The 1904 Worlds Fair was held in St. Louis at what is known as Forest Park. Only one of the buildings remains onsite and that is now the St. Louis Art Museum. Forest Park is also home to the world famous St. Louis Zoo. The park itself is around 1800 acres and is the biggest of its kind, almost twice as large as Central Park in NYC. Unfortunately, we did a drive around without stopping. We did however get to visit the Botanical Gardens, founded in 1859 by Henry Shaw. It has 37 different areas that feature all types of plants from around the world.
Did i mention that they also have Chihuly Glass sculptures through out. As in the vidalia onions floating in the tropical lily pond.
A view of the Climatron, which houses tropical plants. Right next door, is the arid house. It is a beautiful area and one of my favorite places to visit every time I have visited St. Louis.
We also got to visit the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica. Started in 1905, the Church was consecrated in 1926, the mosaics that set this cathedral basilica apart, were not finished until 1988! In 1997, Pope John Paul II designated it a Basilica, the tintinnabulum (bell) and the ombrellino (umbrella) – flank the High Altar reminding one and all of the special status as a Cathedral Basilica.
It is the incredible mosaic work that stands out. The entire Cathedral is covered in small pieces of tile to create biblical scenes. A close up of the mosaic shows the small pieces used.
Closeup of the mosaic work, that makes up the ceilings shown in the previous photo. The mosaic contains an estimated at 41.5 million pieces, in 7,000 colors. The mosaics cover 83,000 square feet and is the largest installation outside of Russia.
Front of the Cathedral Basilica. The blue window above the doors cannot be seen from inside due to the high alter being in place. Just a wonderful place to visit, sit and ponder.
Now no trip to St. Louis would be complete without a tour of the Budweiser Brewery!
Detail on one of the wagons hauled by the Clydesdale horses. These animals are strong and able to pull a wagon loaded with cases of beer. This was the delivery method for years around St. Louis before the advent of trucks.
The area where you catch tours and enjoy a cold, fresh brewed Budweiser, if so inclined.
This brewery can produce about 1.2 million bottles of beer everyday. These are shipped all over the country.
These tanks are 20 feet in diameter and 60 feet long. Four tanks were on the ground floor, with three other tanks of the same size stacked on top for a total of 16 tanks for aging. Beech wood pieces are used to age the beer. The yeast used is a bottom type yeast, without the beech wood pieces the yeast would sink all the way to the bottom and the product on top would be different than the product on the bottom.
This is one of the bottling areas. You can see the filled bottles just past the railing moving to the packaging line. This place runs 24/7.
During prohibition, the brewery converted to a non alcoholic beverage called Bevo. This was the mascot used in advertising.
The fox mascot is known as Reynard. He was the face of Bevo beverage during prohibition. He is actually a character from a German, Dutch and French fairy-tale. He was sly, cunning and always knew where good food and drink was served.
Reynard sits on all four corners of this building. Interesting note, Anhauser-Busch still uses the same strain of yeast that they started with in the 1800's. It is cultured here in St. Louis and shipped to all of its brewery's around the world every month. During prohibition it was sold to the public and was marketed in a package with a recipe on "how not to brew beer" printed on the back. Now that is sly and cunning just like Reynard!
We are heading south to Cape Girardeau for a easy drive and a one night stay. Then it is on to Memphis, home of Graceland, Beale Street and the Blues. Tonight our wagon-masters and tail-gunners will be cooking us gumbo. It just doesn't get any better than this! You all take care and have a great week. Will post more tomorrow evening.
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