Knocking around St. Louis

In front of the Eads bridge, next to the Arch.

I hope this blog won't be too long. I try to keep them short.

After discovering that we are a block off of Route 66, we decided to drive down that road to get to downtown St. Louis this morning rather than taking the interstate. (That's what this trip is all about, isn't it?) We were not disappointed. Beautiful old brownstone houses lined the roadway to downtown. Such a pleasant drive.

We arrived at the arch to a beautiful sunny day with a VERY stiff wind. Got some incredible pictures.

This was taken with a wide angle lens from the ground in front of the steps.



We decided to take the tram to the top of the arch. To get to the top, you get in the very small "pods" that hold 5 people. It is an extremely small space. There are 8 little pods connected together, kind of like a zipper. So what happens is when you start off, the pods are lined up horizontally facing one direction. Then, little by little, as you climb higher, the pods stack on top of one another so that they are lined up vertically. Then when you get to the top, you are horizontal again, except facing the opposite way. It was very cool and a fantastic feat of engineering to figure that out. (I'm married to one. I have to notice these things.)

The view from the top was amazing. (pictures to follow) Actually it took much less time to come down that to go up. Sparky said it was because of gravity. That made sense but did not really make me happy.

I loved the shadow of the Arch in this one.

The ranger said you could see for 13 miles. I believe him.

Looking straight down.

After the Arch, we went on the riverboat sight seeing cruise. We had planned to do the dinner cruise tonight but I did not realize that we had to make advance reservations so we missed that one. It was ok though. We had a great time anyway.

On the drive back to our hotel, we stopped at two famous Route 66 landmarks (I expect these are the first of many). The first was "Ted Drewes Frozen Custard". That was some of the creamiest and most delicious "ice cream" I have ever had. You order a "concrete" which is a bowl of frozen custard. They call it that because it's thick like concrete but it was not hard at all. YUMMY.

The second landmark was a tiny, ancient donut shop, (I know, I know. Weight Watchers will still be there when I get back) They have been making donuts for 50 years in that little place. We bought a couple to have for breakfast in the morning.

A great day. Tomorrow we drive across Missouri. Adventure awaits.