After a restful night, off we go to the Arch, the gateway to western
expansion. The doorway to the massacre and oppresion of tribal and
indigenous people! we headed downtown from our suburbian enclave
hotel, zipping along i44 up to i70 to the downtown, all of which
took about 20 minutes or so in light traffic. So far, i’m loving
this town. It’s easy to navigate, and easy to drive. the weather
today was/is beautiful, a little chilly and windy, but the clouds in
the sky are rare. At first glance, relative to the buildings in
front of the arch, the arch it self doesn’t seem so impressive.
However, once you get down to it, the sheer beauty and
gravity-defying design of the structure really takes hold. It offers
a number of things when viewed — motion sickness, if viewed from
directly below, but mostly awe and wonder. Each direction, each
step to the left or the right seems to bend the arch to the eye.
Often, you can stand in its thin shadow, imagine it as some sort of
kubrickian monolith, the sun peeking out from the side.

The park surrounding the arch is sculpted, with two small fowl-laden
lakes on each side. and while it was indeed beautiful, it almost
seemed a little antiseptic. It lacked life — i half expected “keep
off the grass” signs. There were no people flying kites (today was
an excellent kite day), no people playing frisbee, no picknickers.
Oh well, it was pretty.

Underneath the arch is a museum, and the entrance to the tram rides
up to the top (which, at first, kelly feared). There was a bit of a
wait to pass through the security checkpoint. Now, i had heard of
extra “shoe security” since the Moo-saw-wee thing a while back, and
it was definitely here in full-force. if you “beeped” through the
metal detector, they immediately went to the shoes. Nevermind the
bomb-hat or the bomb-coat. Women with flat shoes on were even
asked. It was a little bizarre. Note to self: research bomb-hats.

We meandered through the museum and the shops there, and i noticed
that the exhibits were pretty Native American friendly, something
that put a smile on my face. Rather than the exhibits of old were
they were viewed as happy-go-lucky plainspeople embracing the
frontiersman, the disturbing anamatronic chief noted that “the words
on paper do not mean much”.

The tram ride — oh, the tram ride. as if being 630 feet in the air
wasn’t enough to scare most folks, the tram ride up — or, actually,
the tram cars were enough to freak you out. They fit five people,
and were completely white on the inside. And by fitting five, i
mean CRAMMING five. Heads bent, we squeezed through the
doggie-door-like entrances, and where whisked away, and up. bumped
heads were often observed, as the curved white surface left little
to the sense of depth-perception.
once atop the arch, it was like being inside a jumbo-jet. The
constant whir of air conditioning, and the occasional sway of the
arch. the east-side view was pretty unremarkable, as east st. louis
and cahokia are on the other side of the river.
east st. louis and cahokia are these bizzarre little industrial
towns, but without the industry. it’s like bombed-out dresden in a
lot of those cities, and one has to wonder why they are that way.
St. Louis is a pretty good sized city, and the other side of the
river looks like Hannibal’s elephants ran through it and had salted
the earth. Many pictures were taken, (see the gallery — i have
some neat panoramic photos), and in 3 minutes we were back on the
ground.

Walking to get something to eat, we passed by my main impetus for
coming to St. Louis, the National Coin-Op and Arcade Machine Museum,
which i had visited some 7 years ago. It was really neat at that
time, with plenty of old games and quarters to be had. now, however,
it is a vacant space open for rent. surprisingly, as i think it had
shut down about 5 years ago, the sign was still out front, and the
front counter was still installed. the entire Laclede Landing
(where that is situated) is like that — a bit depressed, but most
likely with lots of rent :(

We ate in a little food-court thingy, where a chatty chinese woman
wondered if i liked a lot of vegetables in my Chicken w/ garlic
sauce. I said “sure, why not”, and later wished that i had opted
for ALL vegetables and no chicken, as the chicken was less than
good. the $4.36 total should’ve tipped me off.

Then we headed back into town to the St. Louis Science Center.
Really quite neat. Lots of interactive exhibits, which mostly all
worked (yay!) Of course, lots of interesting arch-related ballyhoo,
including a foam “build your own arch”, which was way too tall for
small children. HAHAHA. Suckers. Part of the museum went over
the highway. It was neat. Also, it was free. Free==Good. Yay.

On our way back, kelly wanted to stop at the local shopping malls,
etc. “Sure” i said. So, we hit a store which i’ve never seen or
heard of before — perhaps you have, it’s called “target”. They
have a whole “target” theme. red and white. red and white. Whee.
Oh, kelly says they have Targets in louisville. Wha? Oh,
apparently we registered there for our wedding.

Now, onto the real meat of the story — World Market. Imagine Pier
One, except “cooler and cheaper” (according to kelly), and cheaper
and better. Why isn’t there one in Louisville? I don’t know, but
all i know is that there should be one. We got candles and presents
and such. It was good. Also, we went to the “Supermarket of
Shoes”. Remember Kelly’s “mmaaaaahhhhlll” mantra of last February’s
sojourn to Baltimore? Now, it’s “sshoooooo”. The Supermarket of
Shoes disappointed, tho, and Kelly was heard to say “it displeases
me greatly”. Ooh well.

For dinner, we tried to track down “Nachomamma”, which was a good
name for a tasty restaurant. Nachomamma! Nachomamma! Weeeeee! We
found Nachomamma, but mamma wasn’t home — being a sunday, it was
closed. No abra. So, instead we went to Steak n’ Shake, and were
greeted with a lovely time. Then! Well, we came back here, and are
currently watching Adult Swim (specifically: Sealab 2021 — which is
kicking my butt at the moment… hilarious)

tomorrow: Marionville, Illinois, disputed “mecca of albino
squirrels”, and on thru to Oklahoma City. Later, doods!