St. Louis Trip - Day 3 & 4

Day 3:
After 2 days of full fun....I was looking forward to the 3rd day!!  Since it was Saturday, my friend, R, and his fiance, T, were able to join in checking out some places.  We started the day late around 11 and had nice brunch and then left for Missouri Botanical Garden which was very close to where my friend lived.  I got there around noon and checked out the entire park within an hour.  They currently had the Chinese lantern festival going on, so the entire park was decorated with Chinese sculptures (which gets lit up at night).  Overall, it was really nice park.

Missouri Botanical Garden

After the botanical garden, we went to the Cathedral Basilica around 2 pm.  This is the first time when I have been to a Cathedral like this one.  It was magnificent from the outside as well as inside.  The Cathedral also has a small museum downstairs which you can cover quickly.  After Cathedral visit, we had a quick bite at McDonald's and then headed to Montelle Winery which was about 40-50 minutes drive.  The drive was beautiful since it was through forest-like road where both the sides of the road are covered with trees making the road feel like you are going through a passage to get to the end of the tunnel....sorry if this terminology confuses you...but that's only how I can explain it :P.  To get to the winery stop, we actually had to walk up the hill on a very steep slope but we made it and it was a good time from then on!!

Cathedral Basilica

Montelle Winery

 On the way back from the winery, we stopped by a mall and grocery store and then finally got home around 9 pm.  We had nice dinner and delicious homemade blueberry pie made by T!!! We had great time chatting and then finally slept at 1 am.  It was already time for me to leave St. Louis the next day and head back home.

Day 4:
The only thing that was left for me to cover in St. Louis was to go to the Jain temple.  We all got ready around 11 am, had lunch and then headed to the Hindu temple.  The temple was beautiful and it also has a small Jain temple within it.  After that we covered the Swaminarayan temple which was also beautiful from inside. 

Hindu Temple

We got back home around 2:40 pm, I checked my bag quickly, and then we headed for the airport around 3 pm.  I bid farewell to my friends and then headed for the airport.  The airport didn't have much of a crowd so got through security quickly.  My flight was at 4:30 pm and got home around 7 pm.....Home sweet home!!!

Overall this was a much needed relaxing vacation!! I got to see my friend and meet his fiance, explore St. Louis and lots of good time!!!  All thanks to my friend and his fiance for having me and showing me around town!!

Alright folks, that's it for my St. Louis trip!! My next couple of posts will be on my 2nd vacation coming up ;)....but for that you will have to wait and watch!!  Until then, have a great time!!

St. Louis Trip - Day 2

Day 2:
Unlike first day, the 2nd day started little bit later after 10 am.  Today's agenda was to cover St. Louis zoo and the Art Museum.  Luckily, a lot of these attractions are very close to where my friend lives, so he came to drop me off at the zoo.  Before I go in the zoo, he showed me around the area since zoo and art museum were really close (along with the Grand Basin).  I started exploring zoo around 10:45 am and covered almost everything within 3 hours including the train ride around the park.  The train ride was ok and if you don't get on the train, you won't miss much.  I guess the kids will enjoy it much more.

After getting out of the zoo, I headed to St. Louis Art Museum which was just 5 minute walk from the zoo (north entrance).  First thing I did was to grab a quick bite from the museum's cafe before checking out the museum.  There were some really neat paintings and art that was pretty impressive.  I think I covered pretty much all the galleries within 2 hours.  It was about 3:15 pm when I got done with everything and then just went out to sit and relax a bit by the Grand Basin.  My friend was not able to come and pick me up right away so I just waited by the Grand Basin.  It was so nice and peaceful by the fountains and under the shade that I didn't know where the time passed.  I also spent some time clicking some pics by myself near Grand Basin (experimented with the self-timer :) ) and then finally got home around 5:30 pm.

St. Louis Art Museum

Grand Basin

After coming back home, I ate something and then it was relaxing time!! I felt really tired since there was a lot of walking involved, but still a good day and the weather was pleasant as well so can't complain.  My friend decided to go for the "Ek tha tiger" movie for 10 o'clock show, so we got ready quickly because we had to make few stops before that.  We stopped by for grocery shopping, then went to Pizza Hut for some delicious pan pizza and garlic bread and then headed straight to the theater for the movie.  Wow!! What a movie!! Amazing stunts and Katrina looked gorgeous!!  And it just makes you feel that Salman is really the tiger that the movie claims him to be!!  Love the songs too.....Definite Watch!  Plus they showed the trailer of SRK's next movie - A Yash Chopra Romance.......Can't wait!!!!!!!!!

We got done with movie around 12:30 am and the weather was much cooler than expected!!  We got home, chatted for a while, and then called it a day around 1:30 am and hit the bed.  My vacation was going just great!!  3rd day coming with a lot more activities....coming up!!!

St. Louis Trip - Day 1

St. Louis, here I come!!

So my trip started in the evening after work, my flight was at 7 pm and reached St. Louis around 10 pm.  I got out of the airport and met my friend....almost after 2 years!!!  It was great to see him and meet his fiance, T!!  It was long day already, so we went home and had some delicious "Dabeli" made by T, chatted for a while and then finally went to bed around midnight looking forward to start the adventure the following day :).

Day 1:
The morning started at 8:30 am and got ready by 9:30 and left home with my friend to go to downtown.  I knew my trip was gonna be adventurous right when my friend, R, played a gujarati song in the car :).  Today's agenda was to go cover the Arch and the St. Louis downtown.

I walked to the arch and went to its visitors center.  My friend had recommended seeing the Lewis and Clark: Journey to Westward movie at the arch, so I got the package with the movie ticket and Gateway to the Arch ticket together.  The movie was after half an hour, so to kill the time, I checked out the Westward Museum first.  It was nice.  Then headed to the movie which was about 45 minutes long and enjoyed it thoroughly.  It's not really necessary to see the movie, and people won't miss much if they don't see the movie, so I wouldn't recommend people for this movie if they are not really into the history of Missouri.  After the movie, it was time to visit the Arch!!  There was no crowd at all and no lines which was great!!  Just an FYI for people who have hard time climbing stairs, there are quite a bit of stairs that you need to go through to get to the tram entrance, so be careful.  It was pretty impressive in how they built the tram to get to the top of the Arch, but I got to tell you that I am not a fan of the tram compartment itself.  The door to get to the tram was just 4 feet high and the actual tram has egg-shaped compartments.....these compartments are not for people who have problems with small spaces or congested areas!!!  Anyways, it was a short ride to the top, so I didn't mind, and there comes some more stairs before I can get to the observation deck!!  You can stay on top of the arch as long as you want but I am sure you will be done observing and looking around in 10 minutes, max 15 minutes.  The observation deck has small windows which gives you views of the entire St. Louis downtown from one side and covers the river and the bridge from the other side.    The view from the top was indeed breathtaking!!!

View from the Arch (from Observation deck)

After I got back down, I went next door to the Old Cathedral and then to the Old Courthouse.  It was nice to go inside the Old Courthouse and stay in Air condition since the temperature outside was getting hot :P.  Right behind the courthouse is the city garden which is spread through couple of blocks with bunch of water fountains and really nice pool where kids were having ton of fun.  It was already past 12:30 pm, so met up with my friend and had a nice lunch in the city garden park.  After we had lunch, I continued roaming around downtown to check out some other historic buildings including the City Hall, Court House, Busch stadium, etc. and then came back to the city garden area to relax  and wait for my friend.  One of the fountains in city garden is so relaxing that I just spent over 30 minutes sitting by it and even wet my feet :).

City Garden (St. Louis Downtown)

Once my friend got done with his work, and after checking out almost everything near the area, my friend and I started heading back home around 3 pm which followed with a heavy thunderstorms and good amount of rain which definitely cooled down the weather.  The rest of the day was pretty relaxing with freshening up, dinner, watching some indian shows, and then me writing this summary :D.  This is the true definition of a vacation which is a mix of relaxation and exploring the place as well!!

With first day coming to an end, 2nd day info coming up!!  Stay tuned :)

St. Louis Trip Highlights

Hello Friends,

I have been away from my own blog from over 2 months, but I am back with some vacation updates :).  My last vacation was last year in May to Orlando, Florida which was fantastic...but since then I had not taken any vacation!!  So here I am with the details of my first vacation of the year 2012 to St. Louis, Missouri.

One of my friends who lived in Denver once had moved to St. Louis and had invited me to come down.  I thought it would be great to take my first vacation and get a break from work.  Without a second thought, I booked my tickets for mid August for 4 days and anxiously waited for it!!

Well, then it was all adventure and relaxing time from there on!! My trip included of a lot of sightseeing including visit to the Arch, Missouri botanical garden, St. Louis downtown, zoo, art museum, and much more.

Remember these are just highlights....a detailed post on each day is coming up soon...
Stay tuned!!

Here is a photo to give you a glimpse of the trip....enjoy!