Gateway to the West

We began our second day of driving in Kansas City, MO. Our destination for the evening was Dayton, OH, but we wanted to make a stop in St. Louis, MO to see the Gateway to the West, the St. Louis Arch. For the day, it would actually be our gateway to the East since I have spent the last 5 years in the West. There wasn't anything really special about Missouri, just some rolling hills and land. But, the Arch was awesome! Here are some pictures and commentary from the day! 

Mom volunteered to sit in the hole today. Dad repacked the car in a different way, so there was more room. 

Dad's fancy sun hat kept falling into my lap so I just decided to wear it right into town!

We made it!

Mom and I in the teeny, weeny pod to get for our journey to the top! 

St. Louis capitol from the arch!

Looking towards the Cardinals stadium. They were getting ready for a game against San Francisco.

I made it to the top!

So, mom and my sister Natalie (she was not on this adventure with us) had been to the top of the Arch when my sister was in TAG oh so long ago. When my parents brought my car our to me, they stopped here and tried to go to the top, but all of the tickets were sold out, so they just got to look at it from the bottom. This trip, though, we secured tickets and it was a first for both my dad and I. It was crazy walking up to the arch because it was so big and it didn't seem like anyone could go to the top. There were tiny slits in the top, which turned out to be the windows as I soon discovered. Anyway, we got in line for our journey to the top. The pods were extremely tiny, but they fit 5 people into them. Thankfully, there were only 4 people in our pod to the top and we had a little bit of space. When I say little bit, though, I mean very little bit. It was approximately a 4 minute ride to the top, so only a few minutes for small talk. The other guy sharing our pod was on a business trip from Walla Walla, WA. I like to say Walla Walla so I thought it was pretty neat. 

Once we got to the top, out we went. It was a small strip of space at the top, with tiny windows to look at the Mississippi River and West. We got our pictures by the Top of the Arch sign (630 ft up) and took some more glances in and out of the windows. I will say they know how to fit a lot of people up there. We only stayed at the top for about 10 minutes and then it was back to the pod to take our trip down. 

At the bottom, we took a whirl through the Westward Expansion Museum and then headed outside to get some more views of the Arch. It was hot outside, a lot hotter than I have experienced in the last 5 years. Oh and there was humidity too. I suppose I should get used to that again! We headed back towards the car and stopped at Hannegan's Grill and Pub for some lunch before hitting the road again. It was a lovely place, but we chose to eat outside since there was a nice breeze and it was under the shade of some big trees. Then, we were off again, out on the open road. We hit some rain here and there on our journey to Ohio, but for the most part we had nice weather. Ohio greeted us with a blue arch, which we thought was pretty neat. Here are some pictures that I took with my actual camera. 

The Gateway Arch from the road. 

Walking up to the Arch

Downtown St. Louis

The Mighty Mississippi 

The Mississippi River. Now all we need to do is take a cruise on the Mississippi from St. Louis to New Orleans! How cool would that be?!?

The shadow of the Arch! 

Posing in the Museum

It's so big I cannot get it all in the frame! 

The Arch with my foot to prove I was there...I know, too much! 

My classic jump portrait with the Arch. 

We ate at Hannegan's in Laclede's Landing! 

Crossing a bridge into Illinois!

We made it to Ohio! 

More to come about the third and final day of the road trip!