Justin had to attend the 2009 American Control Conference held in St Louis, Missouri from 10 - 12 June 2009 and of course, I would not pass on another opportunity to visit a new place :) We flew from Boston to St Louis on Tuesday, 9 June 2009 and stayed till Sunday, 14 June 2009. We rented a car in St Louis. It was Kia Optima.
While Justin attended the conference, I brought the kids around to play (literally!) as you shall see in the next few blog posts on St Louis.
I had checked the weather report before we left and was quite disheartened to see thunderstorms forecast for almost everyday that we were going to be there. Luckily for us, it was just cloudy without any real rain, except for the one that moved through the area overnight. The clouds turned out to be a blessing because it kept the weather really nice and cool for the kids to run and play without getting sunburnt!
There was a welcome reception for the conference at the Top of the Met on the 42nd Storey of Metropolitan Square (which is the tallest building in St Louis) on the day that we arrived in St Louis. We tagged along to get a bird's eye view of the city of St Louis. The sky was cloudy and a light shower was starting but we got a pretty good look at the downtown area of St Louis.
Here is the Gateway Arch, along the Mississippi River, which is a landmark of St Louis and is actually taller than the Metropolitan Square but it didn't actually feel like it when we looked at it from the Top of the Met.
For all of the baseball fans out there, here is a view of the Busch Stadium, home of the St Louis Cardinals.
And while Justin and myself were more interested in the city view from up there, Sonya and Clara were more interested in the bugs that were on the outside of the glass windows.
On the second day of our visit, with nowhere in particular to go, I brought Sonya and Clara to explore the very interesting water fountain with the pink water that we had seen from the Top of the Met. It really had pink water which made Sonya really excited!
It is located on the opposite side of the Old Courthouse from the Gateway Arch.
Beyond the pink water fountain was another water structure with the cascading water.
Across the road, the "green zone" continued with more flower beds. Actually, they seemed to be building a sculpture park beyond this. I saw quite a few huge outdoor sculptures but everything was fenced up and workers were still working on the landscape :(
We walked back to the little park next to our hotel to snap some photos with the Gateway Arch in the background.
I got the photo below by placing the camera on some steps leading to the park and on a 10 second timer :)
The vast green field leading to the Gateway Arch was so tempting, I just have to bring the kids there for more photos. They were not very interested initially but when I told them that we could run and chase one another on the field, they were all ready to go!
Sonya and Clara chased each other across the field. Clara was especially excited, as usual when it comes to running, and she just sprinted down the slope. I tried to ask her to stop and managed to catch her a few times but she just ran everytime I let go. She tumbled twice but that didn't stop her. The third time she tumbled, she fell right into a mud pool and got all muddy. Luckily, I had foresight and had brought an extra set of clothing for both the girls :) It was pretty funny actually.
Here they are at the bottom of the Gateway Arch - Sonya busy posing and Clara in her clean dress :)
My backpack served as the camera support this time and we got a group shot with the Old Courthouse and the Hyatt Hotel (where we were staying) in the background.
Justin finally had some time in the afternoon the next day and we actually went into the Gateway Arch. The security at the entrance searched my backpack. I always wonder what they were thinking when they opened up a backpack designed for a laptop and camera equipment only to find snacks, diapers, wipes and changing mat inside :)
There was a little exhibition area at the bottom of the Gateway Arch documenting the history of the area.
There was of course an area where they explained how the Arch was actually built. I was surprised that it opened on 24 July 1967.
We bought tickets to take the tram that would bring us to the top of the Arch.
There were 8 tram cars which can hold a maximum of 5 persons each. On the way up, we got a car all to ourselves.
The machinery that operated the tram was pretty loud sometimes and as usual, Clara covered her ears whenever anything was "too loud".
We reached the top of the Arch and arrived at the Observation Deck which was very much a corridor with little windows on the sides.
Here's the views of St Louis, Missouri:
(center)
(left)
(right)
And, here's the view of Illinois:
(left)
(center)
(right)
Time to take the tram back down to the ground again.
Here's the stairway that led to the individual doors that opened to tram cars.
Back on the ground and the sun was finally out. Time for a few more photos before heading off to dinner :)
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