1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9
honeymoon - day 2, sunday april 28th, 2002
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!