Thursday, May 27, 2004
Trip to St.Louis
The weekend of May-15th, we (Me, my roomie Amit, and my colleague Sripriya) went on a visit to St. Louis. Had heard a lot about the great arch at St. Louis, and seen it too a lot of times on TV, but inspite of staying near Chicago, hadnt got a chance to visit the place till then.
St. Louis arch signifies Anerica's discovery of the area west of Mississippi. The intial settlement in America was mostly on the east coast and had spread till Mississipppi. It was the California gold rush during the late 1840s that made America look further west. At this time, St. Louis, situated on the intersection of the rivers Missourie and Mississippi, became the gateway to the west, and developed a very busy harbor. The arrival of railways strengthened St. Louis as a base for movement of goods, esp b/w the west and the east.
The construction of the steel arch started in 1963. The arch spanning north-south signifies the gateway that St. Louis was to the west. The construction was completed in 1965, with the last final section to top the arch placed on Oct 28, 1965, an event watched by abt 30k ppl!
The arch is a symbol of American creativity and marketing ingenuity! It was constructed at a cost $23 million, and I guess in a yr abt 300k ppl visit the arch in an yr, paying $10 for the visit. That means, in a couple of yrs, the investment is returned, and the city is left with a booming tourist market. All this out of nothing!
We started abt 7am and reached St. Louis downtown at abt 2pm, with last one hr spent on the exit from I-55 to downtown because of traffic jam :-( Downtown St. Louis has almost every road marked one-way alternately. We got to know of an Indian restaurant in Olive Street in downtown. We parked the car nearby and went to the restaurant, only to find it closed! Then we got the shock of our lives as we saw one after another restaurant in downtown closed.....all restaurants open only on weekdays!!!! By this time Amit was in a hurry to relieve, and we entered the tall office area - the Millenium Tower - searching for a restroom, only to be told that the tower is closed during weekends! By now, Amit was getting desperate, and finally we did find one restaurant that was open. Amit got a shock when we entered the restaurant and were greeted by a big board that said "No public restroom"!!! It took some time for us to figure out that it meant no restrrom for non-customers.
Although the food in the restaurant was nothing great, Amit was one statisfied person after using the restroom :) And roaming thru the streets of downtown gave us an idea why St. Louis is not the safest of the areas. With a huge black population, the downtown areas did not look safe even during day time.
After luch, we parked our car on the river-side and visited the marvellous arch. There is a trip every half-hr in a tram kind of thing that takes u to the top of the arch. From the top of the arch you get a pretty nice view of both the downtown areas on the west as well as the river-side on the east.
We toook the last trip down the arch, and the spent some time relaxing in the lawns at the base of the arch. We intended to take a dinner cruise along the Mississippi, but by the time we arrived at the river-side the cruise was completely booked. Sripriya was one dejected person on missing the cruise ;-) Later we visited the Union Station shopping mall. This place was a railway station, till air transport took over America, and travel by train became less popular. This place was deemed too big for a train station(!!!) and the tran station was moved to another bulding and this area was made a shopping mall. It is pretty nice place, and we spent a couple of hrs there.
Later in the nite we visited the Presidential casino on the river-side. We decided to return back home the same nite. However, on our way we decided to stay back one more day to visit Meramec caves, abt 60 miles south-west of St. Louis. We stayed at a inn owned by a desi at Troy, IL.
The next day we visited Meramec caves....it was a pretty nice place - like the Lookout mountain caves we had visited in Chattanooga. With millions yr old rock formations, stalcamites and stalgamites, Meramec caves had some nice scenic formations. There was a caoneing facility also near the caves, but we did not do canoeing because we had to be back that evening. The drive b/w Meramec and St. Louis is pretty scenic along the rolling hills. And that evening we were back home.
Once bitten, twice shy.
The weekend of May-15th, we (Me, my roomie Amit, and my colleague Sripriya) went on a visit to St. Louis. Had heard a lot about the great arch at St. Louis, and seen it too a lot of times on TV, but inspite of staying near Chicago, hadnt got a chance to visit the place till then.
St. Louis arch signifies Anerica's discovery of the area west of Mississippi. The intial settlement in America was mostly on the east coast and had spread till Mississipppi. It was the California gold rush during the late 1840s that made America look further west. At this time, St. Louis, situated on the intersection of the rivers Missourie and Mississippi, became the gateway to the west, and developed a very busy harbor. The arrival of railways strengthened St. Louis as a base for movement of goods, esp b/w the west and the east.
The construction of the steel arch started in 1963. The arch spanning north-south signifies the gateway that St. Louis was to the west. The construction was completed in 1965, with the last final section to top the arch placed on Oct 28, 1965, an event watched by abt 30k ppl!
The arch is a symbol of American creativity and marketing ingenuity! It was constructed at a cost $23 million, and I guess in a yr abt 300k ppl visit the arch in an yr, paying $10 for the visit. That means, in a couple of yrs, the investment is returned, and the city is left with a booming tourist market. All this out of nothing!
We started abt 7am and reached St. Louis downtown at abt 2pm, with last one hr spent on the exit from I-55 to downtown because of traffic jam :-( Downtown St. Louis has almost every road marked one-way alternately. We got to know of an Indian restaurant in Olive Street in downtown. We parked the car nearby and went to the restaurant, only to find it closed! Then we got the shock of our lives as we saw one after another restaurant in downtown closed.....all restaurants open only on weekdays!!!! By this time Amit was in a hurry to relieve, and we entered the tall office area - the Millenium Tower - searching for a restroom, only to be told that the tower is closed during weekends! By now, Amit was getting desperate, and finally we did find one restaurant that was open. Amit got a shock when we entered the restaurant and were greeted by a big board that said "No public restroom"!!! It took some time for us to figure out that it meant no restrrom for non-customers.
Although the food in the restaurant was nothing great, Amit was one statisfied person after using the restroom :) And roaming thru the streets of downtown gave us an idea why St. Louis is not the safest of the areas. With a huge black population, the downtown areas did not look safe even during day time.
After luch, we parked our car on the river-side and visited the marvellous arch. There is a trip every half-hr in a tram kind of thing that takes u to the top of the arch. From the top of the arch you get a pretty nice view of both the downtown areas on the west as well as the river-side on the east.
We toook the last trip down the arch, and the spent some time relaxing in the lawns at the base of the arch. We intended to take a dinner cruise along the Mississippi, but by the time we arrived at the river-side the cruise was completely booked. Sripriya was one dejected person on missing the cruise ;-) Later we visited the Union Station shopping mall. This place was a railway station, till air transport took over America, and travel by train became less popular. This place was deemed too big for a train station(!!!) and the tran station was moved to another bulding and this area was made a shopping mall. It is pretty nice place, and we spent a couple of hrs there.
Later in the nite we visited the Presidential casino on the river-side. We decided to return back home the same nite. However, on our way we decided to stay back one more day to visit Meramec caves, abt 60 miles south-west of St. Louis. We stayed at a inn owned by a desi at Troy, IL.
The next day we visited Meramec caves....it was a pretty nice place - like the Lookout mountain caves we had visited in Chattanooga. With millions yr old rock formations, stalcamites and stalgamites, Meramec caves had some nice scenic formations. There was a caoneing facility also near the caves, but we did not do canoeing because we had to be back that evening. The drive b/w Meramec and St. Louis is pretty scenic along the rolling hills. And that evening we were back home.
Once bitten, twice shy.
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