The Arch!!

What a day. We started out at Sherrill's parents' house and left a little before 7:00 AM. We drove 400 miles to St. Louis to the Gateway Arch. On the way to St. Louis we stopped by and saw the house where we lived for three years in Louisville, Kentucky. Conner was two weeks old when we moved from that house to our house in Kingsville. Needless to say his memories of the house in Louisville were a bit fuzzy. We showed the boys the Fire Station where we walked and saw fire engines, the railroad tracks where we sat and watched trains and the park that the older two boys played in. It was great to see sights from many years ago. After a whirlwind trip through Louisville we headed west again. Before we knew it the Arch was in sight. It was spectacular to see from the car and even more magnificent up close. I was surprised by how many people picked today to see the Arch, but perhaps I shouldn't have been since 4 million people come to see it every year. Fortunately we had purchased tickets to ride the tram to the top online so we didn't have to wait in line. We bought tickets for the 2:00 tram and we got there at 1:30. The timing was perfect. If we had bought tickets today we would have had to wait in a long line to buy tickets for the 3:30 tram because all the earlier ones were sold out.

We had a great time riding the 5 person tram to the top of the arch. As it turned out we were in Tram #5. The tram looked a bit like a space ship and rode like a roller coaster in slow motion. It took four minutes to get to the top of the 630 foot structure. Windows at the top gave an amazing view of St. Louis and the surrounding vicinity. On a clear day the view is thirty miles and we were fortunate to have a very clear view. We rode up the north side and rode down the south side. Ironically we were assigned to Tram #5 on the way down. I should have guessed that five would be our lucky number when we sat at a table at McDonalds in the shape of a pentagon. If you have never had the cinnamon pastry at McDonalds you should try it; it is out of this world. The pastry alone is reason to get out of bed before noon.

After the trip through the arch we piled back into the minivan to head to our hotel for the evening in St. Joseph, Missouri. As you can see from the picture, Christopher drove part of he way. He is an excellent driver; only three near misses and one trip through the hedges. He did insist on decorating the car with a few bumper stickers to give it more of a teen feel. Check out the before and after pictures of the minivan. (Actually we saw that decorated minivan at a rest stop and had to get a picture)

We eventually made our way to St. Joseph and got to the hotel in time for an hour and a half swim in the pool. We had it all to ourselves for most of the time. It was very refreshing after a long day of driving. Fortunately our drive times will be getting much shorter in the next few days.

Trip statistics:

Total Distance Travelled: 1341 miles

Trips Through Police Radar: 5 (none today)

Tickets: 0!!

Wildlife sightings today: Sherrill saw a rabbit at the children's play park in Louisville