Saint Louis

One of the things that you are contractually obligated to do when you’re in St. Louis is go to the top of the Arch, so we of course took the kids over to the massive monument along the Mississippi River. I was eager to take a few pictures from the top, trying out a few different lenses (primarily the fisheye). I carried my big camera bag with me through downtown, through the park, through security, and into the tiny little elevator that goes to the top. When we finally arrived at the observation area, I got my camera out and turned it on. Or tried to turn it on. Turns out that I forgot something – the battery. It was sitting on the charger, back in our hotel room. Whoops.

The amount of time you have at the top is short – only about ten minutes. I managed to get a few pictures with my cell phone before we were herded back into the elevators and sent back down to the ground.





Later on the trip we got a bit of a different view of downtown, this time from the St. Louis Wheel. The Ferris wheel sits by Union Station, and stands 200 feet tall.



Our hotel was right by Union Station, the massive old train station that sits on the edge of downtown St. Louis. The station was built in 1894, and was the largest and busiest train station in the world when it opened.



Ridership at the station peaked in the 1940s, when it saw over 100,000 passengers per day. But by the 1970s, rail travel had declined significantly. The last Amtrak train left the station in 1978, and the once-grand station fell into disrepair. A few scenes for Escape From New York were filmed inside the empty station, like this scene filmed in the Great Hall:



A few years later, the station underwent a massive renovation and was converted into a fancy hotel and an indoor mall.



In the decades since, the attractions at Union Station have changed and evolved. The Hooters and Hard Rock Café are gone, replaced with an aquarium, ropes course and the Ferris wheel.



And here you can see the lights on the wheel, reflected in the windows of a hotel across the street.



From there I headed closer to the river, and ended up at the top of a parking deck that provided a pretty nice view of the Old Court House and the Gateway Arch.



I had to pay $4 to drive around the parking deck and get these shots...



From the Old Courthouse I headed a few blocks over to the Old Cathedral (formally called the Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France). And the Old Cathedral is indeed old, dating back to 1834.



And then I headed back over to the Arch for a few pictures (and this time I remembered to bring the camera battery).



It was a cold night, and the park grounds were quiet and devoid of other tourists and people. Except for a park ranger who drove by, I was the only person out there.









It was starting to get late and I needed to get back to the hotel, but I stopped by one of the ponds in the park for one last shot of the Arch. There wasn't much wind, and the Arch was perfectly reflected in the still waters.