Some time ago, I’d promised Daniel that I’d visit St. Louis sometime this year. But then I looked at my calendar and realized it was probably going to have to be either the beginning of August or the end of October, and so I chose the former. On a bit of a whim, I decided to buy some last-minute tickets to St. Louis and spend a weekend there, crashing at Daniel’s place for two nights.
It turns out that a weekend is not a lot of time, but we made do with a fairly packed itinerary. We started off Saturday by visiting a notable bakery, briefly stopping by the World Chess Hall of Fame, and touring the Basilica of St. Louis, whose elaborate interior mosaics reminded me a lot of St. Mark’s in Venice. (Daniel tells me that it is the largest collection of mosaics in the world outside of Russia!) We of course had to go to the Gateway Arch, the second-most-famous building by notable Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen (after the Bell Labs complex in the great town of Holmdel, NJ, of course).
For lunch, we went to Balkan Treat Box, where I tried Bosnian food for the first time; it was really good, as the line out the door would suggest.1 We then headed over to Forest Park, where we went to the St. Louis Zoo, which I have been informed is consistently ranked one of the best in the country. I was naturally a big fan of the Bactrian camel exhibit—what noble creatures! I really should’ve worn my funny camel t-shirt…2
We ducked inside the nearby art museum just in time to dodge the rain; Joyce met up with us at the museum, and we walked around admiring nature paintings and Byzantine artifacts. Dinner was at an Ethiopian place; I think it was my first time trying the cuisine. I liked the sauces, but unfortunately I think the injera was a bit too sour for my tastes. We then went to hang out with one of Daniel’s med school friends for a bit before calling it a night.
The next morning, we did something novel: we did something before church! On my own, I never wake up early enough for this to happen, but with Daniel, all things are possible. We grabbed breakfast with yet another one of Daniel’s med school friends, who apparently knows Melanie from school—it’s a small world! They caught up a bit about med school, and it was honestly really refreshing hearing people talk about something that was not AI for a change. That’s all people talk about these days in New York tech and finance circles.
We then attended service at Daniel’s church before meeting up with Thomas for lunch. (I had coincidentally found out that Thomas was in St. Louis when he visited New York for Matt and Jackie’s wedding the year prior.) It was good to catch up with him, and we unexpectedly had a bit of time to kill after my original flight back to New York was canceled and I had to book a later flight. We toured the Washington University undergrad campus and strolled around Forest Park for a bit, and then I joined Daniel for some pickleball with some med school people. I was treated to an astonishing sight: empty pickleball courts that you could just walk up to and play on, even on a gorgeous summer Sunday afternoon! Good luck finding a free pickleball court anywhere in Manhattan on a nice day…
Finally, it was time to say goodbye and head back to the airport, thus concluding my brief visit to St. Louis. A big thanks to Daniel for hosting me, and for showing me all the wonders that the city has to offer. St. Louis, I will admit that I was unfamiliar with your game.
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