My Journey Truly Begins...With a Quick History Lesson (St. Louis Posts Day: 2)

As promised, though a little late, I will now tell about the Second Day of my trip to St. Louis where I formally began my exploration By MYSELF around St. Louis!!! Though downtown, I could not leave because, to see the rest of the city, I had to take the Metro-Link (which for those who do not know, is a simple straightforward of the Subway in larger cities like Boston and Washington D.C.). "So? What's that go to do with anything?" I hear you say. Well, it has to do with a lot of things as it is the first large city I've explored on my own and until I knew how the metro operated, my dad reccomended I not ride it as.....well you can possibly imagine the reason. So, until then, I stuck close to the hotel, and thought I'd go to the Arch (Which I'll give a qucik bio and Historical Significance in a minute.). Though, forgetting the ONLY safe way to get to the park was go behind the Hampton Inn down the street where we ate the night before, I, instead, went right down that street and eventually made it here:

The sign was at the entrance to this important garden for the Gate-Way Arch, commemorating the Lewis And Clark expedition across the Louisiana Purchase.

This was taken on the VERY top step in the entrance in front of the Capitol. It's quite a sight and it really fits that it was built this way. It's a good place to think and appreciate the efforts of two amazing men! :) One of whom, I'm related to....can you guess which one? You get points for accuracy not random stupid comments. ;) Come on...don't be shy.

A Brief History of the Memorial:

This Arch was one of the most amazing engineering feats ever constructed. It was chosen as the simplest shape to represent our (being the United States) expansion west, hence the name of the Park. The Arch was first constructed in the early '60s and remains one of the world's tallest monuments.

At the end of the day....

I sat in one of the benches for a few hours, then decided to head back to the hotel, instead of explore more of Downtown and attempt to make my way around. It was a decent temperature, yet one that would not take long before it becomes excruciating. So I headed back and sat in the hotel room for the rest of the afternoon, reading my Summer Reading book: The Things They Carried by: Tim O'Brien, which is a Fantastic novel by the way, and watching a little TV.

Sorry, there wasn't much to this post, but after the Second Day, things got more interesting and....shall we say "Blog-worthy."

Stay Tuned, Readers!!! There's More to Come!!!