And then there was the Gateway Arch. I failed to mention that in my rundown of the trip to Saint Louis I offered up in the blog a few entries ago, but it may have very well been the absolute highlight of the trip. I had never seen the structure before, save from an airline once a few years. I think I wrote about that a few days ago, re: my prior trip for a church related conference with friends and wife. We left the young one with grands for the trip and brought her back Tom Tom, still one of her favorite stuffed animals, even to this day.

But the Arch. The Gateway Arch. I guess the fact that i could make it out so well from an airplane eight years ago should have clued me in to the size of the structure, for some reason it did not strike me as an impressive structure, a "must see" of any kind. And then I saw it. Now I recommend to anyone in the surrouding states to visit it. And certainly if anyone else is heading ot hat town, swing downtown to see it. It is pretty impressive. The hotel I was at was downtown, and unknown to me at the time of reservation, it was a few hundred yards from the Arch. I remember being in the taxi cab watching the Arch loom over the horizon, and I was thnking, "Man that is big," and "man, the hotel is close to the Arch." What a surprise when I got out of the taxi and saw it. I kept looking for the pot of gold and the leprechaun. Another ultra cool moment came when I checked into my hotel room and wandered over to the window. And voila! There was the Arch and the mighty Mississippi. Very nice view, all things considered.

Of course I had no idea that i would be so close to the Arch when I knew I was going to the Gateway City. So of course I had no idea that packing a camera was a necessity. So I had to hit the hideously expensive gift shop at the Hotel and purchase a disposable camera. I walkeddown to the Arch, which was an impressive structure any way you look at it. I took a picture from across the little park that sits in front of the Arch, then a couple of side angle shots from the park on the South side of the Arch . . . another park sits on that side on the Arch, along the mighty river itself. I was able to take a couple ofshots then from the window of the hotel. Sadly, some of the night shots did not come out. But I did get about ten or twelve really nice shots of the Arch. I was not able to get out to take the tour of the Arch, which supposedly has a very nice tour and elevator ride. The elevator . . . . going up as it has to in a curved fashion . . . is supposedly quite an interesting ride. I am not a big fan of roller coasters, so I wonder how I would feel about riding in a lock step manner in the narrow confines of the gateway Arch. But if I ever get back, I will make a point of it to actually look into the tours and reservations. It takes a few days ahead to get a reservation for the tour, and I may have to look into it. Maybe. Maybe not. It is nice to look at, but . . . oh, well, I will drive over that bridge when I get to it.

But as a tourist site I was blown away, and I may very well add it to my list of family sites to try to get to. The Grand Canyon is on the list, I am personally interested in getting to the W T C site, although I have never been to N Y C and really do not want to . . . other than that, I would add the District of Columbia sites and then the Grand Canyon. I enjoyed it, and would like to share that enjoyment with others.