Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis...

This summer included many events, one of which was not a family vacation. A few weeks ago, I mentioned to Scott that we should drive over to St. Louis on a long weekend. St. Louis was on our list of regional places to visit and is a short 4 1/2 hr drive from KC. So we made it happen this weekend.

Both Scott and I had visited St. Louis many years before, and even though I was in college at the time, my memories were pretty vague. I'd been up the Arch and to Union Station, and that was about it. But this is a perfect time in our boys' lives to go. Plus, it dovetails well with some of the other discussions we've had about Lewis and Clark and westward expansion. I feel like we've kind of had a front row seat to Lewis and Clark's journey as well as the westward settlers, having lived along the Oregon Trail in Boise, becoming familiar with the lower part of the Lewis and Clark journey here on the banks of the Missouri and washing out barf Zac's clothes in the Salmon River (okay, maybe that one doesn't really count). It's at least theoretically possible that one of the Corps of Discovery members got sick in that river.

But I digress. We packed up and headed out eastward to the Gateway to the West. The drive over there was short and uneventful. My first impression: I think KC is prettier and I don't think I'm being too biased. But the Arch makes a lovely form on the skyline...you have no doubt where you are when you enter that city.

Our hotel was the Drury Inn, right next to the Arch. We even paid a small upcharge for a room with an Arch view, and it was worth it. We dropped our bags in the room and after a little downtime, set off to see the sights in walking distance.

Our first stop was the Old Courthouse, which housed a history museum of the city of St. Louis. It was interesting in that I learned how St. Louis became such an established outpost so early in our country's history (remember, it was practically like California in relation to the 13 colonies). It was a French fur trading post in the 1700's, well rooted enough in civilization to serve as the launch for Lewis and Clark in the early 1800's. Other than some interesting artifacts and architecture, I didn't think the museum was particularly well done. Many of the things were not labeled, just quotes listed on the wall from contemporaneous sources. At any rate, we couldn't stay long because we had 2:45 tickets for the tram to the top of the Arch. We walked across to the Arch and our hearts sank when we saw the line for security...just like the airport! "Too bad it's come to this," said Scott. Sadly, this is the reality now.

I got my pepper spray confiscated with a nice smile after about 1/2 hr of waiting in line. By then, we knew we weren't going to make the 2:45 tram. The whole place is a sunken bunker underneath the Arch and includes the Museum of Westward Expansion, a very nicely done museum organized in a spiral. More on that later. We headed to the Will Call window and got 2:55 tickets from a very unenthusiastic government worker. What we couldn't figure out was the line. There was an enormous queue that looked like a roller coaster ride line, but we all had time-sensitive tickets. We found out from the aforementioned unenthusiastic government worker that the line was just a place to wait; all we had to do is listen for our time to be called. The fact that the North Tram was down did not help with the crowds. So we waited, got called, waited some more, then finally went down the stairs to load on the tram. I remembered the tram being little, more like a pod, and my memories were correct--it was teeny. Fortunately, we all fit, and it had a little window for you to look out so you didn't go crazy from claustriphobia. (another fun fact...the trams are the original ones from the 60's. I was hoping the government did a good job maintaining it's equipment).

So we traveled up the creaky old tram line to the top. Check the next post for our visit to the sky!