See what I did there?? Yeah, I'm cute in my smarty pants!
Since we didn't have to be anywhere until noon on Friday, we were able to enjoy a leisurely start to our day with coffee, conversation, and breakfast at the apartment. We'd picked up bacon and eggs at Aldi's, so I did the bacon in the oven and made scrambled eggs which set us right up for the rest of the day.
Funny enough, when we'd ordered pizza the night before, we looked high and low for a pizza cutter because what dwelling in this country wouldn't have a pizza cutter, right? Nope, never found one and had to go old school with a chef's knife. Then, when I was looking for a whisk to do the scrambled eggs, I found it underneath the egg whipper. Story of my life, a day late and a dollar short every time.
After breakfast and doing the dishes and getting ready, Molly got us an Uber to the riverfront near the arch. It was a scorcher of a day, so we hit the refreshment stand first. The waitress was very friendly and I asked--as I always do on my travels--where she would go to eat a casual supper with friends. She recommended two sandwich places, one more downtown and one in a neighboring district. We decided to ponder our choices over the day and see how we felt.
We rode a replica of a Mississippi steam boat named, of course, the Tom Sawyer. During the one-hour cruise, we learned a lot about the history of St. Louis and it's riverfront enterprises. I got to take pictures of a barge full of fertilizer being unloaded that I could show Captain when I got home. He gets a large charge about that stuff.
It was seriously roasty toasty on the top deck of the boat, and then we decided to hoof it to where we would board the trolley for a tour of downtown. Yeah, we didn't think that one all the way through. It was less than a mile but mostly on an uphill slant, in the heat. Gammy was smart and bought an Italian ice to enjoy on the walk! What I love about walking through older parts of any city is to see the great architecture that was used in those old buildings.
We made it to the trolley stop and got in where it was--thank you--air conditioned. We were joined by another group of four women on a girls' weekend plus a lovely older couple. Our driver was a hoot as she meandered past the many sights of Saint Louis.
One place we saw but didn't tour (which just means we'll have to go back someday) was the old courthouse where the Dredd Scott case was heard. I am ashamed to admit that I had to Google that when I got back to the VRBO that night. I mean, I recognized the name and knew that it had something to do with slavery and the civil war, but nothing more than that. If you are like me and aren't up on that history, I encourage you to just refresh your memories about it. There's a reason history repeats itself; it's because we forgot as times goes by.
Wow, that really wasn't where I meant to go with this. Let me get back on track. Hey...that's a great segue into the trolley thing. Man, I am on fire today!
Okay, so the trolley took us past Union Station which was exciting because that was on our list for Saturday. There is a huge ferris wheel there I would say comparable to the one at Navy Pier in Chicago. I didn't ride the one in Chicago and I had no intention of riding the one in St. Louis, either, but it was cool to see.
The driver pointed out the Anheusher-Busch brewery, also on our list for Saturday. She also said that if you wanted more of the Clydesdale part of the tour to go to Grant's Farm outside of St. Louis where the horses are kept plus the Busch Mansion is there, and it's a doozy!
We drove down Millionaire's Row which is where all the rich folks built houses back in the day. Every single building in St. Louis was brick, but these were over-the-top gorgeous structures set back from the street. They had balconies and porticoes and stone walls. Whew!
When we drove through the grounds of the St. Louis Museum of History, a wedding party was setting up to take photos. I wouldn't personally get married on Friday the 13th...but that's just me.
The trolley drive made an unscheduled stop at the old cathedral and let us explore for about 10 minutes.
Y'all....oh my word, the sheer stunning artistry of the building and the interior was breathtaking. The photos of the inside do not do it justice because there isn't a drop of paint on the interior; it is all mosaic tile work. Are you kidding me right now?!
After that we made a little detour over to a local favorite coffee shop that makes gooey butter cake. Literally, that's the name. Gooey Butter Cake. How good does that sound?! We didn't get any of that, but the iced coffee was good.
The other group of ladies on the trolley asked if the driver could take us directly to the Arch after the tour because they had passes for the 4:00 tram ride. Well, what do you know, so did we? Well, Gammy and Molly did. I don't do heights. The driver was more than happy to take us where we needed to go.
While my peeps were up in the arch, I stayed in the lobby and played on my phone. The next thing I know I'm getting a Snapchat from Molly that says "We're stuck!" Oh geez louise! Yeah, while I was trying to swallow my heart back down out of my throat she called and said, "Just kidding. We're really just down in the museum, come down here." She's so mean!
I met them in the lower level museum which was insanely cool. There were all kinds of maps about the westward expansion of the United States which--again--I was not fluent in. I mean, I know what the Louisiana Purchase was all about but as far as what territory came in when...yeah, I don't remember. The period displays of homes from those early eras were jaw-dropping. Especially since we'd been watching HGTV where every couple has a stroke if they can't have granite counter tops and a massive master en suite. Those pioneers were just glad to have a roof over there head, even if it was made out of sod!
Once we'd filled ourselves with all the history that we could, we decided it was time for supper. We settled on the Gramophone, which was one of the recommendations of our friendly waitress at the riverboat. We got an Uber ride over there, got inside and found a table.
And I couldn't find my phone. It wasn't in my purse, it wasn't in my pocket. I went outside to see if it had fallen on the sidewalk when we got out of the Uber. Nope.
Whereas I would have just gone to Verizon and reported my phone as lost/stolen and gotten a new one, Molly said to wait and let her message the Uber driver to see if it was in his car. Why yes, yes it was, and he would turn around and bring it back to us.
Don't tell me there aren't good people in this world!
With that thorny little problem solved, we ordered sandwiches which were fabulous! I love that a lot of places now give you the option of ordering a half sandwich or just not ordering the side of fries. I can do one or the other (entrée or side) but not both. I didn't take any picture of the inside of the restaurant, but it was super cool with hammered copper ceilings and that fantastic industrial look with the exposed ducts and stuff. I just love that. Oh well.
Molly got us an Uber back to the VRBO and it was jammies and HGTV time. We decided to do a load of laundry since we had sweated through everything we'd worn that day. By the time I took that down to the basement washer/dryer and got back upstairs, I was getting chills and a fever. Great. Luckily I had bought some Zycam gummy things, so I broke them out. It was a rough night, though, and I went to bed early while Molly and Gammy stayed up. I think they had a nice conversation because I vaguely remember hearing them murmuring as I was going to sleep.
Day 2: also a success!
No comments:
Post a Comment