Monday, November 20, 2006

St. Louis 1


In the begining of November we took a short weekend trip to St. Louis to celebrate my birthday. While recently rated the most dangerous city in the U.S. (no small feat I'm sure) St. Louis is about 3.5 hours drive from here, and we had only driven through on our way elsewhere (I went when I was a kid).
Our first destination was the Gateway Arch, a 690 foot arch of stainless steel built in the 1960s to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase and the Westward expansion of the U.S. We were not able to get tickets for that evening to go to the top, though, so we just walked around the park and along the Mississippi River for a little while before heading over to our hotel in the downtown loft district.
We had a great dinner (and sake flight!) at an Asian fusion restaurant, Red Moon. I realize it's hilarious to take photos of your food at a nice restaurant, but for a few months now, I've been into documenting meals while traveling. I suppose I could have stranger habits!















The view from our room, toward the arch.

On Sunday morning, we walked over to the arch with a brief coffee stop along the way. To me, the most surprising thing about the arch was the super strict security measures they had in place at the enterance. It was worse than most airport security, they almost made the children behind us cry! Once we were through that though, we waited for our ticket time to ascend to the top in a circular five foot pod with five other people (not sure about the numerology there). This is quite the experience! The four minute ride to the top is cramped, but the view towards Illinois and over the city of St. Louis is quite nice, and it's a neat experience to look down and see the majority of the structure that you are in.





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