St. Louis (June)

Back in June, we joined Mark's family in Missouri for the annual visit at Bunker Hill (followed by a couple of days in Arkansas). On our way, we stopped for the night in St. Louis. Since I had expressed interest in seeing the arch up close, Mark planned for us to ride up in the arch and take a river cruise while we were there this year. It was a bit stressful because we arranged to do these things on the same day that we drove in, and our timing was not perfect. We also had serious difficulties finding the right parking structure and navigating the streets downtown, which were under construction. In the end, though, we had time to do both of our pre-scheduled (and pre-paid) activities, and I had a blast. First, we went into the arch visitor center, waited in line for a bit, walked through a display area about the history and design of the arch, then lined up to get in the little elevator system that takes people up to the top.

Our elevator door.

The elevators are like little oval pods that go up. They cram up to five people inside! Notice how Mark's head is tucked right against the side...things were a bit tight in there.

Us inside the elevator pod.

 At the top, it was a zoo of people in another pretty tiny area. It could have been worse, but it definitely wasn't a place we wanted to just hang around forever. So we looked out the windows on both sides, took a few pics, and rode back down (plus, we didn't want to miss our departure for the river cruise).

Various views of St. Louis from the top of the arch.

A bit blurry, but that's us at the top.

Next, it was off to the boats! Mark had taken a similar cruise as a kid, but it was all brand new to me. It was really interesting hearing about the landmarks on either side and a bit of history of the area.  

To take a break from the heat, we moved to the air-conditioned inside area.

Since we had been so rushed on our way to the arch, we took our time (and a few pics) as we walked back to the car. There's really no way for these photos to capture just how big that arch looks when you're standing right there next to it!

I'm not sure if we'll ever do it again, but I'm so glad that we finally made the time to explore this area a bit more closely. It's certainly a different experience than just driving by!