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Your plane has landed, you've shot into Union Station using the clean and efficient Metrolink light rail system (and saved some major dollars in the process), checked out your beautiful hotel room, maybe put up your feet for a few minutes in one of the comfy chairs. Now, time to explore St. Louis, one of the great perks of attending the ARLIS/NA-VRA 2002 conference. You will find a handy local information guide in your conference packets, with fun recommendations from those in the know. Also, our hospitality/information desk will be covered with brochures and information about interesting restaurants, neighborhoods, and sights. Better yet, as a new feature of this conference, we are staffing this desk with inspired locals who will be thrilled to give you directions, recommend an eating establishment, or just chat it up with you about what they think are the best things that St. Louis has to offer. A few minutes with one of our volunteers, and we bet you will find yourself riding the Metrolink to an eclectic neighborhood, where you can soak up jazz music at a nearby club, wander down St. Louis' private streets, or sample brews on the famous (and free!) Anheuser Busch Brewery tour. So put on your walking shoes, and come along with us for a brief introduction to our neighborhoods (those accessible by Metrolink, that is) and all that they have to offer! To experience St. Louis as it was during the 18th Century, you need only catch the Metrolink and visit Laclede's Landing, named for the founder of St. Louis. An interesting example of St. Louis's original street pattern and slope to the riverfront, the Landing is a great starting point on any walking tour of St. Louis. Stand in the First Street alley for a magnificent view of the St. Louis arch, visit the Train Wreck Saloon for one of their renowned burgers (ostrich, anyone?), and check out the stunning 19th century cast iron architecture. Raeder Place (727 First Street) is perhaps the best of both Landing architecture and the neighborhood's attempts at adaptive re-use, so make sure to visit it and the truly weird Dental Health Theatre inside. Where else will you be given the opportunity to walk across a pink carpet simulating a tongue! The streets in Laclede's Landing are brick and very bumpy, so don't wear heels. Besides, comfortable shoes will make it easier to walk your feet over to the remarkable Eads Bridge, the world's first steel truss bridge and an aesthetic marvel. From here, you can visit the Arch (enough said) or try your luck at the Admiral Casino, a stainless steel deco masterpiece of a boat, now permanently moored at the St. Louis riverfront. Downtown St. Louis, where the conference hotel is located, is filled with too many attractions to count. For those who have spent time here in the past, you will find its dynamic rebirth of our downtown to be a real treat! Satisfy your cravings for great architecture by winding through downtown with the "Art on Rails" guide we have put in your conference packet. Louis Sullivan's Wainwright Building, Philip Johnson's General American Life headquarters, Cass Gilbert's St. Louis Public Library and the Washington Avenue Loft District are just a few of our downtown highlights. For a combination of graceful architecture and historic import look no further than the Old Courthouse, location of the Dred Scott proceedings. Art Deco enthusiasts will be thrilled by Carl Milles' "Meeting of the Waters" fountain in front of Union Station, and will especially enjoy watching its waters begin flowing during our conference, as they traditionally do on the first day of Spring. Those inspired by our sessions on architectural reuse will love visiting Cupples Station, a renovated group of warehouses now home to the exclusive Westin Hotel. Pricey to stay at but a lovely place to visit, be a pretender and enjoy the boutique ambiance, sleek furnishings and some great mixed nuts while having a beverage in their bar. Like unusual attractions? Then the City Museum (location of our 30/20 Anniversary Party) or the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame may be right up your alley, if we might say so! If you want a sense of how the other half lives, look no further than the Central West End, also accessible by Metrolink. Filled with excellent restaurants, galleries, and eclectic boutiques, the Central West End has been one of St. Louis' most exclusive neighborhoods since the 19th century. Wander around Kingsbury Place, Lewis Place, and Washington Terrace, bounded on the Kingshighway side by exception gates designed to tell visitors that they are approaching VERY SPECIAL property. Explore the St. Louis Cathedral, which has more mosaics lining its interior than any building in the world. Or visit the Chase Park Plaza, a hotel and apartment building overlooking Forest Park-its independently owned 5 screen theatre is a great place to catch a movie, and there are several lively restaurants on the premises. If you enjoy slightly seedy yet very hip neighborhoods, grab the Metrolink and head to the Delmar Station to spend a day in the "Loop." A great place to grab Thai, Ethiopian, or Nigerian Food, you can then people watch, take a walk down St. Louis' own "Walk of Fame," visit the legendary Blueberry Hill restaurant and bar (great pop culture memorabilia on display here), shop for new threads, or take in an artsy flick at the Tivoli Theatre. An independent movie theatre, it sadly used to smell like an 80 year old Paris movie house, but thanks to an amazing historic renovation, it now just looks this way! Now, we've told you about these great places to visit. How can you learn more? Much information is available on the web at www.stlouis.citysearch.com, or on our conference website, library.wustl.edu/~beth/Conference.html. Specific information about restaurants, buildings, and how to get from "Point A" to "Point B" will be available at our Hospitality/Information desk. Brochures, maps, restaurants indexed by neighborhood and type of cuisine-all of this information is yours to be had when you visit us in, wow, three weeks! We, and our neighborhoods, can't wait to have you join us!