Meet Me In St. Louie, Louie, Meet Me At The Fair

The journey to St. Louis began with a 5 1/2 hour drive to Spokane. An hour longer than anticipated as we suffered a "I don't need no stinking map" incident. I blame the state of Washington for their poor highway signage rather than my lack of directional abilities. But it was not a problem, as we had allowed plenty of time due to previous incidents of poor signage. We flew Frontier Airlines for the first time. A typical Greyhound of the air, that charges for everything. The only thing we didn't pay extra for was our seats, seat belts and washroom. I did see a coin receptacle on the toilet paper dispenser but luckily I only needed a number 1. Forewarned, we had packed a lunch and to be fair to Frontier, they did not gouge you too badly for those in flight extras. However they did suffer from an ability to depart or arrive on time.

Arriving in St. Louis, 90 minutes late, we were greeted by the smiling face of Doctor J. The same smile she and her husband Doctor J greeted us with on our most recent arrival to the airport in Harbin. Luck was with us as we made the last train into the city. St. Louis has a wonderful light rail transit system that got us every where we wanted to go including Illinois, just across the Mississippi. Another place, not on our travel bucket list but if we are ever challenged we can honestly say we have seen Illinois. Actually looks a lot like Missouri.  

The next day saw us spend the whole day in Forest Park, home to the 1903 World’s Fair and Exposition and the setting for the 1951 musical "Meet Me at the Fair". The park is also home to the St. Louis Zoo, History Museum, Art Gallery and Science Centre and it is all FREE! Yes, free. No catches, no sales pitches, no coupons required.  Now I am a believer that there is NO free lunch and that everything comes with a cost, usually in quality.  Much to our surprise everything was first class. Not sure how they pull it off but kudos to the City of St. Louis.


We ended the day in the park with a lovely picnic dinner prepared by Doctor J. For dessert we attended a presentation of Shakespeare’s Othello at a beautiful outdoor amphitheatre also located in Forest Park. The icing on the cake was that the presentation was FREE and one of the best presentations of Shakespeare I have seen. Thanks to the kindness of strangers, Doctor J arranged for us to be picked up and driven back to her apartment. While it wasn’t necessary as she only lived about six blocks from the park, it was appreciated as my feet were still suffering after affects of the Oliver Half Ironman.


It was a beautiful ending to our first wonderful and economical day in St. Louis.

Five Reasons, St. Louis Is Different Than Penticton

I have to be honest, St. Louis, Missouri was not a place that was on our radar to travel to. Other than being the locale for the musical "Meet Me In St. Louis", home to the  St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Blues, we knew very little about the place.  It took a promise made over a year ago that we would visit if she ever came to North America, to get us to travel there.  Doctor J left Harbin last November to take up residence in the "Show Me" state for one year and thus the journey became a reality. 

Before we start the journey, I thought that it would be a good idea to give you a glimpse of what to expect if you decide to visit St. Louis. You can relax. In the four days we were there, no one asked us to show them anything!


DIFFERENCE 1

St. Louis has the MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI, the largest river system in North America. Penticton has the Okanagan River Channel, the straightest river in Canada. The Mississippi is over 4,070 km long (2,530 miles for you Americans), touching 31 states. I wouldn't consider tubing down the Mississippi but wouldn't hesitate tubing down the Okanagan River.  ^[

DIFFERNCE 2

St. Louis has Busch Stadium, home to the World Champions (Which world I am not sure) St. Louis Cardinals. On October 28th, 2011, just under 48,000 Missourians watched the Cardinals win the World Series. Penticton has Rotary Stadium, home to the ????  On October 28,2011, there was no one at Rotary Stadium. This Busch Stadium is actually the third Busch Stadium. It is also home to $8.50 bottles of  Budweiser and Bud Lite. Ouch! Sadly, no beer is available at Rotary Stadium unless you sneak it in.


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DIFFERENCE 3

The Mississippi River is also well known for the riverboats that plied it's waters, hauling people and cargo from the Gulf of Mexico to Ohio. St. Louis still has two simulated paddle wheelers, the MV Huckleberry Finn and Becky Thatcher providing cruises up and down the Mississippi. Penticton has one simulated paddle wheeler and one real paddle wheeler but sadly only one is still cruising. 





















DIFFERENCE 4

For the past 11 years, for 6 weeks each year, Forest Park in St. Louis hosts a Festival of Shakespeare. Every year, for one weekend, Gyro Park in Penticton hosts a Festival of Elvis. This year, the Festival of Shakespeare presented Othello and get this, it was free.  Usually, when I hear "It's free", my expectations are not too high but this production blew us away. A first class presentation suitable for any stage in the world. Thank yah, thank yah verah much!
















DIFFERENCE 5

St. Louis has the ARCH,  at 630 ft., the tallest man-made monument in America. At 55 ft. high and 310 ft. wide, Penticton has it's monumental signage on Munson Mountain, bigger than the Hollywood sign. The ARCH was  built as a monument to the Westward expansion of the United States. You can ride to the top for a great view of St. Louis, if you dare. It looks like it could fall over in a strong wind but has withstood tornadoes since 1965.

1/2 an Ironman = 1/2 the Ouchies NOT!