As I mentioned in my last post, St. Louis has some beautiful architecture and one of the places I read about was the Central Library. It is an absolutely gorgeous building and a working library and Lee and I really enjoyed visiting it.
The outside of the building was beautiful. I particularly liked the little turtles that were at the base of the lamps.
The inside was absolutely gorgeous from the marble floors to the ceilings.
The newer areas were equally nice with a wonderful computer area and children’s library. Adults without children aren’t normally allowed in the children’s area, but since no kids were there they let us come in and take some pictures.
Another day we visited the Delmar Loop which is a trendy “hipster” area. One cool feature is the Stars that are in the sidewalk for famous people from St. Louis. These are not only stars but also people such as Pulitzer and it was cool looking at them as we walked around. This area is also where Blueberry Hill is, a bar/restaurant that Chuck Barry frequently played at. There is even a giant statue of him on the square along with many mannequins which are dressed by local artists. Many of the buildings were closed the day we were there (and the trolley wasn’t running) but we did have a nice lunch with some really unusual tacos at a Mexican place. Unlike the more southern cities, St. Louis is still in partial lockdown and masks are commonly seen whenever we go out.
We also explored The Hill, which is an old Italian neighborhood and stopped at a fantastic bakery. It looked like it had been in place for years and the cherry pie Lee bought was only $10!!! They also had the biggest turtles I have ever seen, but I was good and only bought four home made rolls.
Speaking of food, there are surprisingly few groceries stores in St. Louis proper and the few we saw were a company called Schnucks. They reminded me of an older Kroger and there wasn’t a Walmart to be seen in town itself. I also didn’t see any Whole Foods (there was one International Foods on Delmar Loop) and only one Target. It’s definitely a problem they need to solve if they want to revitalize their downtown because those folks need somewhere to shop. On the plus side there is a VERY nice farmers market (Soulards) that is open 7 days a week. The fruit and vegetable prices were fantastic and their selection was very good. Lee even bought some turtle meat, alligator meat, and frog legs from one of the vendors, which was fine by me but I made it clear I was neither going to cook or eat that 🙂
Lastly I wanted to mention something special Lee found on Roadside Attractions. The Gateway Geyser is right around the corner from our campground and includes a huge park along with a viewing platform to see unobstructed views of the arch. Once a day at noon they fire up the power house and create a geyser as tall as the St. Louis arch. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was really pretty cool and if you happen to stay at the casino campground its definitely worth a trip over to see the geyser.
Next up our trip to Gateway Arch National Park.
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Camper Chronicles 
Cherry pie AND turtles?! Yumm! Tacos look good too. I’d eat the alligator and frog legs! Turtle soup is good.
Love Geyers. Made me think of our time in Hawaii
On Mon, Jun 14, 2021 at 1:32 PM Camper Chronicles wrote:
> Lee and Tracy posted: ” As I mentioned in my last post, St. Louis has some > beautiful architecture and one of the places I read about was the Central > Library. It is an absolutely gorgeous building and a working library and > Lee and I really enjoyed visiting it. The outsi” >