I Got my Thrill on Blueberry Hill

I never realized that Blueberry Hill had a broad range of artists that played the song. Never the less we headed up to Blueberry Hill restaurant for lunch today. It is suppose to have a killa hamburger. Great neon on the block. What impresses me is how long this place has been in business. Started in 1972 as a small club and now it is the whole block plus a hotel. Joe Edwards had a vision for the run down neighborhood, Delmar Loop. Chuck Berry used to play regularly here in his younger days. and John Goodman has been known to hang out here a bit. A place to stop for lunch and don't forget to look at all the memorabilia thru out the place.

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Chuck Berry's Gibson ES-350

Joe Edwards, Owner

After lunch we drove around getting pictures of Washington University since it is a National Historic Landmark. Nothing great, actually the pics are kind of boring.

Grabbed a picture of the sculpture outside the St Louis Zoo and Forest Park.



We then headed for the Missouri Botanical Garden. At $8 it is a bargain to get in. This place is huge and the only way we were going to see everything was take the tram around (it costs, but oh so worth for me). The day we were there they were setting up the Lantern Festival from China.







A bit of history. It is a National Historic Landmark, founded in 1859 and  is the nation's oldest botanical garden in continuous operation. It is 79 acres and has a 14-acre Japanese strolling garden. Henry Shaw an early merchant in St Louis built his estate on the land that is the botanical garden. His house is still standing.
This is one place really worth seeing. It is not just the plants and flowers, but the sculptures, buildings and the calm and peacefulness of the place.  As I sat and process the photos I have decided that there is another trip to St Louis in our future.

Alot more photos at this link CLICK HERE

Having spent about 4 hours at the Botanical Gardens, we headed over to Tower Grove Park for some more scenery. Actually it was a drive and stop thru and it is right next to the Botanical Gardens. The park was donated by Henry Shaw in 1868 and is 289 acres. The park is filled with pavilions, bridges, fountains, tennis courts, and a wading pool. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark.





After our drive thru we headed to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, another Landmark. The brewery opened in 1852. Free tours are available but it was too late in the day for us to go. We will avail ourselves of the tour when we come back to St Louis.





We did stop at one more Landmark, but there was really nothing special about it from a travel point of view. Just one of those places that we could say we were there.

Did take advantage of the balconey off our room for some night shots



I had promised I would give my hand at some night photography capturing the Arch. The hotel we were in had the perfect platform. As passed onto the deck the sign said the doors were locked at 10am. At precisely 10am the doors were locked and we had to wander around locking for a way out. We tried banging on the door, however no one came. Still got the shot.