The City Museum in St. Louis

If you get a chance to visit St. Louis for any reason take a couple hours out of your day and explore the City Museum.  I've never been to a place quite like it.  And it is practically impossible to describe but I will try my best.
After paying to get in, a steal at $12, I ventured off to the right.  It's like walking into an aquarium where you are the fish without the water.  The sculptures are amazing.  The scale of these figures are incredible.  And the mosaics are out of this world.  And they are everywhere.  It is an artists dream inside.

Once we finished wondering around for a while we found a pathway into another space.  It's really a giant playplace but without plastic everything.  Note to self, bring knee pads next time.  We climbed into the belly of the building itself.  The building was oringinally a shoe factory.  The creators kept the shoots that they moved the shoes from the top floor to the first.  And created a slide for the guests today!  But you have to climb all the way up.  It's a bit of a trek.

It is worth the climb!  Trust me!
Now to the actual museum part.  They feature remains of old buildings that existed in St Louis and all the architectural details, down to the glass doorknobs.  Another room housed bugs, lots of them.  Butterflies, moths, beetles, cicadas, wasps and more.  Another space had a multitdue of items that were found over the years in the riverbanks.  It's amazing to see bottles, placesettings, and more, intact, over 150-200 years old, and found in the muck.

The other big portion of the "museum" is outdoors.  Cleverly there are multiple entries in and out of the building to the outdoor playplace.  Climb around to your heart's content.  And they have a fire with marshmallows to boot.

I cannot recommend this place enough.  Everytime I go to St. Louis from here on, especially with people who have never been before, I will go to the City Museum.  I can only imagine what they will create next.
And next time I will bring kneepads and my good camera.

Other California Adventures

Ah California.  The weather is so nice and there is so much to do.  I never took enough advantage of that when I lived there.  But when I visit I always find something to do.

I went with my Disneyland friend Shawna to Huntington Beach.  I'd never been.  We talked at length about the goings on in each of our lives.  We enjoyed a lunch at the Ruby's at the end of the pier.  The day ended at Downtown Disney where I'm always happy to enjoy a drink a Trader Sam's.

 Going out on Lake Mission Viejo was another first time activity.  With my grandpa, mom, and others from my grandpa retirement community we booked 3 boats and scooted around the lake for about an hour.  The lake is beautiful and calm with the Saddleback mountains as a fantastic backdrop. 

 Another first for me was the Reagan Library in Simi Valley.  Overall it was a good Presidential library.  Not the best one that I've visited but it is up there.

One of the unique things inside is Air Force One.  Inside.  And propped up like it is ready to fly out the window at any moment.  And you can go inside.  It feels like you are stepping right back into history onboard.  Computer, phones and fax machines that could only be found in the 80s.  Very cool none the less.

 Jelly Beans.  What says President Reagan than his portrait made out of Jelly Beans?  I'm not sure there is anything really.

The museum sits on the top of a hillside.  On the top of the hillside is a piece of the Berlin Wall.  It is so short after seeing the Belfast wall.  But important none the less.
 It is a beautiful final resting place for the president and his museum.  

Day 23 The final day of my vacation

My last real day of vacation.  It was hard to believe that I had been living out of a small carry on for 3 1/2 weeks.  My feet had brain felt the fatigue.  So my day was in Paris alone.  The kids had a birthday party to attend and I choose to explore the city instead. 

I took the Metro into the heart of the city exiting at the Arch de Triomph.  It sits at the top of a hill with streets radiating out from the monument.  I didn't have enough time to go inside so I just took a few slanty photos and onward I went.  As far as the slanty photos go, after looking at my photos I found that many of them have a slight tilt to them.  My equilibrium must be off.  Or the bag on my shoulder was pulling me off center a bit.

The Champs elysees is one of those streets which I always see as the final stage of the Tour de France.  The shops down he street are very high end or places that you could find in any mall.  Cartier to he Disney Store it's all there.  It wasn't too busy as it was a Sunday morning.  

Like other areas there were outdoor bistros full of people enjoying their first coffee of the day.  The amazing thing on the street as at the base of the main shopping area was an Abercrombie store where there was a line 30 people deep. Crazy. 

 

I had made it about half way to the end of the road before veering off the path for a moment.  Alice and i had walked by this area the day before where two museums stood.  I wanted to go into the larger of the two, the Grand Palace, because it had a beautiful glass ceiling that looked like a greenhouse.  

Well it was closed.  Looked like they where bringing in something new for a big event.  Oh well.  But the small museum was open across the way and it was freemen. And do I love free, why yes I do!  Inside was a lot of French art.  Many paintings and sculptures of French people by French artists.  It was very different from what I had seen in the UK.  

Because now I'm a professional art connoisseur of course.  The petite museum walk had a beautiful  almost overgrown looking, garden in the middle of the building.  It was a nice short but sweet stop before moving towards the Louvre. 

From there i crossed a roundabout, Place de la Concorde, with fountains inside into a large park on my way to the Louvre.

   

Same as the walkways in Versailles the pathways where not paved with concrete but white sand and gravel.  The park, Tuileries garden, started as a very large open area with a fountain that moved into a more wooden and covered gardens.  

I would have enjoyed a gelato but again I was short on cash.  That's what I get for being to precise on money.  No implies purchases for me.  Well it was a hot day and I couldn't even afford water from the various vendors I passed by.  Oh well.  The park was very open and you could see that it was completely surrounded the city.  And at the end of the park was the Louvre. 

After my adventure down the Champs Elysees i had made it to my first real destination.  It is certainly hard to miss with Louvre with the glass pyramid.  I joined the line and descended into the museum directly under the pyramid, bought my ticket, and made my way inside one of the wings.  The Louvre has three different parts, two wings and one open square   I just happened to choose the wing that had the Mona Lisa in it.  But before I made it to the Mona Lisa I explored the Greek history pieces.  But not only the artifacts themselves but the rooms that they were in.  

Alice told me that the Louvre was used as government buildings and palaces before Versailles.   And boy did it show that.  Again the ceilings were where my eyes spent the most time.  Amazing paintings and appliqued pieces all over.  Just amazing.  But one of he odd things that I noticed where signs everywhere to be on the lookout for pick pockets.  Even after you had entered the museum with admission.  I suppose if you are picking pockets you would have enough money for admission.

 

I stumbled upon the Mona Lisa after the Greek area in the Italian area.  Who knew, right.  As I have heard before it is a lot smaller than you think it would be.  Its almost realistic in scale to an actual face.  There were quite a few people around but it was not too busy not get your photo with it.  I was taking it myself with my own camera when another visitor took my camera and snapped a couple for me.  I thought that was very nice of them.  From there I looked around more galleries.  The good thing about not being able to read much of anything was that my brain was already fried from the other museums that I visited that I could enjoy what was there and spent less time at each piece.  

Well I looks around for a bit more until I stumbled upon the Venus de Milo.  I don't think I knew or remembered it was here so it has a happy surprise.  I will say, or write that is, that the background behind where she was standing was pretty ugly and took away from her.  So some photos I took and on I went.  

I ended in back in the entry area and traveled between wings.  The next area had a lot of Asian and Egyptian artifacts.  I had already seen so many spectacular Egyptian pieces that the Louvre just could not contend with.  I walked around the square ring only to find that the exit signs where not in the least bit helpful because of construction for a new exhibit.  Plus some of the floors were practically half floors so it was easy to get disoriented in that section.  

After wandering around the same galleries once or twice I finally made it to the lobby to the last wing.  The final wing had more French and Italian art.  I enjoyed seeing he French pieces because I had not seen much of any of them on my entire trip.  I had practically been around the world in the museums I visited but not France. 

But the highlight of this part of the museum where Napoleon III's apartment.  So I suppose I can confirm my cousin's knowledge that it was used for he government/royalty.  The apartments were almost as over the top as Versailles. I guess it was perfectly natural to go over the top where you live.  

And again there were art installations all around the apartments.  And on the way out there was a small display of the Royal Jewelry.  They where less embellished then the England and one of the crowns featured prominently pearls which I had not seen before.

After about 3 hours of looking around it was time to head onto my next adventure.  I went out through some shops that where under the Louvre.   I had looked at the macaroons the day before and found the shop again but his time with no line so I indulged.  Oh my goodness those macaroons are so good.  The caramel one was out of this world good.  I could just eat those to sustain myself.  Ok, side note finished  I bought a ticket and into the metro I went.

Alice had sent me out with instructions and a map on how to get from one place to another.  I followed her directions exactly to my next stop at the base of the Eiffel tower.

From the station the tower is about a quarter mile away.  There were many people out on blankets sitting around enjoying the warm day outside with a picnic.  Eiffel tower is bigger than you think it would be.  It might look even bigger because there are no tall buildings anywhere close to it.  

Well I walked underneath to find vendors selling food and a really long line to go up.  There where two different ways to go up.  You chose to go to the viewing platform about 1/3 of the way up by either stairs or elevator.  You could pay a little extra to go up by elevator.  Or you could choose to go to the top and pay a little bit more.  

The lines were just too long to justify doing it.  Plus I would have liked to do the stairs but my legs just couldn't stand anymore walking, let alone a ton of stairs.  So I went off to the side to take some photos to find another Midwesterner looking for someone to take their photo.  I can say that the picture I took for him was better than the one he took for me.  

Fancy camera does not always mean a good photographer.   I walked the park, snapped more photos and made my way to the last stop in Paris.

Alice sent me to a place that i had not heard of before.  She sent me to the Sacred Heart Basilica.  It's a white church at the top of a steep hillside.  At first when I came out of the metro I was not sure which way to go but most people where heading to the right so I followed.  After going through an alley of shops I saw it.  There where tons of tourists all around, performers with different acts and more peddlers.  

I climbed all the way up the steep stairs to be rewarded with fantastic views of the city.  The city is so massive that you only see the city.  The countryside is too far away to be seen, at least 5-7 miles would be my guess.  I was thinking about not going to the last place Alice had suggested because I was tired but I am so glad that I did.  It was beautiful.

I made my final trip on the metro for the day back to the apartment to find everyone back from the party and a meal for me of fajitas in Paris with champagne.  I guess it was a little bit of home and a little bit of holiday.  A wonderful last real day on vacation.

Day 20 A day with family at Versailles

My first whole day in Paris started slowly which was a welcome change from the past couple days.  Alice had a couple errands to run in the city in the morning so I stuck around to write some more entries.  Once she came back we went into the car and headed to Versailles.

Versailles was only about a 20 minute drive from their apartment so it didn't take long to get there.  But since we had such a late start parking was had to come by.  We got into the city around noon and drove around for another 20 until we came upon a two hour pay lot.  We paid for our time knowing that very likely we would be gone for more than two hours but hoped that we wouldn't run into any problems.  As we walked up towards the palace here were quite a few street sellers trying to sell you Eiffel tower key chains figures and scarves.  These guys became very common place in any area where tourists where.  

We walked by without incident and made our way to buy tickets.  Wow what a long line for tickets. I heard that many tourists where avoiding London because of the Olympics which made Paris even busier than usual.  It was jam packed.  We were waiting in this massive line until I noticed a sign for automated tickets.  I waited in Line while Alice inspected and she came back moments later with tickets in hand.  Not the best crowd control I suppose.

 Once we passed through security, which every where you pass through metal detectors and your bag through xray, we were inside the palace.  And again it was swarming with tourists including tons of Asians.  Alice woad that they gets lot of Asian tourists and it is their dream to visit Paris.  She also said that there is a psychological problem that some of them have when they return because the Parisians where so rude to them.  That's good stuff if I don't say so myself.  Well back to Versailles.   

The lower level has the history of the location and displays on how it developed over the years.  Again it was swarming with people so it was difficult to get close enough to anything to be able to read the displays.  Not that I could read all of them because all of them where in French and only a select few where also in English.  Well I didn't end up seeing to much on the main floor besides some very large paintings and tons of people.

  The second floor was very open by comparison.  The rooms were much bigger and I believe that is where most of the living space is because of the decor.  Again, like in London, you always have to be looking up.  The ceilings where truly out of this world.  And then you walk into Marie Antoinette's bedroom.  What a bed that is.

I wonder how they were done because if they were all done by someone always painting upside down that would be impressive.  And some of the paintings along the walls were truly massive.  Many of them where easily 30 feet across if not even larger.  The there was one room that was just out of the this world.  

The Hall of Mirrors was at least 100 yards long with mirrors on one side with windows flanking another.  And all along the room were chandeliers.  The design of the room, all the reflection of mirrors and the light from the windows was just amazing.  From the mirror room we ventured around a lot of different rooms, the place is huge after all.  

There are a lot of artists who have installations within the various rooms.  Some of them were inspiring while others were just downright strange.  There were some giant shoes made out of pots and pans that was about 15 feet tall.  Very cool. 

 After exploring the inside of Versailles we went outside to the gardens.  We only explored about 1/10 of the gardens.  If I ever get the chance to go back I would defiantly spent the majority of my time outside.  Alice also said that they had night shows with the fountains on select nights during the summer.  

 There are plenty of fountains on the main walkway so I imagine that would be a pretty cool show.  Well anyways we walked around the main path, which was not paved with cement or asphalt but gravel.  Walking around Paris made my "new" shoes even more dirty.

From the Palace of Versailles we went close to our parking spot to a crêperie.  We both ordered a complete crepe which had ham, egg and cheese.  I got the super complete which also included tomato.  I had entree envy because the tomato didn't add anything to the taste, in fact, it probably took away from it.    But I was convinced to get a desert crepe that had basically fresh caramel covering it.  So good, and as the Parisians do washed it down with an espresso.  Can't complain about that.  So good and totally stuffed!

After an eventful and relaxing afternoon in Versailles we went back to the family apartment.  We spent an evening talking with the boys, her husband included.  The boys brought out all their treasures for me to see and share their love for comic books too.