Road Trip: Day 6

We finally had a full day to kick back, relax and not have to get in the van! We had a lot of fun discovering St. Louis. First N had to get a hat because he left all of his at home so we stopped in on the 800000 Cardinal fan stores and got N a wonderful Cardinal hat. We took the Metrolink down near the water and the Arch. First of all i do not understand how St. Louis gets people to pay for the train. We paid our money and had our tickets, we walked down the stair case, no place to swip the ticket. Got on the train, still no one had checked our ticket, we didn't have to swipe it anywhere, the only thing we could find were signs that said "you must have a valid ticket on you at all times." no one ever asked, pretty crazy. We found a little bar to eat lunch at. I did not realize that Missouri was still a smoke indoor state, it smelt really bad in the bar. After lunch we went and saw the Arch, it is really really really large, and amazingly gorgeous, one of my architect boyfriends, Eero Saarinen, designed it. I did not realize this and was really excited by this! Under the arch they have this area with a Westward Expansion Museum and some movies and a tram to the top of the arch. We watched a movie on the building of the Arch, pretty crazy! We went into the Museum and that is an hour and a half of our life we will never get back. Although we did learn quite a bit about Lewis and Clark. The biggest thing we discovered was that Clark was a horrible speller, and Lewis was extremely articulate and a much better speller. We were going to go the top of the Arch but they wanted me to sit in a tram the size of a fist for four minutes and with my claustrophobia i could not manage, so we decided not to. We walked around the water for awhile and then headed over to "The Loop." I guess this was supposed to be a really "cool" part of St. Louis with lots of shops, restaurants and people walking, but we got off the metrolink and were not impressed. We walked around for a little while and headed back towards our hotel. We stopped at a wonderful restaurant for dinner and shared an order of toasted Ravioli (apparently a Missouri specialty) and a full rack of ribs! OMG BEST RIBS EVER (besides yours Pops!) After dinner and few beers (Sam Adams Summer Ale on tap WOO HOO!!![ed. note: and Fat Tire YAY!]) we went back to the hotel, because Big Love was on, and c'mon ROMAN GRANT WAS SHOT!!! how can you not watch that!?!?!? :)
pics from the day:

me under the arch

n with the arch



more of the arch


inside the museum

near the arch

the old capital building

yummy ribs!