Day Six {Friday}

{Warning: beware of a lot of pictures! And as usual, click any picture to enlarge}

Today was a very full day. We began by going out to what Hannah and James call "The Ruins" for a photo-shoot. Those two children are packed with fun and just cannot keep something serious like a photo-shoot . . . serious. :) They spiced it up just a little. We did manage to get some good shots, though.

From there, Jessica, Rebecca, Melody and I headed to the place which I most looked forward to: the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, most commonly known as the St. Louis Arch. It is a very impressive architectural structure.

But, "duty before pleasure," so we ate lunch first.

Before entering the arch, we had to take a few pictures with it. As James once put it, "You've gotta touch the arch." So we all "touched the arch" just for him. It was extremely windy!

 Once in the arch, we split parties. Jessica and Rebecca stayed down and Melody and I took the nice ride up and up and up. This being my first experience at the arch, it was pretty amazing. The worst part is looking down and realizing that yes, you are indeed 630 feet above ground! But we managed.

When our arch tour was completed, we walked back out in the heat to take even more group pictures.

The Mississippi river is extremely high. What used to be walk-ways are now flooded with muddy water.

As we learned about the arch, we got the impression that the real memorial is actually the bridge: the gateway to the west.

We briefly visited City Gardens in front of the old state capitol. It was really neat to see how the arch hovered over the capitol.

We were kind of shocked to see pink water in front of the capitol! It was not something you'd like to fall into . . . at all.

There was also a neat "waterfall" that flooded the steps: another great place to take pictures.

 Topped with blended floats and Sprite, our outing was complete.