Visiting the Gateway to the West

While we didn't pay to go to the top of the Gateway Arch, we did spend a good amount of time walking around it.

It was quite an experience.


From a distance, it looks a little frail and tenuous.


Until you are right up next to it, it is impossible to realize its mass.


We didn't go up to look out the windows of the arch, but I can imagine that you can see quite a ways from the microscopic looking viewing ports. From the ground they look like they were made for ants... but I'm sure they are much larger than they appear.


While we were there, Duke University's soccer team was warming up on the stairs. How cool is that? I got the coach's e-mail and am sending him copies of these pics. Who knows?! Maybe my photos will make the newsletter! HA.


Across the river from the memorial, there are a couple riverboat casinos and... da dah da daaaah... a Cargil plant. Took this pic just for Tom, John's brother, who works at Cargil in Eddyville, IA.


This was really the only way to get a photo of us with the arch in the background. I literally had to lay on the ground to get the shot of JTC and the arch.

Wild.