Sightseeing Day:
- Gateway Arch
This morning we headed for St. Louis, MO, to go to the Gateway Arch. We had decided to grab a bite to eat on our way. However, on the 15 mile trip to St. Louis, we passed nary a fast-food joint.
We had to drive around a couple of times to find a place to park that wasn't a 5-mile jaunt to the Arch (yes, I'm exaggerating). Anyway, we parked in a church parking lot and hung our handicapped sign--hoping we wouldn't get towed away. I think Dave could hardly enjoy the adventure for fear of being towed or ticketed. In one of the pictures of the arch being built, you can see the church where we parked.
When we got to the entrance, we had to go through security. It never crossed my mind that this would be an issue. Dave, of course, had his pocket knife. But, it was small enough not to cause havoc.
We then tried to find a snack bar because, by now, both of us are experiencing massive sugar drop. Nope. No snack bar. Well, they had a replica of a country store with some food stuffs. So, we bought 2 bags (very tiny, I might add) of cashews for $5. We felt that the protein would last longer than a snack of candy. It was a good thing we did because we were in the attraction from 11 AM to 4 PM.
After we waited in line for about 15 minutes to purchase tickets, we found out that to purchase the Golden Age Passport (for discounts for senior citizens in Federal parks), we had to go to the gift shop. So, back out of that line and into another. Because the passport would save us $6, we decided it was worth the two-line adventure.
We first viewed a great movie about the building of the Gateway Arch. What an undertaking! It was quite spectacular. I just never realized what an ordeal it was. I have included a couple of pictures of the building, above.
Next we rode the tram to the top of the Arch. Note the picture below that show the teeny-tiny, 5-passenger tram "capsule" we rode in to the top. The white rectangle on the front is the door. There are 4 window panes in the door. As you ride, it's like being in an elevator in which you are seated knee-to-knee with the other four passengers. You also have to bend over because your head touches the roof. It's really a squeeze. As you ascend to the top, you can peer out of very small windows in the door and see the staircase that is also inside the arch. In this photo above, you can see the staircase alongside the capsule. All I could think of was, "Please, God, don't get me stuck in this thing." If I had to walk down 90 billion stairs, I'd be sunk.
When you reach the top, you have to climb up more stairs (already had walked down 2 flights of stairs to descend to the tram). I have included a picture of Dave peering out of the window at the top of the arch. It's really quite small, but enough to see just how high up you really are! Also, when you are at the top walking around in the Arch, you can get a good sense of just how much it curves at the top because the floor and ceiling are arched.
After we descended back to the base of the Arch, we viewed a great movie about the adventures of Lewis and Clark. It was sort of a small IMAX-type presentation. Because we will be visiting several Lewis and Clark sites on our way west (we've already been to Fort Clatsop in Astoria, OR--which is GREAT), we thought it would be worth the $4 each. We both had to laugh as when it was over, we felt it was much better than any modern-day $8 movie.
We stopped at Applebee's for dinner and now we are settling in for the evening. Tomorrow we plan to go to Grant Park, Ulysses Grant's home, and the Jefferson Barracks. We will see what other trouble we can get into tomorrow, but for now, nighty-night.
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