Places visited: Saint Louis
Date: 6/5/2017 to 7/5/2017
Purpose: Picnic
Persons: Harshal, Juilee, Radhika.
6/5/2017:
On 3rd of May, the most awaited day, I got my rental car. For last couple of days I was taking driving lessons from Mr. Bob, who usually gives lessons to all our employees. These lessons were on my personal expense. I choose to spend that money as I felt that spending this money is worth to make our future travels uneventful. On 3rd May, I went to Moline airport and drove the Nissan Altima home. For next 3 days, I was just making sure that I am able to drive safe.
We were not sure if we will be able to go anywhere in USA over the coming weekend, because the forecast was of "rains and thunderstorms". Also Mr. Bob advised me not to go to far east or west as I am new to driving in USA. Also we were keen to go to Six Flags or any other bug amusement park, but St. Louis was flooded due to Meramec river (a sub-river to Mississippi) and Chicago was also having lot of rains. My teammates suggested me to go to either Pella to enjoy Tulip festival or DesMoines to enjoy Adventure land. Juilee was very nervous because she assumed that she would never get a chance to visit adventure parks due to the weather conditions. I wanted Juilee to enjoy the USA to the fullest. So I had sent an email to St. Louis Six Flags to inquire more about floods. I received their reply on 4th May that the photo that is circulating on the internet about "roller coaster ride under water" was from 2002 and that to from another state. They mentioned that we can come and enjoy the park over the weekend.
This made me and Juilee happy and we started to pack our bags on 5th evening. Parallel to this, based on our previous good experience with AirBnb, we again searched for some good hosts. We booked a host who's home was 20 minutes away from the Gateway Arch. her name was Dajana.
We woke up and got ready. Radhika got up late and eventually it took around 8 :30 AM for us to start our journey. It was a nice sunny day and forecast was also nice. I was enjoying the driving on the USA highways and freeways. Radhika was little upset as she was tied in the seat belts + child seat and she could not move much. On the way, Radhika wanted to take a bio-break and hence I took a rest-area exit. Unfortunately this exit lead us to a village with very small road and sparse homes. We drove for almost 20 minutes and were unable to find any rest area. So ultimately I decided to return to highway to find another rest-area. However Radhika was cranky and started crying as she could not hold her patience and hence we had to stop by a road and made her answer the natures call on the road-side. Then we again merged onto the highway and then took another break after an hour on a gas station. I also bought my new polarized goggles there which were very helpful as the sunlight is very bright in USA.
We took many breaks and Radhika also learnt that after taking breaks she was getting freed up from the seat belts, so she purposefully was asking for many breaks. I have decided to first go to some Indian Restaurant in St. Louis before going to Dajana's home. But due to those millions of breaks we took, it took 1:30 PM for us to reach at the St. Louis Entrance (or Exit, they call it in USA). So we decided to go straight to Dajana's home. It was my first time to enter into a big city using the car, so I was little nervous and also was afraid by seeing lot of cars driving zooom zooom from my both the sides. The curves which drop you from highway to the city are very crazy and confusing. Few people also honked at me as I was changing lanes. Then I calmed down my mind and drove steadily. Also we took couple of wrong exits before we reached to Dajana's home at 2:30 PM
Dajana's home was like a row-house in India. Fortunately it had a parking lot for us. Dajana and her partner was living their with their baby. We gave them "Chitale Bandhu Maka Chiwda" (Cornflakes spicy snacks), which they found very spicy. We also told them that we had booked a ticket for Gateway Arch for 3:50, so they offered us a Uber ride. They drive Uber along with AirBnB. Juilee quickly prepared the favorite Indian lifesaver - Maggi. We ate it in the bedroom upstairs and then as we were almost ready to start, Radhika took a bio break of 15 minutes.
Dajana and her partner (Brad) gave us ride till the Arch. While riding, they told use their story - how they met and how they are earning good money in Uber/Lync and AirBnB.
Dajana and Brad were good hosts and have kept their home clean. They also allowed us to use their kitchen and provided us with Towels and Napkins. They were friendly, helpful and at the same time very much detached from us and gave us privacy. This is a different thing I found in USA. People are very friendly and helpful when we ask them help but at the same time they respect your privacy and do not get attached to you (like we do in India - when someone asks for help in India, we also become very helpful and kind and at the same time we stick to them till their problem gets resolved, and while doing this sometimes we forget about the "privacy" thing and try to invade their lives :D - funny, but true, right?)
After Brad dropped us near the Arch, we headed straight to the security check after doing some photo shoot. It is a 5 minutes walk on the river side. On that day, one of the tram was closed and only one was operating. So there was good crowd. While we were waiting at the basement for the tram, a kid came to me asking if I was a fan of some football team. He thought so because I was wearing some team's T-Shirt (which I bought in Moline). I told him that I am a tourist and have no idea what he is talking about. Then he smiled and left. Funy!
We had some small talk with a couple in the queue, where we jumped the queue and came after them. So we apologized them and then the man said "Not a problem, we all are going to the same place!". (I think now, that was a sarcastic comment!) After 30 minutes of wait, we went near the tram. A tour guide told us some history.
Civic leader Luther Ely Smith conceived the idea of building a memorial to help revive the riverfront and memorialize the story of the nation’s westward expansion. Through a nationwide design competition conducted 1947–1948, Eero Saarinen’s stainless steel Arch was chosen as the memorial that would celebrate the accomplishments of early pioneers. St. Louis celebrated with a groundbreaking on June 23, 1959.
Over the next few years, Saarinen perfected his design and workers began excavating the grounds in 1961.
In 1962, the Bi-State Development (BSD) was asked to finance the $2 million tram system that transports visitors to and from the top of the Arch. Meanwhile, it took steadfast coordination to put every piece of the Arch into place until the final section at the top of the Arch was secured on October 28, 1965.
Trams became operational in 1967, thanks to the funds that BSD raised by selling revenue bonds. In the same year, the Visitor Center, with exhibits, opened to the public.
Brad told us later that due to this Arch, St. Louis's weather is terribly changed. It was very smooth before the Arch's construction and now it has gone awfully wrong.
The tram ride is awesome and Radhika and Juilee enjoyed it. It you are afraid of tiny and closed spaces, do not do it. We reached to the top of the arch in 120 seconds. There are some 8-10 windows at the top from which you again see good views of Mississippi floods and other landscapes. Brad said that sometimes, we experience the swings of the arch. But we did not experienced it, probably due to low winds.
After doing photography and enjoying the views for 20 minutes, we took the tram for downwards. We came out and sat on the river front staircases for some time to enjoy the sunny weather. As we were coming out of the place, we saw a horse carriage, and we immediately took the ride. The lady driver took us through the city and from the main road. The traffic was halting to give us the way, that surprised me. No one was honking neither getting irritated because of the horse carriage's slow movement. (I feel in India, we have lost the tolerance because of ever increasing crowds in the cities). After this ride, we went to Gokul which is a famous (and Pure Veg) India restaurant. The food was the best India food I had eaten in USA till date. There we called Brad to pick us up. While returning home, we told Brad about India - its populations, its crowd, its culture. He was amazed to listen to all that (crazy) stuff. He also promised us to take to the breakfast hotel in the morning.
The night sleep was good with no disturbance. But the most jaw-dropping thing happened was - Brad and Dajana, at 9 pm, told us that they both are going to do Uber rides at night and there baby is sleeping at home. We don't have to worry about the baby.
We heard it and our jaw dropped. Me and Juilee thought how can one keep the baby at home with a stranger couple from outside of the country and go out for 5 hours? We could not understand this and we also couldn't have imagined we doing this thing with Radhika! Any way, we were not worried about us. We were also not worried about the Baby. If he would have woke up at mid night, we would have been more than happy to play with him and keep him busy. But We were more worried about the thought process of Brad. How could he trust two unknown people (me and Juilee) and keep his Baby with with us. Funny? or just the cultural shock for us?
7/5/2017:
In the morning, we woke in the hope of Brad taking us to breakfast. However we found that both of them were sleeping tightly. So we then ate MTR Upama and Pohe (another lifesaver like Maggi). Juilee also called Dajana to tell her thanks and wave bye, but she did not pick up the call. So we then left her a message and packed our bags in the car and headed for the Six Flags. It was like 40 minutes drive from Dajana's home. All in all, Dajana's home stay was also wonderful experience with some new learning from american culture. We understood that American people love privacy as well as they respect privacy of others. They are helpful to you if you ask for help.
We were one of those few visitors who had arrived early enough to get front row parking. There are general and special parking areas with difference of $10 in the rate. We opted for General parking which is also closer to the park gate. No need to go for special parking. We then had to wait for around half an hour in an queue as the park gates were still closed. The park opened at 10:00 AM and we were already started tanning due to high sun. So as soon as we entered, we bought a cap for Radhika and some soft drinks. There I found an interesting offer. You can pay $15 and you will get a Cock branded plastic glass, which you can refill throughout the day unlimited. I did not go for it, but now I think we should have bought it, as we anyway spent more than $10 on the soft drinks on that hot and sunny day.
Juilee was all excited and she immediately started doing all those creepy wacky (final destination style) rides. I was not even looking at those crazy rides. I took Radhika to the kids section and did some rides with her. Also me and Radhika spent good time on the toy train, which takes you through the entire park. We rode it couple of times and also ate few ice-creams. Ice-creams is the one thing which I did not like in USA. I don't know why every India who returns from USA keeps telling about how wonderful ice-creams they get in USA, but for me it was the worst taste. Those ice-creams are pathetically salty+sweet and they are with very limited flavors like - Vanilla, Chocolate, Banana and Berries. These flavors are then mixed and matched and topped with cookies, rainbow sprinkles, etc. to make it worst. Also the "small" sized ice-cream is not really small. Its just a big chunk, which I can not finish eating even in one hour. All in all, for me ice-cream is the worst in USA.
For next 3 hours, we were enjoying all the rides and then we met at a giant merry go round. Juilee insisted me to accompany her in there, so did I. It was not as scary as I thought. It was pretty slow and steady ride. After that we rushed to a nearby stall for lunch and ate our favorite Mexican food. Mexican food was somewhat liked by Radhika as they serve Roti like thing with Rajma like beans and gravy and onion and tomatoes.
This theme park also has a water park but it was closed. The theme park is quite big and we got exhausted till 3 pm. The kids rides were also good and Radhika also enjoyed those. Juilee enjoyed the park more than anyone else. I saw a kid in her eyes. Juilee was very happy after this park visit. Me and Radhika took the train ride for couple of time. Lastly we decided to do the last ride of go-carting, but we could not do it as it was not open for ages below 12.
So we did a lazy-river ride, which was good and felt like rafting in a crazy (not lazy) river. Got little wet but the hot sunny weather soon dried it.
We started our return journey back to Davenport and while returning spotted a nice subway in a small town. The subway owner warned us to drive carefully has many dears hit the cars during that time of the year in that town. And we, too, observed many dears lying died on the highway/road due to car crash.
We returned safely and then slept tightly by having a light dinner.
Juilee was most happy as she got to visit the bigggg amusement park with all those wacky rides. Radhika was happy as usual because she got all the stuff like ice cream, lollipop, chips and coke.
Details:
airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/117546481
address: 5272 Sir Bors Drive, St. Louis, MO 63129, United States
Expenses:
Arch tickets:
Adult ($13 * 2) + Child ($10) = $36
Horse Carriage: $30
Six Flags: ($50 * 3 + tax $12 + processing fee $8) = $172 approx.
Date: 6/5/2017 to 7/5/2017
Purpose: Picnic
Persons: Harshal, Juilee, Radhika.
6/5/2017:
On 3rd of May, the most awaited day, I got my rental car. For last couple of days I was taking driving lessons from Mr. Bob, who usually gives lessons to all our employees. These lessons were on my personal expense. I choose to spend that money as I felt that spending this money is worth to make our future travels uneventful. On 3rd May, I went to Moline airport and drove the Nissan Altima home. For next 3 days, I was just making sure that I am able to drive safe.
We were not sure if we will be able to go anywhere in USA over the coming weekend, because the forecast was of "rains and thunderstorms". Also Mr. Bob advised me not to go to far east or west as I am new to driving in USA. Also we were keen to go to Six Flags or any other bug amusement park, but St. Louis was flooded due to Meramec river (a sub-river to Mississippi) and Chicago was also having lot of rains. My teammates suggested me to go to either Pella to enjoy Tulip festival or DesMoines to enjoy Adventure land. Juilee was very nervous because she assumed that she would never get a chance to visit adventure parks due to the weather conditions. I wanted Juilee to enjoy the USA to the fullest. So I had sent an email to St. Louis Six Flags to inquire more about floods. I received their reply on 4th May that the photo that is circulating on the internet about "roller coaster ride under water" was from 2002 and that to from another state. They mentioned that we can come and enjoy the park over the weekend.
This made me and Juilee happy and we started to pack our bags on 5th evening. Parallel to this, based on our previous good experience with AirBnb, we again searched for some good hosts. We booked a host who's home was 20 minutes away from the Gateway Arch. her name was Dajana.
We woke up and got ready. Radhika got up late and eventually it took around 8 :30 AM for us to start our journey. It was a nice sunny day and forecast was also nice. I was enjoying the driving on the USA highways and freeways. Radhika was little upset as she was tied in the seat belts + child seat and she could not move much. On the way, Radhika wanted to take a bio-break and hence I took a rest-area exit. Unfortunately this exit lead us to a village with very small road and sparse homes. We drove for almost 20 minutes and were unable to find any rest area. So ultimately I decided to return to highway to find another rest-area. However Radhika was cranky and started crying as she could not hold her patience and hence we had to stop by a road and made her answer the natures call on the road-side. Then we again merged onto the highway and then took another break after an hour on a gas station. I also bought my new polarized goggles there which were very helpful as the sunlight is very bright in USA.
We took many breaks and Radhika also learnt that after taking breaks she was getting freed up from the seat belts, so she purposefully was asking for many breaks. I have decided to first go to some Indian Restaurant in St. Louis before going to Dajana's home. But due to those millions of breaks we took, it took 1:30 PM for us to reach at the St. Louis Entrance (or Exit, they call it in USA). So we decided to go straight to Dajana's home. It was my first time to enter into a big city using the car, so I was little nervous and also was afraid by seeing lot of cars driving zooom zooom from my both the sides. The curves which drop you from highway to the city are very crazy and confusing. Few people also honked at me as I was changing lanes. Then I calmed down my mind and drove steadily. Also we took couple of wrong exits before we reached to Dajana's home at 2:30 PM
Dajana's home was like a row-house in India. Fortunately it had a parking lot for us. Dajana and her partner was living their with their baby. We gave them "Chitale Bandhu Maka Chiwda" (Cornflakes spicy snacks), which they found very spicy. We also told them that we had booked a ticket for Gateway Arch for 3:50, so they offered us a Uber ride. They drive Uber along with AirBnB. Juilee quickly prepared the favorite Indian lifesaver - Maggi. We ate it in the bedroom upstairs and then as we were almost ready to start, Radhika took a bio break of 15 minutes.
Dajana and her partner (Brad) gave us ride till the Arch. While riding, they told use their story - how they met and how they are earning good money in Uber/Lync and AirBnB.
Dajana and Brad were good hosts and have kept their home clean. They also allowed us to use their kitchen and provided us with Towels and Napkins. They were friendly, helpful and at the same time very much detached from us and gave us privacy. This is a different thing I found in USA. People are very friendly and helpful when we ask them help but at the same time they respect your privacy and do not get attached to you (like we do in India - when someone asks for help in India, we also become very helpful and kind and at the same time we stick to them till their problem gets resolved, and while doing this sometimes we forget about the "privacy" thing and try to invade their lives :D - funny, but true, right?)
After Brad dropped us near the Arch, we headed straight to the security check after doing some photo shoot. It is a 5 minutes walk on the river side. On that day, one of the tram was closed and only one was operating. So there was good crowd. While we were waiting at the basement for the tram, a kid came to me asking if I was a fan of some football team. He thought so because I was wearing some team's T-Shirt (which I bought in Moline). I told him that I am a tourist and have no idea what he is talking about. Then he smiled and left. Funy!
We had some small talk with a couple in the queue, where we jumped the queue and came after them. So we apologized them and then the man said "Not a problem, we all are going to the same place!". (I think now, that was a sarcastic comment!) After 30 minutes of wait, we went near the tram. A tour guide told us some history.
Civic leader Luther Ely Smith conceived the idea of building a memorial to help revive the riverfront and memorialize the story of the nation’s westward expansion. Through a nationwide design competition conducted 1947–1948, Eero Saarinen’s stainless steel Arch was chosen as the memorial that would celebrate the accomplishments of early pioneers. St. Louis celebrated with a groundbreaking on June 23, 1959.Over the next few years, Saarinen perfected his design and workers began excavating the grounds in 1961.
In 1962, the Bi-State Development (BSD) was asked to finance the $2 million tram system that transports visitors to and from the top of the Arch. Meanwhile, it took steadfast coordination to put every piece of the Arch into place until the final section at the top of the Arch was secured on October 28, 1965.Trams became operational in 1967, thanks to the funds that BSD raised by selling revenue bonds. In the same year, the Visitor Center, with exhibits, opened to the public.
Brad told us later that due to this Arch, St. Louis's weather is terribly changed. It was very smooth before the Arch's construction and now it has gone awfully wrong.
The tram ride is awesome and Radhika and Juilee enjoyed it. It you are afraid of tiny and closed spaces, do not do it. We reached to the top of the arch in 120 seconds. There are some 8-10 windows at the top from which you again see good views of Mississippi floods and other landscapes. Brad said that sometimes, we experience the swings of the arch. But we did not experienced it, probably due to low winds.
After doing photography and enjoying the views for 20 minutes, we took the tram for downwards. We came out and sat on the river front staircases for some time to enjoy the sunny weather. As we were coming out of the place, we saw a horse carriage, and we immediately took the ride. The lady driver took us through the city and from the main road. The traffic was halting to give us the way, that surprised me. No one was honking neither getting irritated because of the horse carriage's slow movement. (I feel in India, we have lost the tolerance because of ever increasing crowds in the cities). After this ride, we went to Gokul which is a famous (and Pure Veg) India restaurant. The food was the best India food I had eaten in USA till date. There we called Brad to pick us up. While returning home, we told Brad about India - its populations, its crowd, its culture. He was amazed to listen to all that (crazy) stuff. He also promised us to take to the breakfast hotel in the morning.The night sleep was good with no disturbance. But the most jaw-dropping thing happened was - Brad and Dajana, at 9 pm, told us that they both are going to do Uber rides at night and there baby is sleeping at home. We don't have to worry about the baby.
We heard it and our jaw dropped. Me and Juilee thought how can one keep the baby at home with a stranger couple from outside of the country and go out for 5 hours? We could not understand this and we also couldn't have imagined we doing this thing with Radhika! Any way, we were not worried about us. We were also not worried about the Baby. If he would have woke up at mid night, we would have been more than happy to play with him and keep him busy. But We were more worried about the thought process of Brad. How could he trust two unknown people (me and Juilee) and keep his Baby with with us. Funny? or just the cultural shock for us?
7/5/2017:
In the morning, we woke in the hope of Brad taking us to breakfast. However we found that both of them were sleeping tightly. So we then ate MTR Upama and Pohe (another lifesaver like Maggi). Juilee also called Dajana to tell her thanks and wave bye, but she did not pick up the call. So we then left her a message and packed our bags in the car and headed for the Six Flags. It was like 40 minutes drive from Dajana's home. All in all, Dajana's home stay was also wonderful experience with some new learning from american culture. We understood that American people love privacy as well as they respect privacy of others. They are helpful to you if you ask for help.
We were one of those few visitors who had arrived early enough to get front row parking. There are general and special parking areas with difference of $10 in the rate. We opted for General parking which is also closer to the park gate. No need to go for special parking. We then had to wait for around half an hour in an queue as the park gates were still closed. The park opened at 10:00 AM and we were already started tanning due to high sun. So as soon as we entered, we bought a cap for Radhika and some soft drinks. There I found an interesting offer. You can pay $15 and you will get a Cock branded plastic glass, which you can refill throughout the day unlimited. I did not go for it, but now I think we should have bought it, as we anyway spent more than $10 on the soft drinks on that hot and sunny day.
Juilee was all excited and she immediately started doing all those creepy wacky (final destination style) rides. I was not even looking at those crazy rides. I took Radhika to the kids section and did some rides with her. Also me and Radhika spent good time on the toy train, which takes you through the entire park. We rode it couple of times and also ate few ice-creams. Ice-creams is the one thing which I did not like in USA. I don't know why every India who returns from USA keeps telling about how wonderful ice-creams they get in USA, but for me it was the worst taste. Those ice-creams are pathetically salty+sweet and they are with very limited flavors like - Vanilla, Chocolate, Banana and Berries. These flavors are then mixed and matched and topped with cookies, rainbow sprinkles, etc. to make it worst. Also the "small" sized ice-cream is not really small. Its just a big chunk, which I can not finish eating even in one hour. All in all, for me ice-cream is the worst in USA.
For next 3 hours, we were enjoying all the rides and then we met at a giant merry go round. Juilee insisted me to accompany her in there, so did I. It was not as scary as I thought. It was pretty slow and steady ride. After that we rushed to a nearby stall for lunch and ate our favorite Mexican food. Mexican food was somewhat liked by Radhika as they serve Roti like thing with Rajma like beans and gravy and onion and tomatoes.
This theme park also has a water park but it was closed. The theme park is quite big and we got exhausted till 3 pm. The kids rides were also good and Radhika also enjoyed those. Juilee enjoyed the park more than anyone else. I saw a kid in her eyes. Juilee was very happy after this park visit. Me and Radhika took the train ride for couple of time. Lastly we decided to do the last ride of go-carting, but we could not do it as it was not open for ages below 12.So we did a lazy-river ride, which was good and felt like rafting in a crazy (not lazy) river. Got little wet but the hot sunny weather soon dried it.
We started our return journey back to Davenport and while returning spotted a nice subway in a small town. The subway owner warned us to drive carefully has many dears hit the cars during that time of the year in that town. And we, too, observed many dears lying died on the highway/road due to car crash.
We returned safely and then slept tightly by having a light dinner.
Juilee was most happy as she got to visit the bigggg amusement park with all those wacky rides. Radhika was happy as usual because she got all the stuff like ice cream, lollipop, chips and coke.
Details:
airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/117546481
address: 5272 Sir Bors Drive, St. Louis, MO 63129, United States
Expenses:
Arch tickets:
Adult ($13 * 2) + Child ($10) = $36
Horse Carriage: $30
Six Flags: ($50 * 3 + tax $12 + processing fee $8) = $172 approx.
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