Summer Vacation 2011 - Part 2

Day 3- July 11
-  I turned 31!
-  Josh was at the conference all day
-  Our car had been making some funny noises.  We decided the tires were the issue, so I bought us new tires for my birthday.  Sadly, this didn't fix the problem.  More on that later.
-  Mom and I shopped at St. Louis Mills.  I didn't buy anything, but Mom found a few deals.
-  We also stopped by Union Station to shop and look around. 

Stained glass inside Union Station

Grand Hall in Union Station

Outside Union Station

Outside Union Station

Outside Union Station

Day 4- July 12
-  Josh was at the conference all day
-  Mom and I visited the Cathedral Basilica, Cahokia Mounds, and did some more shopping :)

Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis

Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis- standing at the rear looking toward the front

Looking up at one of the domes- all of the mosaics are made from tiny tiles that are about 1 cm square.  It was amazing!

All made from those tiny tiles!

Again, mosaics from tiny tiles.

A close up of one of the swirls from the picture above- maybe this will help you understand the intricacy of the tile work.  I think we learned that 40 millions tiles were used in the cathedral.

The main dome (all in tile)

One of the scenes made from those same tiny tiles

Another scene- guess what it's made of.  Tiles!  The whole building was just amazing.

Looking toward the rear of the cathedral.  All tile except for the flower stained glass window.

Cahokia Mounds- Monks Mound-  We climbed 154 stairs to get to the top.

View of downtown St. Louis from Monks Mound

Day 5- July 13
-  Josh was at the conference all day
-  Our wonderful mechanic from WA told Josh that we probably had a bad wheel bearing.  Mom and I took the car and got the bearing replaced.  Hooray, the car was fixed!  Thanks, Jeff, for diagnosing our problem over the phone and saving us tons of time! 
-  Mom and I spent the rest of the day shopping (we did a lot of shopping on this trip!)  Our greatest find was The Container Store.  We probably spent 2 hours in there and came away with some fun stuff.  That is totally my kind of store!
-  No pictures from this day :(  You can check our flickr site for more pictures from our trip up to this point.