FINALLY!!!! After 9 very long months, Kevin has officially finished his first year of Law School!!! Except for a paper he is writing to try to get onto law review. I am so proud of him, and FINALLY, we get to spend some FUN time together. Not that watching him study isn't thrilling, but most people who know me, know I LIVE for good road trips.
Kevin and I are planning a trip to Niagra in 2 weeks, but last week he suggested a spontaneous trip to St. Louis. How could I say no. I looked at the forecast, and it was supposed to storm most of the weekend, but most thunderstorms occur in the afternoon, so we decided to get up early yesterday and spend the weekend down there. Here is a TON of pictures of our fun road trip.
***Warning: Long Post***
Kevin and I are planning a trip to Niagra in 2 weeks, but last week he suggested a spontaneous trip to St. Louis. How could I say no. I looked at the forecast, and it was supposed to storm most of the weekend, but most thunderstorms occur in the afternoon, so we decided to get up early yesterday and spend the weekend down there. Here is a TON of pictures of our fun road trip.
***Warning: Long Post***
At the base of the "Gateway to the West"
Another must do/see would be a riverboat cruise along the muddy Mississippi, so of course how could we pass that up? We didn't
Mark Twain would've been so proud, we boarded our Riverboat 'Tom Sawyer' and took off to see the sights of St. Louis, on the muggiest day ever!
Side view of the riverboat
The scenery from our boat...the only scenic part. This as a deceptive cruise. St. Louis has a nice downtown...everything else along the water scared the snot out of me. Itl looks like there could be all sorts of shady activities going on.
Look at all that muddy water.
It was then time to go up the arch. We didn't know what to expect or how we would get up there, but we were assigned a boarding pass, and waited to see what was behind door #8.
Then, like magic, a little capsule popped open in front of us. The doors were 4 feet high, and there was seats for mini butts, mine barely fit in there, so I am not sure if any of those 'southern'girls could squeeze their bam into it. It was a tight fit, and luckily one of the other guys who was assigned our little capsule with us, chickened out. We would not have fit in there with him.
The view of St. Louis from the top.
Kevy peering through one of the mini windows in a clausterphobics nightmare. While we were up there, a fire alarm went off...can you imagine being trapped 630 feet above the ground in this tiny little arch and it were to burn down. We were soon reassured that it was someone opening the door to the stairs.
Looking straight down you can see the base on bith sides.
The Arch is 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide
Both of us at the top
A better picture of the capsule
Kevin was summoning the spirits of his ancestors. Its a good thing, we needed them later. He is something like a 62nd seminole.
If you look really close, you can see the itty bitty windows.
Kevin thought he was Atlas. It took something like 30 tries to get this right.
We then checked out downtown, and found that the best thing to do as a local is go swimming in the many fountains along these parks, this one had the fewest.
We checked out some of the local art
Kevin was a little disturbed by this one, for good reason.
The view of the arch from an alley.
It was still early when we finished downtown and figured we could see everything we wanted to in 1 day. After the skies opened, and we were victims of a downpoor that got me wetter than a shower, we decided to continue on our trip. We were off to see some mounds. As we exited of the road onto the next leg of our trip, we ran across a cute little turtle in the middle of the road. Kevin stopped and I ran out and rescued our little friend. We then, put him back in the brush. Poor little Speedy.
When we pulled up, you can see, it was still raining, but just this week, Yahoo! had mentioned that it was a place you should take your children before they grow up. It is the largest archeological site in America, and it is remnants of religious grounds and a civilization from back in the days of earlier native Americans. So, we had to see them rain or shine.
Kevin, earlier in the wig-wam, did a rain dance and summoned the Native spirits of his ancestors. They listened and the skies parted, and the rain stopped for a few moments. Long enough for us to climb to the top of 'Monk's Mound' and check out the rest of these piles of dirt (did I just stay that?).
From the top of Monk's mound, we could see a few more mounds, but we also got a great view of a very cloudy, rainy, downtown St. Louis.
Yes, you are reading correctly, these natives had their own Woodhenge. Maybe not quite as impressive as Stonehenge, but these wooden poles had the same idea
I am trying to see what astrological info I can find in the middle of Woodhenge.
We then had to stop in Springfield. Home of our State Capitiol, and Abraham Lincoln. We rushed there and got in while there was still a few moments of light.
They restored the entire block where Lincoln had lived, and all the houses are museums that you can tour. We got there a little late, but we still got to see where his home was.
There is Kevin, Resting on the stoop of Abe's home.
We then, checked out the Presidential Library and Museum, but only from the outside.
Outside the Library. We may have to go back so Kevin can go in. He LOVES presidential libraries.
Outside the old Capitol Building. They were even doing a reinactment of civil war camps on the grounds.
Inside the old capitol building, we got there JUST as they were closing. We got our own private tour.
We even got to go into the Supreme Court room.
And a look at the new capitol building.
It was a busy day. It started at 6am, but we made it home by midnight. Our weekend outting, turned into a day trip. Why not.
