Last night the late Mass at the Old Cathedral was beautiful, although I was sad to see what songs we had missed by not going to the Carol Sing before the 5:00 Vigil Mass, like the Basque carol about Gabriel's message and "O Magnum Mysterium" by Victoria. Here is a photo of the interior of the Cathedral.
And here is a bridge down at the Riverfront.
And of course there was a barge on the river.
Then Travalon and I bought the $5 Adventure Pass for unlimited rides on the Metro Train for one day. We took the Red Line to the western end, then we took it to what we thought would be the eastern end in Illinois, and it went for a few stops but then stopped abruptly. The driver said we had to get off, but luckily there was another one parked on the eastbound track, and when we got off, it opened its doors so we could get on, and it headed back. Here are some of the cool sights we saw; we also saw things we couldn't get photos of, like a water tower in the distance.
I swear that I saw these same buildings in Chicago.
This too - on Navy Pier!
This is hard to see, but it's a really weird-looking building.
We tried to find an open place for lunch but just ended up coming back to the hotel and getting frozen entrees from the "market." This was a cool view of the Cathedral.
This is the Old Courthouse, where the Dred Scott Decision was made.
When we came back to the room, look how the housekeeper had arranged our stuffies!
Oops, Randy Panda fell down.
Raymond looks like he's praying!
Then we went back and took the Blue Line to its western end. By then it was getting dark, so we saw some cool stuff on the walk back from the Metro stop, like a park with a Christmas tree and a menorah.
The Arch wasn't lit up yet... and then it lit up from the bottom to the top. I would have made a video if I'd realized it. Check out how part on the upper left seems reddish.
Was it a different-colored spotlight, or just an optical illusion? We saw it from the ground, but not from our fifth-story hotel room.
This is a statue of Dred Scott and his wife Harriet.
We came back to the hotel and had the Happy Hour dinner, which tonight was pasta with creamy tomato sauce and optional chicken breast, mixed vegetables, more lettuce, and chili. The hotel had given us each three vouchers for a free drink during Happy Hour for each night we were here, so Travalon decided he should really use one of those twelve vouchers. He was starting to feel like he was getting my cold, so I suggested a hot toddy, but they couldn't make one so they just gave him some bourbon in hot water with limes and honey. I tried it and was surprised by how much I liked it. After that we went to the pool, and he sat in the hot tub while I tried to swim vigorously. I can peacefully coexist with children in the pool - in fact, I really enjoy the waves created by their splashing around - but when they have the whole pool to play in, why do they keep insisting on encroaching on my tiny piece of swimming area? Usually just giving them a dirty look was enough to keep them out of my little area, but not always. Maybe I give off scary vibes, because no baddies bothered us on the Metro, but maybe my Third Eye toque kind of threw them off. Someone once told me the way to gain the respect of baddies is to have a touch of "bad juju" and to act a little crazy, and that hat might cover both. Or maybe the prevalence of baddies in St. Louis has been greatly exaggerated. In my experience, black people on mass transit aren't there to rob you - they are just going from Point A to Point B. Like we were, but with more purpose.
Famous Hat
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