View From The Top

We finally made it to the Gateway Arch in St Louis!

Kerry took a couple of days off so we could spend some fun time with the family before Ben and Emily left for the summer.

I feel weird every time I tell people that my two oldest kids are gone for the summer.  I'm worried they'll assume Ben and Emily have a different dad and they are off to spend the summer with an absent biological parent.  

Trust me, they are Kerry's kids.  Katie definitely has his eyes.  Emily totally has his chin.  And Ben.....well, Ben is such a cross of my father and me there's no real visible proof that he's Kerry's,  but he's definitely got Kerry's personality.

First of all, order your tickets on line to go up in the Arch.  You can pick the time of day you want to ride.  If you wait until you get there, you have to take what's available and you may have to wait several hours before you can go to the top.

And you'll have to wait in a hideously long line to get the tickets.

While you wait for your turn to go up, there is a cool museum at the base of the Arch.  You can spend your time watching cool animatronic figures talk about the history of Missouri and looking at the various artifacts on display.

You can take family photos to show that you were there.

Sometimes I not sure why I bring them with me.

When your specified time rolls around, you get to go wait in line beside these tiny little numbered doors.

Behind the tiny little numbered doors is a tiny little space pod that seats five.

You squeeze everyone in and hope they all used deodorant and brushed their teeth.

You will notice if they didn't

Punishments can be administered later.

There is not a lot of head room.

The ride to the top feels rickety and rockety.  Not rockety like "fast as a rocket".  More like the wobbly kind of rockety. 

The ride is slow, about four minutes, and rocks like a ferris wheel ride.  Katie and I were not fond of the sensation.  She closed her eyes even though you couldn't see anything out of the pod.  I had a death grip on Kerry's arm but smiled at the kids like nothing was wrong because that's what I do.

 

When you reach the top, there is a room where you can walk around and look out windows on each side of the Arch.  The room is small and the floor is curved just like the arch.  It's not a flat, straight floor.  You can spend as much time up there as you want, but other groups who rode up at other times will be up there also.

You are 630 feet in the air!

You can see the Mississippi River on one side.

This fountain started spewing while we were watching!

Pretty cool view from the top!