and are very small. It’s a four minute climb to the top and you can spend as long up there as you want. When you are ready to come down, you are assigned a tram number. The ride down takes three minutes. I somehow managed to reveal myself as a full-time RVer on both trips and was even asked my blog address. If any of my fellow tram car passengers are reading this, please let me know in the comments! 🙂

The Arch tours are well organized, but the Arch was not constructed for the amount of visitors today. I was on the 9:25 tram and the ones after that had way too many people.

There was one more stop to make in the base of the Arch, but first I decided to take a coffee break. I’d run out of milk this morning, so I hadn’t had coffee. I decided to check out the general store that promised hot beverages. $2 got me a cup of truly excellent coffee made of beans roasted 19th century style. It made me glad I’d run out of milk or I wouldn’t have tried it. It tasted almost like what comes out of my French press and most definitely not like typical brewed coffee. So I’d recommend coming to the Arch first thing to avoid the crowds and then enjoy a coffee before continuing with your day.

standing at the base of the Arch

touching the Arch

the Mississippi River

St Louis

630 ft up, *gulp*

the Mississippi River

okay, that’s a long way down

the Mississippi River

St Louis

the tram doors were 4.5 feet high and surrounded by steel so we had to duck!

coffee from Levee Mercantile

about how coffee was brought to the west

perfect and yummy!

April 26, 2012 by Rae

St Louis Almost Charms the Pants Off Me

I just got in from a full day spent touring St Louis, Mo.

Before I get into the good stuff, I have to get something off my chest. Missourians, why do you hate tourists so much? Driving in St Louis was horrible! I have driven in much bigger cities and never been honked at once. Just about every time I stopped at a red light, I was honked at if I didn’t hit the gas the second the light went green. I earned multiple honks for being cautious when turning left with tons of oncoming traffic bearing down on me. But my absolute favourite nasty habit was that every single time I would signal to change lanes, and I mean every single time, if there was a car behind me in the next lane, it would speed up when my turn signal came on, making it impossible for me to make the lane change and causing me to miss exits and turns. What a way to cause accidents, folks, by getting tourists really frazzled! The other thing that irked me was inconsistent signage to tourist-related things. For example, there is an inexpensive parking lot for visitors of the Arch. You get a few signs indicating which way to go, then good luck, you’re on your own! Even though there is a nice big RV lot, I would not go there without having first plotted out the route and having a navigator.

Okay, enough of that! When I wasn’t hopelessly lost with an equally confused GPS, I was having an amazing day! St Louis was on my bucket list because of its place in American expansion history, but I never really read up much on it. I had no idea that its touristy part would feel so quaint and old worldly. I love walkable cities and appreciated St Louis’ acres and acres of green spaces, walking paths, and easy to navigate city streets. If someone had told me that I would one day visit St Louis while traveling east in a modern day covered wagon, I would have laughed. It just goes to show that you need to leave room in your life plans for surprises.

This post is just generally about my day and I will shortly follow up with individual posts about each attraction, with most of the information given in the photo gallery for each post.

The first thing on the agenda was to find the right parking lot that is just $6 for the day. I’m not sure I found it, but I did find a lot that said $5 for the day that was reasonably close to the Arch, so that was good enough for me. I put a $5 bill in the machine and that got me two gold coins back. Once I was parked, I looked at them and realised they were US $1 coins, which I have only seen once, back in 2007, and which I had a dickens of a time getting people to accept. So, I had put $5 in and got $2 back in change. Why? I went back to the entrance and read the fine print on the sign. Early bird discount! I’d left early to be one of the first up the Arch before the throngs came and it paid off. 🙂

It took a bit of guesswork to find the Arch, but I finally did and was on the last uncrowded tour. I came down and went to the Museum of Westward Expansion, which is in the base of the Arch. It was still really early at that point, so I decided to do the City Museum. The gal at the information kiosk under the Arch said that the City Museum wasn’t walking distance, but it was only about 17 blocks, of which I’d have to walk three just to get back to my car.

By the time I was five blocks or so from the City Museum, it was just past 11:00 and I was hungry. Since the City Museum is interactive and promotes physical activity, I decided it would be a good idea to have lunch first. I was walking down Washington Avenue, a major thoroughfare, so I figured I’d come across a few restaurants. I did, and one of them was a sushi bar, Mizu. It was hot out, so I didn’t want anything too heavy, so this was perfect! The sushi was excellent; I was very impressed! $18 including the tip got me a miso soup that was included in my lunch combo of a tuna roll with four pieces of nigiri, and I added one piece octopus. The salmon sashimi was particularly memorable as it literally melted in my mouth, the way good sashimi should. Mizi Sushi Bar was definitely an expected surprise and I am so glad I gave it a try!

I then spent a couple of hours at the City Museum until the chaos of the children variety drove me out of there.

It was only about 2:00, so I ambled back to the car, and, after much trouble, made it to the Forest Park section of town to visit the Missouri Museum of History. I got out of there in about an hour and decided that I was done for the day. So, I set the GPS for home, was promptly squeezed out of the lane I needed to merge into, and found myself detouring through a section of St Louis I’m pretty sure tourists aren’t supposed to see. I would have taken pictures, but I was afraid to stop the car. 😀

More below:

first glimpse of the Arch

first good glimpse of the Arch

old worldly kind of feel

Eads bridge

the Arch

the Drury Inn was lovely

Mizi Sushi bar; excellent!

Next to Mizi, a pub was serving a beer and cheese soup. If I hadn’t been so full, I would have been tempted. 🙂

nice building seen from the corner of Washington and Tucker

This guy was cleaning the street, and I mean cleaning it. I’ve never seen someone apply cleanser and then scrub a city garbage can before! St Louis was very clean and I complimente this man on his hard work.

Illinois is across the river

final glimpse of the Arch

ice cream truck! haven’t seen one of those in ages!

walking down to the river

Eads bridge, which spans the Mississippi River

A Life By Design

"Sometimes in life, we reach to a right place by departing from a wrong port with a wrong ship!" ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

RVing

The Missouri Museum of History

The St Louis City Museum

The Museum of Westward Expansion

The St Louis Gateway Arch

St Louis Almost Charms the Pants Off Me