Where's Peara? Crossing a Gateway to the West

In another episode of "Where's Peara?" our traveling companion mascot, a stuffed pear, has found her way to a place that is called "The Gateway to the West".  If this isn't a big hint in and of itself, I'm sure the pictures will give it away.  Perhaps, there will still be a couple pictures that leave a little bit to mystery.

Here goes:

Where's Peara?

Answers:  Of course, Peara is entering St. Louis.  She is headed into the city from the East side in Illinois, and crossing over on the Poplar Street Bridge.

In the next few pictures, Peara is in front of Busch Stadium, then Graham Paper Company and Union Station, and then nearing the overpass at the St. Louis Science Center, by the way, the same day they took down the big temporary Exploradome tent.

St. Louis is nicknamed "The Gateway to the West" because of the explorations of Lewis & Clark that began on the Mississippi in St. Louis.  The Gateway Arch was built to commemorate their explorations.  So, as Peara was headed into the city, she was headed in the right direction, West.

Busch Stadium is the newest stadium in the city, and replaced a round open-air stadium that was home to the St. Louis Cardinals for many years.  From the new stadium, you can catch a view of the St. Louis Gateway Arch as well, if you are sitting in the seats inside.

The Graham Paper Company probably has some historic value to the city, but I took the picture because my son's name is Graham.

Union Station used to be a hub for railroad traffic in and out of the city.  In fact, I remember picking up, or dropping off, my Grandma in the late 1970's from/at Union Station.  It has not been used as a train station for years, but was converted into a shopping mall with attached Drury Inn.

The St. Louis Science Center is a popular attraction in Forest Park, a large greenspace in the city.  It connects to the Planetarium via a long covered walkway that goes over the highway.  When you are on the walkway, you can look down and pick up radar speeds of the traffic below.  Hope we weren't going too fast when we passed by.  The center used to have a temporary Exploradome tent where you could visit traveling exhibits.  The day we passed under the walkway of the St. Louis Science Center was the same day they took down and removed that temporary tent, which was actually pretty permanent for a temporary structure since it had been there for probably at least a decade.