ILoveMyCamera.com!
St.
Louis, Missouri
Here are some shots from St. Louis, which is a pretty cool
town. They have done great things with their downtown area, including
revamping some old buildings and factories to be condos and places for kids to
play.
This is a shot of the St. Louis arch taken from the river.
It is made entirely of 1/4" thick stainless steel (partially filled
with concrete) and stands over 600 feet
tall at the center. If you go through the visitor's center at the base,
you can view a movie about how they constructed it.
Pretty spectacular
considering it was built before the age of the fast computers we now have.
"St. Louis Arch from the
Mississippi River"
Here are some amazing facts about the arch:
For other fun facts, you can visit
gatewayarch.com
and also the
Arch History
Site.
Next, on to the City Museum in downtown St. Louis.
This is an incredible place. It is an old, multi-story shoe factory that
they have converted into a play place for kids.
Everything from the huge, winding obstacle course outside to the decorations
on the floors and walls inside is made from recycled materials.
It is hard to categorize as to the genre, but safe to say
it is a shutterbug's dream come true. All is done with an artful flair.
They have everything from an aquarium to a multi-story circular slide to a small
miniature museum. Cool patterns on the walls and floors, too.
| There is a fairly
large area dedicated to these model trains. Blue-collar looking
factories and towns are all around. Bit of a by-gone era, it
seems. |
"Trains in miniature"
 |
Visit the
City Museum on the web.
|
"Wall Pattern"
 |
This was a cool pattern of
gears on the wall. There were thousands of them! Wow. I
wonder what they used to be a part of? |
Here are a few more shots from the
City Museum in St. Louis:
| There were
several cases full of these town miniatures. Looks like they date
from the 1950's. Notice the parade going down Main street. |
"Town Miniature"
 |
"Doll
Heads" |
These antique
doll heads were in a back room, housed in an old mirrored display case.
Looks like most of them are porcelain and hand painted. |
| Caught the
afternoon light peeking in on these beautiful silk flowers. This was
in the aquarium room near where the snapping turtles are kept. |
"Afternoon flowers"
 |
| "Pattern in
Iron"
 |
This photo is of
some large iron panels that were welded together to form a wall of sorts.
It was digitally enhanced with Paint Shop Pro. I applied the
"Colored Pencil" filter to it. |
| This
head is huge and guards the way into some rooms with 50's memorabilia.
The photo is not digitally altered at all. It is red because of the
lighting in the room (very bright red). Gives a surreal look to the
head, doesn't it? |
"Head in Red"
 |
Now we're on to the St. Louis Zoo. It's
a really nice zoo -- clean and well kept. Amazingly enough, it was free
admission. What a great resource to the community this zoo is.
Visit
the zoo online.
|
"Stately Monkey"
 |
This fellow is
quite stately looking. Not sure if I would look so dignified in a
cage. |
| The penguin
exhibit was one of the best I have ever seen. Visitors walk within a
few feet of the penguins, and they are not caged so you could actually
reach out and touch them (if you were brave -- but they do bite).
The temp in that room was quite chilly for humans (45 deg. F). The
penguins seemed to enjoy the cool temps, however. |
"Penguin up close"
 |
|
"Elephant smile"
 |
The elephants had
a huge, winding enclosure. Not like a cage, really. They
seemed to enjoy lounging around, flinging dust in the air, and the like.
This one looks almost to be smiling.
|
All in all, St. Louis is
definitely worth a visit. There is plenty for kids and adults alike to do
and some significant sites (the zoo and the Science Center, for instance) have free admission
to all.
Take time to visit, bring your camera
along, and you will come away with some great memories of your own.
