Tag: vacation-2004

Today, gf_guruilla (GFG) and S&F went to the Eugene Field Doll Museum and the St. Louis Art Museum. I joined them at the end of their trip.

According to GFG and S&F, the Toy Museum was nothing to write home about. Essentially, it was the home of a Eugene Field, the “children’s poet”, and had a few bisque dolls, but nothing too spectacular.

As for the Art Museum: First, the building is spectacular, dating back to the 1904 Worlds Fair. The reports are that the pieces they have are spectactular, especially in the modern art arena, but there aren’t that many from each artist. In other words, there is breadth, not depth. They are also missing some fairly important artists (such as Picasso), although it wasn’t know if they are in the back collection. They evidently do have a good collection of fibre arts. I joined them to see the 1904 art exposition. Again, not much to write home about. For a city of the size of St. Louis, what they have is nice, but for us, we prefer LACMA.

We went to a combo Mongolian BBQ/Asian Buffer for dinner. Quite good.

Tomorrow is our last full day in St. Louis (sob). We’re planning to go out to Chesterfield to the Butterfly House run by the Botanical Society. After that, we’ll get together with the H’s for one last time. Sunday, we return to Los Angeles, where ellipticcurve is picking us up at the airport.

[For those not old enough to understand the relevance of the title: When I grew up, there was this program called Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, and its longtime host was Marlin Perkins, who was the director of the St. Louis Zoo]

Today, we went to visit the St. Louis Zoo. This is a 55 acre zoological park. Some exhibits are old^ish (if you consider the 1970s old—I remember some from my 1987 visit); some are new housed in old (such as the herpetarium); and some are new. My impression: On the whole, I like Los Angeles Zoo better, but there are some exhibits in which St. Louis excels.

So what impressed me? First, I always love the 1904 Flight Cage. Although there weren’t as many birds as I remember, this is still a neat thing. Second, the St Louis Zoo has a new Penguin and Puffin Area, a 41° enclosure where you can get up close and personal with the penguins (really… like inches apart!). We were also impressed with the Insectarium, which provided loads of information about insects, quite a few specimens, and a great butterfly house. Of course, we saw lions, and tigers, and bears (I can hear you say “Oh My!”).

What didn’t impress me? First, there was the woman with a shrill whistle, who kept whistling at the big cats to get their attention. For once, I wished there wasn’t a fence. I couldn’t see that much of an improvement in the bear spaces, and I found the primate house to be somewhat poor. I like the newer primate stuff the LA Zoo is doing.

After the Zoo, we stopped by the Missouri History Museum to hit the bookstore, as gf_guruilla wanted to pick up a cookbook or two.

We then visited a St. Louis institution: Ted Drews, the home of Frozen Custard. We had some concretes (seemed like soft-serve to me), and then drove down MO 366, which appears to be part of former US 66, based on the motels.

After that, it was dinner then back to the hotel.

Tomorrow’s plans: gf_guruilla, S&F, and Linda are going to visit the Eugene Field Toy Museum and the St. Louis Art Museum, while I go to visit the Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood MO. This should be fun, as they have 27 diesel or other internal combustion locomotives, 10 electrics, one gas-turbine, 45 freight cars, 31 passenger train cars, plus street, interurban and rapid transit cars. I plan to wear my OERM shirt and bring my OERM membership card!

Update @ 9:04 PM: It appears the Museum of Transportation has an active Volunteer Group similar to the volunteers at OERM. Further, it appears they are there on Fridays running their trolleys. Wahoo! Us trolley fans are the same under the skin. I’ve already written their webmaster about including OERM in their list of links of museums with active trolley lines.

Today, we gave gf_guruilla a down day, and I took Small and Feisty to see some stuff in Forest Park.

We started out at the Missouri History Museum. There were lots of interesting exhibits. We didn’t explore the Louis and Clark exhibit (we saw a lot of that at the arch), but did explore the special exhibit on the 1904 Worlds Fair. I found this fascinating, as it has a Las Vegas quality to me. Imagine: A gigantic exposition built up over a year, and then almost completely obliterated. From what I read, the buildings were constructed of something called staff, which was a mixture of plaster of paris, water, and hemp, put over wood.

They also had an exhibit on Seeking St. Louis, which traces the growth of the city, its communities, its organizations, its history. This is something I’ve never seen in Los Angeles—in fact, I can’t think of a single museum dedicated to preserving and cataloging the history and development of the entire City of Los Angeles.

After the History museum, S&F and I went over to the Jewel Box, an art-deco structure with lots of plants. The structure was interesting; the plants less so.

This afternoon, the rain hit (good), and Small & Feisty decided to be feisty, and is now screaming and screaming for attention (screaming “Nobody loves me” and “Nobody cares”, jumping on the bed and the floor (we’re on the 2^nd floor)) [bad]. I guess I didn’t walk her enough.

Tomorrow, they are predicting that it will be less hot and less humid, so we’re going to go to the St. Louis Zoo. If Small & Feisty continues behaving as she is now, we’ll see if we can leave her in the monkey cage (just kidding… I think).

[Followup: gf_guruilla just turned on Full House. Now she’s quiet and watching. I guess that program does have a socially redeeming purpose.]

P.S. to ixixlix: S&F has expressed withdrawal pangs from the Karate Kid. As I’ll be working from home Monday, perhaps we can arrange something.

[Update: I just realized I didn’t explain the title. The Missouri History Museum is housed in the Jefferson Memorial, which was presented to the City of St. Louis by the Exposition organizers shortly after the exposition. Thus, “History in History”.]

Missouri, that is.

Today, we drove out to Hannibal MO. For the roadgeeks out there, we drove out I-70 to US 61, and took US 61 up to Hannibal, where we picked up MO 79. We drove MO 79 back to I-70 to complete the loop, passing through Louisiana MO. Yes, there is also a Mexico MO and a Nevada MO. No connection to California PA. US 61 is a four lane divided expressway, mostly through farmland (corn and soy). MO 79 is part of the Great River Road, mostly along the river, through farmland and woodland, and numerous small towns. Quite an interesting ride.

As for Hannibal: Color me less than impressed. A small shopping area, with a few neat stores. A batch of museums, all trying to treat fictional characters from Tom Sawyer as if they were real. There was one interesting optics museum, and we did find a real-life soda fountain. There was one interesting aspect to the Hannibal MO: John Kerry was coming there tomorrow (Wednesday), so we got to see the advance work by his supporters and the Secret Service. One never thinks about a candidate’s visit and its impact on the local town. Some merchants weren’t bothered. Others mused about sending him a bill. Given he was speaking at 6:00 PM, it looked like it wouldn’t impact things much.

Some more highway observations: As we got out of the St. Louis area, the reflectorized signs changed to older button copy that reminded me of Los Angeles. Second, the roads in Missouri are in great condition, and put Caltrans to shame. [Begin edit] Lastly, there are lots of supplemental roads, which have letters in square shields, and appear to connect state roads. You can find more information at St. Louis Highways or the The Missouri Highway Page. [End edit]

Tonight was domestic. We went out for Missouri BBQ with Linda (and the waitress was actually familiar with Bear Pit out in Mission Hills), and then went back to Linda’s house and did our laundry.

Tomorrow is the last day of hot and humid, with rain predicted. We’re thinking the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, which has a display on the 1904 fair.

Today (so far) has been good, albeit hot (90+°) and humid.

We started out by visiting Penzy’s spices, a really nice spice shop. We picked up a whole batch of spices, which we’re having shipped back home. gf_guruilla‘s job, when we get home, is to toss our old spices.

After Penzy’s, we went over to the Missouri Botanical Gardens, where we met our friends the H’s (who volunteer there). After lunch of Chinese food (we introduced them to dim sum), we took a tour of the gardens. Hot, hot, hot… but beautiful.

Tonight, the theatre; tomorrow, Hannibal.

 
Tonight, we had a delightful evening. We joined my cousin Les, his ladyfriend Jean, and our good friend Linda for dinner at the Westwood Country Club in Westwood, MO, a suburb of St. Louis. This was an beautiful, elegant evening filled with lovely discussion, wonderful food, and just … well, it was undescribable. Small and Feisty was Small and Well-Mannered, and a wonderful time was had by all.

A gracious thank you to our hosts, if you happen to read this.

Tomorrow, our plans are to go to the Missouri Botanical Gardens during the day; in the evening, we have tickets for The Muny in Forest Park, where we’ll be seeing Guys and Dolls.