The Missouri Tourist, part 2

St. Louis was so much fun!! On Saturday our conference was over at noon so we had the rest of the day to ourselves. I was so excited, I felt like a little kid. We rode the Metrolink to downtown St. Louis, where we caught our first glimpses of the the arch.

However we decided to tour the Anheuser Busch Brewery first. I hailed my very first cab and we rode down to the Brewery. The Brewery was too cool. We got to see the Clydesdales and Mickey, the dalmation from the commercials.

We saw several different places, including the Mash Tanks and the place where the beer is Beechwood aged.

Here I am sticking my hand in the Mississippi River. We hung out here for awhile while the guys in our group went up in the Arch. We saw a barge with a tugboat and a paddleboat that's now used for a dinner cruise. I think it would be so neat to go back in time and experience the river culture...it's so different from what we know out here in the desert.

This is the Eads Bridge. It was built sometime in the 1800's in an effort to revive St. Louis after the railroad diverted much of the commerce north to Chicago. We crossed the river on the Metrolink via this bridge. We decided to ride the Metro to the end of the line in Illinois. It was fun, but we ended up getting back pretty late.

We rode the little tram up to the top of the Arch. Yes folks, that's 630 feet up in the air. The tram is really this tiny little capsule that 5 adults squeeze into and you creak and grind and sway your way to the top. This ride is not for people who are afraid of heights or spend the whole trip imaging themselves plummeting to the bottom. But after our 4 minute death defying ride we arrived at the top. The view was awesome!!!! Since it was night we got pictures of downtown St. Louis all lit up.
Downtown St. Louis with Busch Stadium (where the Cardinals play) is in this picture.

Here is a picture of the arch at night with the lights reflecting off of it.

The Gateway to the West.

If you check out "Treb's Blog" on my blog list you can see more pictures of this same trip, since were were all in the same group. I am also trying to upload a bunch more pictures on my facebook page, so check there if you haven't gotten enough of my trip yet.