FGS Conference Road Trip - Day 6

We woke up early, got dressed, had a nice breakfast in the hotel.  Walked over to the Gateway ARCH.  It was sunny, warming up to be about 100 degrees.  I was watching my husband enjoying being here.  In 1989, we took a family road trip to Chicago with our two girls.  We drove right by the ARCH and said one day we'll have to stop.  Today was that day.

The sheer size of this monument is so awesome.  We've watch documentaries of how and why the ARCH was built but being at its base and looking straight up and then following the seamless structure to the other side of the park was just amazing to us.

We bought our tickets for the four minute ride up in a five passenger pod.  The only window was on the tiny door and all you could see was where they welded the sections together.  Luckily there was only another couple in our pod.  We got to know a little about them on the way up.  We exchanged cameras so we could have a photo of us on our own camera, we did the same for them. 

Curved floor & ceiling

After climbing out of the pod and up the stairs to the ARCH floor, I was a little dizzy.  Had to hold onto one of the walls.  It was almost like being in a carnival fun house, until you get used to the floor and ceiling being curved.   Hubby started snapping pictures like crazy. 

It isn't often you get the view we got that day.  On one side we looked out the windows and watched the Mississippi River.  On the other side we saw the city of St Louis and an extra bonus of the shadow of the ARCH overlay.  What a site!