![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
St. Louis Arch
Oct. 17th, 2012 10:08 pmWe slept way in today; Bruce has been feeling congested and a bit sub-par, so has been waking early/not sleeping well. This morning when I woke, he was still out, so I let him sleep. We ended up leaving the room at nearly noon, and heading to Rooster for breakfast (lunch?). We split the Mo. German Style Sausage #2 crepe (check out the menu, they didn't bother with cutesy names for most of their stuff - so there's bacon #1, bacon #2, bacon #3, etc. It's a bit odd, and I love it.) and the s'more crepe. Very good - we are, in fact, going back for breakfast there again tomorrow, making this the only planned repeat restaurant of the trip.
From Rooster, we headed to the Gateway Arch for the stereotypical tourist option of St. Louis. We didn't bother to do much research online prior to showing up, so were rather surprised at the "airport style security check" (yeah, that's really what they called it) at entry. Lucky for me, my pocket knife is under the limit and wasn't an issue, but my torque was a point of brief contention. Woman at the entry wanted me to take it off. I told her it only comes off with an allen wrench, which she made me prove by lifting my hair out of the way and turning entirely around so she could inspect it. She then called across (by which I mean yelled) to the guy at the metal detector that "it doesn't come off!" before sending me through. Weirdly enough, this very same torque has never been an issue at the actual airports I've worn it through. Anyway, even with the issue of the torque, they were getting people through security way faster than the airports do anymore, and we were on our way to the trolleys fairly quickly. This is NOT a ride for the claustrophobic! The trolleys to the top of the arch are chains of 8 pods small enough that I hit my head on the roof, and I'm not tall. Each pod sits 5 people, so if there is a big line up, you're going to be really smashed in. We were extremely lucky in our timing, and got our own pod both up and down, but when we left there was a line 3 or 4 full trolley loads worth of kids waiting. The view of town from the top is pretty cool, and includes a direct view into the stadium, where the St. Louis Cardinals were facing the San Francisco Giants in the playoffs. We decided that the way to watch games would be to bring binocs and a radio here, pay the $10 ticket to get to the top of the arch, and not have to fight for $200 seats in the stadium.
After leaving the Arch, we headed across downtown to the City Museum, but ended up not going in, because it turns out they close at 5 on weekdays, and it was already 4:30 by the time we got there. We plan to go back Friday, when they are open later. Lacking an immediate plan, we wandered off through town on foot, soon to happen across The Gelateria Tavolini. I am seriously disappointed in every single person who gave us recommendations of places to try in town and failed to mention this place! It was lovely; quiet, calm area to sit and read or talk; friendly service from a perky, easy going lady; absolutely freaking delicious gelato. It would be nearly a crime not to visit this place if you are in town! I had a split serving of chocolate and coconut; the chocolate was a wonderful semi-sweet chocolate, and I have no complaints about it, but the coconut put it to shame. It was the perfect level of sweet - delicious, not cloying - with flakes of real coconut for both taste and texture. Bruce and I are in full agreement that this place kicked all available ass in comparison with Ted Drewes, even though several people recommended Ted Drewes to us, though he was a little disappointed that they had no vanilla gelato available to try.
From gelato, we dashed through the rain to a clothing store down the block, and I tried on a couple tops. We picked one to go with a skirt I'd brought without a top, and then dashed back through the rain to the bus stop. We had a 45 minute bus ride out to where we planned dinner, which was just about enough time to dry off before we got off the bus and walked a block in the rain again to Momos. There are the typical tables and chairs you'd expect at a restaurant here, but we eschewed them in favor of cuddling on the comfy couch for dinner. We had the avgolomeno (lemon chicken broth with orzo pasta), the cheese plate with both white and whole wheat pitas, and finished up with chocolate phyllo. A little disappointed; the cheeses were all quite salty, which made them less enjoyable than we'd hoped. The chocolate phyllo was delicious though. During dinner there was a belly dancer working her way around the restaurant; she picked on Bruce and ended up giving him an impromptu belly dancing lesson, which was both fun and funny. Don't worry, I got pictures.
From there, back to the hotel room, and now, to sleep...
From Rooster, we headed to the Gateway Arch for the stereotypical tourist option of St. Louis. We didn't bother to do much research online prior to showing up, so were rather surprised at the "airport style security check" (yeah, that's really what they called it) at entry. Lucky for me, my pocket knife is under the limit and wasn't an issue, but my torque was a point of brief contention. Woman at the entry wanted me to take it off. I told her it only comes off with an allen wrench, which she made me prove by lifting my hair out of the way and turning entirely around so she could inspect it. She then called across (by which I mean yelled) to the guy at the metal detector that "it doesn't come off!" before sending me through. Weirdly enough, this very same torque has never been an issue at the actual airports I've worn it through. Anyway, even with the issue of the torque, they were getting people through security way faster than the airports do anymore, and we were on our way to the trolleys fairly quickly. This is NOT a ride for the claustrophobic! The trolleys to the top of the arch are chains of 8 pods small enough that I hit my head on the roof, and I'm not tall. Each pod sits 5 people, so if there is a big line up, you're going to be really smashed in. We were extremely lucky in our timing, and got our own pod both up and down, but when we left there was a line 3 or 4 full trolley loads worth of kids waiting. The view of town from the top is pretty cool, and includes a direct view into the stadium, where the St. Louis Cardinals were facing the San Francisco Giants in the playoffs. We decided that the way to watch games would be to bring binocs and a radio here, pay the $10 ticket to get to the top of the arch, and not have to fight for $200 seats in the stadium.
After leaving the Arch, we headed across downtown to the City Museum, but ended up not going in, because it turns out they close at 5 on weekdays, and it was already 4:30 by the time we got there. We plan to go back Friday, when they are open later. Lacking an immediate plan, we wandered off through town on foot, soon to happen across The Gelateria Tavolini. I am seriously disappointed in every single person who gave us recommendations of places to try in town and failed to mention this place! It was lovely; quiet, calm area to sit and read or talk; friendly service from a perky, easy going lady; absolutely freaking delicious gelato. It would be nearly a crime not to visit this place if you are in town! I had a split serving of chocolate and coconut; the chocolate was a wonderful semi-sweet chocolate, and I have no complaints about it, but the coconut put it to shame. It was the perfect level of sweet - delicious, not cloying - with flakes of real coconut for both taste and texture. Bruce and I are in full agreement that this place kicked all available ass in comparison with Ted Drewes, even though several people recommended Ted Drewes to us, though he was a little disappointed that they had no vanilla gelato available to try.
From gelato, we dashed through the rain to a clothing store down the block, and I tried on a couple tops. We picked one to go with a skirt I'd brought without a top, and then dashed back through the rain to the bus stop. We had a 45 minute bus ride out to where we planned dinner, which was just about enough time to dry off before we got off the bus and walked a block in the rain again to Momos. There are the typical tables and chairs you'd expect at a restaurant here, but we eschewed them in favor of cuddling on the comfy couch for dinner. We had the avgolomeno (lemon chicken broth with orzo pasta), the cheese plate with both white and whole wheat pitas, and finished up with chocolate phyllo. A little disappointed; the cheeses were all quite salty, which made them less enjoyable than we'd hoped. The chocolate phyllo was delicious though. During dinner there was a belly dancer working her way around the restaurant; she picked on Bruce and ended up giving him an impromptu belly dancing lesson, which was both fun and funny. Don't worry, I got pictures.
From there, back to the hotel room, and now, to sleep...
Tags:
