Union Station

Union Station was St. Louis' railroad hub back when long-distance travel meant taking the passenger train. Today it is a shopping center and hotel complex. Still, the architecture is wonderful. And you can't beat lunch at Hard Rock!

















Note to any and all persons who may have ever visited Union Station with us: Even though there seemed to be fewer shops inside, The Fudgery is still there. They still sing. They still give a free sample following the "show." The fudge is still really good!

Kid Paradise

The City Museum is new to St. Louis since we moved away in 1988. (Wow, that's a long time ago!) It is pretty much Mecca if you're a kid (or a kid at heart, or need to keep a kid busy.) It's a re-claimed warehouse/office building with 3+ stories of fun to explore and a human-sized hamster run attached to the outside of the building. Oh yeah, there's also fun on the roof, including a school bus perched OVER the corner, 11 stories up. (Yeah, you can go in. Yeah, the front door opens. Yeah, it's WAAAAY off the ground!!!)

Take a peek!


















You'd be surprised by all the places kids found to crawl around and explore. They had a great old arcade. And an area where they collect architectural details from old buildings being demolished. And several slides where you got on the slide on one floor and ended up down a couple stories. (One slide was made from the rollers at the loading docks, only instead of being flat to push boxes into the storage area, it was tilted for a pretty fast ride!)

All in all, if you're intrigued, or have kids, you should go if you get to St. Louis. Skip the added $$ for the roof if your kids are older than 12-13. Entrance bands are good for the whole day, so pack a lunch!

The Fabulous Fox

One morning we went downtown to take a tour of the Fox Theatre. DH had taken me to a Gordon Lightfoot concert there when we were dating. I was excited to get inside again as it is without a doubt THE most ornate theater I've ever been in.

Mr. Fox reportedly built 5 theaters around the country in the late 1920's. All were named "Fox Theatre." The St. Louis Fox was built in 1927-28 and openend in January of 1929, nearly 11 months prior to the stock market crash of Oct. 29, 1929 which ushered in the Great Depression. Hard to believe when you step through the golden doors......




and into the lobby......







When the theater opened in 1929 it was a movie theater. Can you imagine?? There was an older woman with us on the tour who had grown up in St. Louis. She had gone to the movies at The Fox as a girl/young woman. She didn't say an exact date/era, but did report that when she went, the price of admission was $.35 (thirty-five cents!)

The theater holds 4,425 people. The original Wurlitzer organ which was played when the theater first opened (the films were silent movies at the time!) is still at the front. Turns out this is the theater where the famed Stan Kann played the organ for decades. He made many appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. (Often had a vacuum in tow!)

Today, the movie screen has been removed and the theater houses live productions. It was nearly demolished in the 1970's after a series of rock performances had "nearly trashed" the interior. Thankfully that didn't happen.

This is the stage from the first of three/four balconies.....



The chandalier is 12' across. The little basket above the front curtain was used in the Fox's production of Phantom of the Opera. The phantom swoops down in very dramatic style to take the audience and cast back to the 1800s.

We got to stand on stage and tour back stage. It was interesting to see the signatures of all the people who've performed there on the walls. I photographed a few....like Santana and Richard Harris who performed in Camelot there. We got to see the five stories of dressing rooms.

We got to walk through the Fox Club, which is the second floor of the theater. It costs member corporations $20 to $25,000 a year to belong. For that they get to bring 8 people per night of a show to dinner 1.5 hours before the show and sit in box seats. We got to try the box seats, and frankly I didn't think the view was very great as the top part of ths stage wasn't visible because of the balcony above.

It was all very interesting. (Even the kids seemed to enjoy the tour.)

Today there are only three Fox Theatres remaining: Atlanta, Detroit and St. Louis. The Atlanta theater is purportedly quite ornate, but a different style altogether. The Detroit Fox is said to be a near duplicate of the St. Louis Fox.

The Fox is in St. Louis' "Arts District" which also houses the Powell Theater (now home to either the symphony or opera, I can't remember.) Here are a few scenes from the blocks immediately surrounding the Fox Theatre.

St. Louis Cathedral Basilica

One of the new sites we stopped at while in St. Louis was the Cathedral Basilica. Wow! Here are a few of the highlights.......


The sanctuary (looking to the back from near the front.)



One of the side chapels.




Baptism font.



The altar.



View of altar dome from back.



Another of the four side chapels.




I've never seen such a variety of tpes of marble, mosaic work and gold gilding in my life! I didn't document which year the Pope visited and celebrated mass here to give the church its cathedral/basilica designation. Also failed to realize there was a museum in the basement r.e. the mosaic work. What we did see however, was breathtaking!

Iowa's Hidden Treasures

Our first day of the recent road trip was a day of aimless meandering as we intended to stop for an overnight at Keokuk, IA.

One sign along the 380 loop between Waterloo and Iowa City has intrigued us for a number of years, so we decided--spur of the moment--to make a side stop at Brandon, Iowa.

Brandon is home to "The Largest Frying Pan in Iowa."



Note: the kids refused to get out of the van for this photo op, so you're stuck with yours truly (since we felt viewers might need a sense of scale.)

We stopped in Iowa City for lunch at IHOP and a few gratuitous purchases at the Hawk Shop. (Knowing we are going to miss the state fair this year, dh needed a poster fix for the office.)

The next stop was a planned side trip. Since several Star Trek fans reside in this domicile, we stopped to see the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk--Riverside, IA.



(Note once more the absence of teens. Apparently these sorts of stops are uber embarrassing.)

Keokuk was a lovely, old river town on the Mississippi. I was impressed with how much architecture remained from the early days, all those great details along the tops of building and store fronts. It was definitely eye candy for anyone who likes to look at that sort of thing.

We went down to the Mississippi where we were able to view a paddle wheel boat(normally used as a Visitors Center, but was currently under construction) and a statue of an impressive figure on horseback.







(The teens were enjoying the actual river front with dad as mom wandered around photographing everything like usual.)

Keokuk has a hydro-electric dam across the Mississippi which means all Mississippi river traffic must use a lock to go up or down the river here. We noticed a barge heading up river and some kind fishermen gave directions on how to get to the viewing platform for watching them go through the lock.


The power plant.


The lock.


Coming in; water low.


Going out; barge raised to new level.

There was a very friendly older woman named Alex at the lock with her granddaughter. She was very helpful in telling about the history of the lock & dam at Keokuk, as well as stories about the power plant. As a girl she had toured the facilities with her school group. She talked about the walkway under the lock and the river that goes out to the power plant. She remembered it being VERY loud inside the power plant with all the machines/generators running. She said she had been a bit scared as a girl walking through those tunnels knowing that all that river water was above and around her! It was really interesting to visit with her proving once more that one of the best treasures of the state of Iowa is the people!

Getting Our Kicks.....

. . . down on Route 66!





Just home again from our annual family road trip (a.k.a. "vacation," though we use the term loosely this year as neither my dh nor myself feel very rested or renewed!)

I'll post more pics later. For now just wanted to explain the absence of late.

Editor's Pick

A few of my recent gallery additions over at BetterPhoto.com have been awarded the Editor's Pick. This image, titled "Tattered" is among the award winners.



I like this one because, although it looks at first glance as though it's been processed to be color on black & white, it hasn't. (Notice the green growing on the deck railing on which the flower is perched.) This is just out of the camera.

Also, I like it because it seemed the perfect metaphor for so much of life.

I found the bloom fallen, beneath the green leaves and stems of the day lily...laying on the rocks below. I noticed right away how scarred the flower had become from its fall and it's time spent on the jagged, rough rocks. Yet, it still seemed to me a thing of beauty. Rather than tossing it aside, I decided to photograph it.

As it turns out, it has a delicate strength which gives it a depth of beauty not as easily visible on more "perfect" blooms.

I really like it. I hope you do too!

Slightly Abstract

A couple more photos of the day lilies. These are a bit closer and slightly more abstract.

A study in orange.....



A study in shape.....

What's In Your Backyard?

Here's what's blooming in mine today!

Something yellow . . .



Some oranges . . .



And burnt orange too!




And one last artsy one for the road........

Quiet Holiday

This Fourth of July holiday was unusually quiet for our household.

Typically we are just beginning our family vacation right about this time of year to take full advantage of dh's extra paid time off for the holiday. We've postponed our vacation this year due to summer driver's ed.

Here's a patriotic collage I put together for the magazine. It's made of pictures from our vacation to Philly a few years ago.




We used this for the Parting Shot in the July issue.

Fort Dodge had a nice fireworks display on Friday. We watched from D's office downtown. I could get used to air conditioned, bug-free fireworks displays!

I started in on mitten #2 for the state fair. It's coming along quicker as I'm developing a bit of "muscle memory" in my left hand with the Continental technique.

I found out also that I'm a winner on the Romancing The Yarn blog! They're doing an "Endless Summer Giveaway" and all you have to do is send an email to be entered! These ladies are the best! If you haven't visited their site, the link is on the right side of this blog. Can't wait to see what yarn I've won!

Happy Knitting and Shooting!