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.               

I COULD USE SOME OF THAT

Part of what has become of St. Louis Union Station, once one of the grand railway junctions of America. It fell into disuse and great disrepair, after which it was remodeled into a restaurant and rather cheesy shopping center. That did okay for a while but after a time it  stopped drawing people from the suburbs and failed. The current iteration has a variety of entertainment attractions, a big Ferris wheel, mini golf, a rope climbing course and an aquarium. All quite overpriced but it was doing well enough until the pandemic. The wheel is open but I wouldn't go in it unless each car was fumigated between groups of passengers.

There is a restaurant simply called The Soda Fountain. It has a retro look, plays 50s and 60s music, and has a huge variety of ice cream concoctions. Apparently  you can get them laced with vodka or a liqueur. I might try that when it's safe to eat indoors.        

CURVES AND LINES

No special reason for this, other than I've been posting things about The Wheel. I just like the picture.           

HOW TO DECORATE A HONDA

The automobile in this picture is a black Honda Accord sedan. Nothing flashy. Comfortable, reliable, affordable transportation, and practical since almost everyone in America needs a car. As it happens, I drive one myself. But, just occasionally, a modest Honda gets kissed by a fairy and ends up looking like this. Obviously, it's the reflection of the Wheel.            

THE GEOMETRY OF THIRST

This is in the current revision of St. Louis Union Station. You can get water or fizzy flavored sugar water here, but mostly it's about Anheuser-Busch products. Or, more recently, Anheuser-Busch-Inbev, the merged Belgian-Brazilian-American beer behemoth that took over one of our largest employers. Never a shortage of customers.

The photo was taken from the Saint Louis Wheel, the new Ferris wheel installed here. Much more about that soon.