A stop in St. Louis

 Well, I guess we found something blog worthy. Staying just outside St. Louis gave us an excuse to stop by and see the famous St. Louis Arch.

 After going through security and buying our tickets, we spent some time going through the museum. The arch is the centre of the National Park honouring westward expansion. The museum has a great display of artifacts dealing with westward growth and settlement.

 The arch is 630 feet high and has a unique method of moving people up to the top observation deck. 8 small modules holding 5 people each are escalated to the top. They work like ferris wheel gondolas and the trip takes about 3 minutes.

The arch is the highest structure in St. Louis so we looked down on the downtown area. The old courthouse in the centre is a tour in itself; maybe next time.

 The view of the Mississippi river is spectacular from this height. Note the shadow of the arch on the ground. The arch is made of stainless steel and gleams in the sun.

 These small windows allow you to look outside. The walls are sloped because the arch is at it narrowest at the top.

 Here is Grammie at the highest point of the arch. You can see the sloped walls better here.

To leave the observation area we head down the curve of the arch to the gondolas which take us back down. There are stairs all the way to the ground but fortunately we didn't need to use them.

 While looking out the view ports of the arch, we noticed stern wheel river boats offering cruises. Looks like fun.

 Just down from the arch is the Mississippi river. Taking a stern wheeler on the Mississippi just seems right.

 A quick lunch before our boat casts off.

 Its a beautiful day and we are enjoying the relaxing sunshine and motion of the boat.

The arch is huge and we were at the top. Pretty cool, huh.

 This boat was built in St. Louis to cruise the Mississippi river. Its the largest river boat ever built. It could hold 4000 people for a cruise. It never really panned out so it was turned into a floating casino which closed last year. Its been sold for scrap. Too bad, it's kinda unique.

 How about one last picture of the arch. Notice how I cleverly framed the old courthouse; and we were up there, wow. 

We parked on the levee by the Mississippi. After sitting in the +30C sun all day, I had to let some heat out. Its been a fun day and we decided to share it although our last blog was supposed to be the last for awhile. I'm sure this is it; I think.