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That's Big Boy's engine number for the Union Pacific Railroad. This was as close as I could get with my longest lens when it was at St. Louis Union Station Saturday. The thing exudes power.                

DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?

 

This modified freight container sits in the rides and amusements section of St. Louis Union Station. We sometimes refer to our town as The Lou. However, I'd wager that most people who pass by here don't get the British-ism. There are the usual symbols on the doors to the right, which solves the problem. It's clever, but does it communicate well?             

THE PATH TO WORLD PEACE

 

Would that it were so simple.

There is a restaurant at St. Louis Union Station simply called The Soda Fountain. It serves kid-pleasing, bad nutrition food, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, mac and cheese, curly fries, etc. The big draw is outrageous, huge ice cream concoctions. The one my son ordered for the table, called The King, was too much for the four of us. No one felt quarrelsome when we left.              

INTRODUCTION TO THE DEEP

 

In the entry hall of the St. Louis Aquarium. The watery projections constantly change but the circle in the center is a window into the world of real fishies. Son Andy and granddaughter Josie stare into the depths.

Of course, this is in our once-grand railway station, hence the arch with the indication To Trains. The corridor leads to a mock train car, whose windows take you on a spectacular VR ride through and over the city, and down into the Mississippi.                  

WET MEDUSA

 

A kid tour of St. Louis includes the Aquarium at Union Station. It's not Seattle or Chicago, but it's not bad. I always get pictures of the jellyfish, sub-phylum Medusozoa, named to the mythological Medusa, who has snakes for hair. They are unperturbed by our presence.                

UNION STATION

 

St. Louis Union Station is across the street from the fountain and sculptures seen yesterday. It was opened in 1894 and was at the time the largest railway station in the world. (We used to be somebody.) Passenger rail service is long gone. Much of it is now a fancy hotel. Out behind contains restaurants and amusements. We are grateful that it has been preserved.             

NOT A CATHEDRAL

But rather a train station, or it used to be one. Now it’s the barrel vault ceiling of the St. Louis Union Station Hotel, where we are spending the night before our early train to Chicago. There is a light show in the lobby every evening. I’ll add some more detail during our ride on Friday.                        

FOUR BASIC FOOD GROUPS

Low on material so a bit of filler. This is part of the facade of a restaurant called The Soda Fountain at St. Louis Union Station. My grand kids go wild about the over-the-top ice cream desserts. But if you want a Manhattan instead of a side of fries, you're good. Want a shot of rum in your sundae? They got you covered.

LOTS of photo ops coming up here. Mrs. C and I are going to the annual orchid show at the botanical garden today. Our surprisingly big Mardi Gras parade is Saturday. As always, I'll be there.              

THE ELLIE AND AUDREY SHOW, PART 2

Low on material, so why not bring back my impossibly cute granddaughters. Audrey, on the left, and Ellie were riding the big Ferris wheel at Union Station. Ellie has her indispensable cloth lambies.         

ALIEN LIFE FORMS

Lighting courtesy of the St. Louis Aquarium. This is a photo stop every time I take the kids through but the colors are always different.                

PILE ON

Our aquarium's inhabitants are not limited to fish. Anything approximately wet is within its scope. I don't know what species of turtle these are but they they seem to equally like company and a heat lamp.              

STEAMPUNK SUBMARINE

St. Louis Union Station has had an aquarium since its last redevelopment. It's not on the scale of, say, New York or Chicago, but the kids like it.  The entry area is full of LED screens which, at least at the moment, are made to look like a scene from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.                  

FEARLESS AUDREY

 

Granddaughter Audrey, 8, concedes nothing to her father, Andy, when it comes to adventurousness. She is zooming down the zip line with arms outstretched, having no need to hold the cable. After this run she did it again.        

ZIP

One of the overpriced but fun attractions at Union Station is what they call the ropes course. You strap and buckle into a harness, click into a overhead guide channel, and off you go, up to three levels above the floor.

Ellie has been just dying to do this. She is too big for the kiddie course but not big enough for the main event without an adult. Neither of her parents have been comfortable with the heights. My creaky spine and joints are of no use. Son Andy, flying through the zip line section, was the perfect guide. We don't know how he got his athletic ability. Certainly not from his parents.           

STL DPB BACK HOME - THE ELLIE AND AUDREY SHOW

Back in The Lou. Son Andy and granddaughter Audrey came down from Michigan for the weekend. Ellie, 10, and Audrey, 8, couldn't be closer. We spent much of Sunday at St. Louis Union Station. It hasn't had trains for years. These days it is a nice hotel and entertainment center. After some fun that we will come to later, we had lunch at at a place simply called The Soda Fountain. It has bad diner food and outrageous desserts (some with alcohol, if that's of interest). The two girls could barely finish this between them.             

A DIVINE VIEW OF MINI GOLF

Ellie wanted to play the mini golf course at Union Station. I have no talent for golf or any other athletic endeavor but is was easy to play along with her. What I really liked, though, was looking down on the players from on high while we were on the wheel. Could I cause someone's ball to tilt a tiny bit into a trap?          

MORE FROM UP THERE

Another photo from the top of the St. Louis Wheel. What was the train shed of Union Station is in the foreground. The building with the pitched roof and tower was the head house of the station, now a fancy hotel. If you look closely you can see our second, antique Ferris wheel, just to the left of a radio/TV broadcast tower. It's mounted on the roof of the City Museum.               

EYE FAKE

I've posted pictures of the right/south side of this building before (e.g., https://tinyurl.com/dvp3r6vh) but not so much the west side. This photo, taken from the top of our Ferris wheel, shows a building that started out as a shoe warehouse (we used to make more shoes than anybody) and later became vacant. It was rehabbed into a combination of a hotel and condos. The trompe l'oeil facade was part of the rehab project and has held up well.            

EVERYBODY HAS A WHEEL

It seems like just about every city has a Ferris wheel these days. We actually have two and you can see one from the other, but the second is an antique and much smaller, https://tinyurl.com/29vvsbpy. I've seen some very long lines here but it was remarkably uncrowded on the day I took Ellie to Union Station. Got some good shots from up high, which I'll come to.               

HOUSEKEEPING

Our aquarium is not up there in the rankings for size and scope. There is one main tank with lots of species, along with several smaller containers. Ellie and I spotted these divers who had what looked like a vacuum and scrub brushes. She wanted to know what they were doing. A staff member told us they were cleaning food debris and fish poop. It's a tough job but someone has to do it.