Abstract:

And it occurs to me that some folks might be interested in the weather.

Contact:

+1 314 923 2638 (work)
+1 314 631 1058 (home)

william.a.seymour@usps.gov (work)
stdbill.h@pobox.com (standards-related)
was@pobox.com (personal)

The venue:

This is a hotel and convention center in St. Louis Union Station.

The hotel has reserved a block of 15 rooms. They’ll be held until Tuesday, Oct. 1, or until sold out, whichever comes first.

The room rate will be $129/night+tax (currently 16.929%). That includes neither Wi-Fi ($12.95/24 hours) nor breakfast. There’s also a “deluxe courtyard view” room for $139/night+tax.

You can make your reservations by phone: +1 855 271 3620. Say that you’ll be attending the WG14 meeting to get the room rate.

There is also a Web page where you can make reservations:

http://doubletree.hilton.com/en/dt/groups/personalized/S/STLUSDT-WGP-20141023/index.jhtml

We will be meeting in the Conductor Room (maps on pages 2 and 4 of the document at this link…on page 2, north is to the right):

Facing the hotel’s check-in desk, turn left, walk about half way across the footbridge to the sleeping rooms, and go down the steps on your right. At the bottom of the steps, walk most of the way through the Midway until you see a sign on your right that says “Hotel Access and Restrooms.” After walking under that sign, turn right and walk down a short hall. The meeting room is the second one on the left. (It’s easier than it sounds.)

The room will be open each day, Monday through Thursday, from 08:30 to 17:30.

St. Louis will be observing “central daylight time,” UTC−5:00.

New information, 2014-09-11:  I’ve found out that the only access to the hotel, and thus the meeting room, if you don’t have a room key card, is through the hotel’s front door on Market Street.

If you’re arriving by car, your best bet is probably to just pull up to the front door and use the valet parking. I’ll have vouchers in the meeting room that will get you a price of $12.00/day, the same as you’d pay to park yourself; and you won’t have as far to walk.

If you’re arriving by MetroLink, you’ll need to walk north on 18^th Street to Market Street, turn left, and walk west about quarter of the way down the block to the hotel entrance.

Also, if you’re not staying at the Union Station hotel and you go anywhere but the Station Grille (the hotel’s restaurant) for lunch, you might want to go with someone who has a key. 8-)

Other hotels nearby:

Drury Inn at Union Station
201 South 20th St.

Sheraton City Center
400 South 14th St.

Ten-minute walk west:

Marriott Courtyard
2340 Market St.

Pear Tree Inn
2211 Market St.
(If you stay at the Pear Tree and are walking, cross Market Street at 20^th: there’s not another crosswalk farther west until you get to what’s effectively 26^th street (Jefferson Ave.).)

Places to eat nearby:

In the hotel:

Station Grille (former Harvey House, now part of the Hilton)
assorted fast food places in the former trainshed

Outside the main building but still under the trainshed:

Landry’s Seafood
Hard Rock Cafe

Across 20^th Street:

Maggie O’Brien’s (Irish pub)

In the Drury Inn:

Lombardo’s Trattoria (Italian cuisine)

Getting there:

By plane:

Lambert St. Louis International Airport – IATA code STL

It’s not anybody’s hub anymore; but all the big airlines are there. Southwest, United and Delta seem to have the most service (YMMV). There are non-stop flights from many big cities in the “lower 48” and from Toronto via Air Canada Jazz.

You can take the MetroLink (light rail) Red Line directly from the airport to Union Station. It’s about a half-hour ride that, as of this writing, costs $4.00 from the airport.

The Union Station MetroLink station is on the east side of the parking lot at 18^th Street & Clark Avenue.

To get to Union Station, walk up the steps at the west end of the platform (the direction the train came from), then turn right and walk north under the trainshed. You’ll eventually bump into it. The hotel’s check-in desk is on the second floor of the former headhouse on the north side of the building. [2014-09-11:  getting there if you don’t (yet) have a room key]

To get to the Drury Inn, just walk west across the parking lot to 20^th Street.

If you’re staying at the Sheraton, take MetroLink one additional stop (Civic Center). The Sheraton is just across the street.

There’s also a hotel shuttle from the airport for about $17.00 for one person (YMMV).

A taxi will cost about $45.00 (YMMV).

By train:

The Gateway Multimodal Transportation Center has seven daily Amtrak arrivals and departures. Day trips are possible from a handful of towns in the northern Midwest (principally Chicago); it’s generally an overnight trip from places in the Northeast down to D.C. and out to the western slope of the Rockies; you’d spend two nights on the train from the West Coast or the Southeast. Your host is a passenger train geek; contact him privately to find out more than you want to know. 8-)

Our current train station is about a ten-minute walk from Union Station. It’s next to MetroLink’s Civic Center station which is just across the street from the Sheraton.

By intercity bus:

The train station also serves the hound.

By car:

St. Louis is at the intersection of I-44, I-55, I-64 and I-70. Contact me privately for driving directions in town.

For folks attending both WG14 in St. Louis and WG21 the following week in Urbana,

it’s just a three-hour drive. As of this writing, Greyhound shows seven departures on Friday, Oct. 31, five on Saturday, Nov. 1, and six on Sunday, Nov 2. (Use “Champaign, IL” as the destination.)

Champaign’s Amtrak/Greyhound station is just under a mile (ca. 1.5km) from the Hampton Inn. It looks like there’s a city bus that will take you there.

I’d be happy to take three people with me in my car; but note that I plan to head out in the wee hours of the morning on Monday and return as soon as the meeting adjourns on Saturday. On the plus side, I’d be happy to drop you off at the St. Louis airport on the way back so that you can get a round-trip air fare; but note that we wouldn’t get there until the early evening.

A few things to do or see:

On or near the riverfront:

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (a.k.a., the Arch) – take any eastbound MetroLink to Laclede’s Landing (or if you want to walk about a mile, just head down Market Street).

The Old Courthouse – the various Dred Scott cases were heard here.

The Old Cathedral

Forest Park:

The site of the 1904 World’s Fair (and where forming version 1 of the IEC was proposed, BTW) – take any westbound MetroLink to the Forest Park station – you’ll be about one block north of the History Museum. The Forest Park Trolley runs through October 31.

St. Louis Zoo
St. Louis Science Center
Missouri History Museum
St. Louis Art Museum

Music:

Chuck Berry is alive and well and still doing monthly sets at Blueberry Hill in the Loop. (Still true, but not near our meeting it turns out.)

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (Sibelius Symph. #1 and Mendelssohn Violin Conc. the weekend before; Gladiator the weekend after)

Jazz St. Louis

Scott Joplin House – a museum…no performances

If you’re here over the weekend, have a car, and want to take a day trip:

Cahokia Mounds, Collinsville, IL – Mississippian remains.

Mark Twain’s childhood home, Hannibal, MO – about a two-hour drive on U.S. 61, a little longer on the more scenic state road 79.

Winston Churchill Museum, Fulton, MO – Churchill coined the term, “iron curtain”, in a speech at Westminster College.

Ste. Genevieve, MO – the first European settlement west of the Mississippi – about one hour south on I-55. (A handful of the old buildings are still standing, and some have guided tours.)