St. Louis Day 4: Countless Rides on the Wheel at Union Station.
Today, we had just one thing on the agenda: visiting Union Station. It's a repurposed historic train station containing a hotel and all sorts of restaurants and tourist attractions. It's also conveniently close to our hotel. It has a several-stories tall ferris wheel (called just the Wheel) that we can see from the hallway right outside our room; at night, they light it up with all sorts of different colors and patterns, and it is so pretty.
Riding the Wheel was the first thing that we did when we got to Union Station (although I stupidly bought tickets online instead of from the ticket booth). It's about 200 feet high with nice air-conditioned, fully-enclosed cars with benches and visibility on all sides. Sara thought that she might have a problem with the height, but she didn't at all; it helped that the ride was so smooth.
After the Wheel, we walked through the St. Louis Aquarium inside. (After visiting the zoo for free, I had a little bit of sticker shock at the price, but it was worth it.) It started with a somewhat silly stimulated train ride where we pretended to go underwater in the Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico, but I did like that it was narrated by John Goodman (a MO native). Inside, we saw so many different animals: otters, octopus, sea turtles, sharks, jellyfish, and all different types of fish. There was a touching pool where we got to touch stingrays (who seemed to like it), sea urchins, jellyfish, and small sharks. There was a screen designed to look like a big tank where various scary deep-sea creatures floated by, like giant squid and anglerfish (and those things are absolutely terrfiying). It was pretty creepy before we realized it wasn't real. I probably should've caught onto that sooner; I saw an exhibit about giant squid and other really rare deep-sea things at the Natural History Museum in NYC.
After the aquarium, we sat on a bench outside and read for a while (I packed Village Affairs today) and watched the fire/light show that plays in the main area every hour. The flames that shot up from the fake lotus flowers in the pond were crazy high, and we could see the heat from them from some distance away. We bought fish food for 25 cents from a repurposed gumball machine and fed the beautiful koi fish in the big pond, and I think that fish food might've been the only thing in all of Union Station that wasn't crazily overpriced!
We left for a little while to walk back to the hotel, get in the car, and drive out to see the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica; it was such a huge, impressive old cathedral with lots of beautiful mosiacs and stained-glass window and big marble columns, kinda like Central Library that we saw yesterday. There were a few other people walking around the sanctuary, too. This Jewish girl isn't exactly a fan of the Catholic Church, but it was really impressive to see. (Sara mostly sat and appreciated the air-conditioning.) We also saw the Reform Jewish temple nearby, which has an amazing stone circle on the lawn outside, and walked around the neighborhood a little bit. There were some beautiful big old houses and flowerbeds, a fountain, and a free little library.
We went back to Union Station for dinner and more evening rides on the wheel. There are a few different places to eat in Union Station. The taco truck looked tasty but didn't have any indoor seating, so we instead went to the Soda Fountain for chicken tenders, onion rings, and ice cream. I had a big cone of strawberry with crushed Oreos on top -- so good.
Union Station runs different weekday promotions, and today was "Wheel Wednesday" -- unlimited rides on the ferris wheel with one ticket! We were both tired of walking, so we rode the Wheel again, so many times that we lost count. (I think the final number was 5-6.) It was a lot nicer than our morning ride because it was overcast then, but now the sun was out and making nice long shadows. I loved seeing the Gateway Arch rise and sink over all the downtown buildings. We wanted to keep on riding the Wheel until it got dark, but darkness was still at least an hour away, and eventually, we had to go back to the hotel. After how late we stayed out last night, we really needed to turn in a little early. I haven't been sleeping well on this vacation at all, and it doesn't help that our hotel serves free sodas and snacks in the evenings!
Distance walked today: 4.6 miles.
Riding the Wheel was the first thing that we did when we got to Union Station (although I stupidly bought tickets online instead of from the ticket booth). It's about 200 feet high with nice air-conditioned, fully-enclosed cars with benches and visibility on all sides. Sara thought that she might have a problem with the height, but she didn't at all; it helped that the ride was so smooth.
After the Wheel, we walked through the St. Louis Aquarium inside. (After visiting the zoo for free, I had a little bit of sticker shock at the price, but it was worth it.) It started with a somewhat silly stimulated train ride where we pretended to go underwater in the Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico, but I did like that it was narrated by John Goodman (a MO native). Inside, we saw so many different animals: otters, octopus, sea turtles, sharks, jellyfish, and all different types of fish. There was a touching pool where we got to touch stingrays (who seemed to like it), sea urchins, jellyfish, and small sharks. There was a screen designed to look like a big tank where various scary deep-sea creatures floated by, like giant squid and anglerfish (and those things are absolutely terrfiying). It was pretty creepy before we realized it wasn't real. I probably should've caught onto that sooner; I saw an exhibit about giant squid and other really rare deep-sea things at the Natural History Museum in NYC.
After the aquarium, we sat on a bench outside and read for a while (I packed Village Affairs today) and watched the fire/light show that plays in the main area every hour. The flames that shot up from the fake lotus flowers in the pond were crazy high, and we could see the heat from them from some distance away. We bought fish food for 25 cents from a repurposed gumball machine and fed the beautiful koi fish in the big pond, and I think that fish food might've been the only thing in all of Union Station that wasn't crazily overpriced!
We left for a little while to walk back to the hotel, get in the car, and drive out to see the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica; it was such a huge, impressive old cathedral with lots of beautiful mosiacs and stained-glass window and big marble columns, kinda like Central Library that we saw yesterday. There were a few other people walking around the sanctuary, too. This Jewish girl isn't exactly a fan of the Catholic Church, but it was really impressive to see. (Sara mostly sat and appreciated the air-conditioning.) We also saw the Reform Jewish temple nearby, which has an amazing stone circle on the lawn outside, and walked around the neighborhood a little bit. There were some beautiful big old houses and flowerbeds, a fountain, and a free little library.
We went back to Union Station for dinner and more evening rides on the wheel. There are a few different places to eat in Union Station. The taco truck looked tasty but didn't have any indoor seating, so we instead went to the Soda Fountain for chicken tenders, onion rings, and ice cream. I had a big cone of strawberry with crushed Oreos on top -- so good.
Union Station runs different weekday promotions, and today was "Wheel Wednesday" -- unlimited rides on the ferris wheel with one ticket! We were both tired of walking, so we rode the Wheel again, so many times that we lost count. (I think the final number was 5-6.) It was a lot nicer than our morning ride because it was overcast then, but now the sun was out and making nice long shadows. I loved seeing the Gateway Arch rise and sink over all the downtown buildings. We wanted to keep on riding the Wheel until it got dark, but darkness was still at least an hour away, and eventually, we had to go back to the hotel. After how late we stayed out last night, we really needed to turn in a little early. I haven't been sleeping well on this vacation at all, and it doesn't help that our hotel serves free sodas and snacks in the evenings!
Distance walked today: 4.6 miles.