Casinos

We also have our share of casinos.  Here are just a couple of them.

With more than 2000 slot machines, 55 table games and a dedicated poker room, there's something for everybody at Lumiere Place down town by the arch (that's the arch reflection in the glass).

Up in north west county (St. Charles), there's the Ameristar.  This picture was taken from a bike trail I frequent on the other side of the Missouri River.  Very near this casino is Harrah's Casinos at Riverport.

Faust Park


In St. Louis's west county, Faust Park has the Butterfly House. Admission is $6 (or free with the Missouri Botanical Garden membership), but it's a great place to spend a cold winter day.

 The site includes an outdoor butterfly garden and two large sculptures by St. Louis sculptor Robert Cassilly.

Some of the many species of butterflies in the Butterfly house.

Also in Faust park is a building with the St. Louis carousel in it.   Built around 1920 by the Dentzel Company of Philadelphia, the carousel is composed of more than 60 exquisitely hand-carved horses and deer. The carousel was a fixture at the St. Louis Highlands amusement park on Oakland Avenue near Forest Park. The amusement park burned down in 1963, but the carousel was rescued and later purchased by Howard C. Ohlendorf who donated it to St. Louis County.  Now it's housed here and for a small fee it can be riden.

Faust park is also home to Faust Village.  It preserves the area's architecture and history. The village consists of four homes and multiple other structures including a schoolhouse, carriage house, blacksmith shop, along with period gardens. Spanning a period from 1840 to 1888, the Village illustrates differences in lifestyle resulting from both technological developments and special needs. The Historic Village is open on the last two weekends in May, June and July when historical reenactors in period costume provide tours and a variety of demonstrations. The buildings can be viewed from the outside using a free self-guided tour booklet available at the Seed Visitor Center.

Delmar Loop

Just west and north of the city is the eclectic Delmar Loop.  It is an entertainment, cultural and restaurant district in University City and the western edge of St. Louis.  In 2007, the American Planning Association named the Delmar Loop "One of the 10 Great Streets in America."  The Loop is the home of the St. Louis Walk of Fame, a series of brass plaques embedded in the sidewalk along Delmar Boulevard commemorating famous St. Louisans such as Chuck Berry, Miles Davis and Tina Turner, actor John Goodman, and bridge-builder James Eades.   But it has had it's troubles with bunches of youths getting out of control.  

 The Varsity Theater and the Tivoli showed first-run movies.  Opening in 1924, the Tivoli  is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

 The Pageant on The Loop, is St. Louis's premier midsize concert hall. It hosts touring national acts in pop, indie rock, hip-hop, jazz, blues, and more---and is very busy.

 For the record crowd, Vintage Vinyl is the place to go for thousands of new and used LPs.  It's also where my daughter met her future husband---a wonderful encounter that was!

Although we do like to go to The Loop for the wide variety of great restaurants and entertainment, it has had it's troubles when groups of youths in extraordinary numbers sometimes congregating there and getting into mischief.  Keep aware if you go here and don't go if "kids" are congregating.

old City Hall

Near Union Station is the old City Hall  building.  As St. Louis expanded, the city hall was moved further west of downtown to its present location in 1904. St. Louis City Hall, still in use, was designed in the  Renaissance Revival style reminiscent of the Hotel de Ville in Paris, France.

Citygarden

Relatively new to the city of St. Louis is the Citygarden. It is located in downtown St. Louis, between 8th Street to the east and 10th Street to the west, and Chestnut Street to the north and Market Street to the south and is also free.

One of the 24 pieces of sculptures within the Citygarden.

Another Citygarden sculpture.

Missouri History Museum

Another interesting museum in Forest Park is the Missouri History Museum.  It, too, is free except for special exhibits and is a great place to also get help with genealogical research. 

During early and late summer, they even have concerts on the front lawn ---called Twilight Tuesdays.  Local bands, but very good ones, like Dogs of Society-a Tribute to Elton John--are the free entertainment.  We saw them in 2014 and they were "brilliant".

The Muny

 America's oldest and largest outdoor musical theater, simply know as The Muny, is also in Forest Park.  Construction on it began in 1917 and was built in 49 days.  It's orchestra pit holds 200 musicians and the amphitheater seats 11,000 people---1,500 of which are given away for free on a first come first serve basis every performance.  Currently they show 7 shows here during the summer.   It can get very hot in the evenings here, but they do have large fans mounted above to move air around.