Day 8 - July 4th

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Day 8 - Happy 4^th of July!



We woke up to an unprecedented cool morning in St. Louis. Mom had homemade muffins and fresh fruit ready for us out on the deck. After soaking in the fresh air and sunshine, mom and I spent some time catching up and chatting as Don had some quite time to enjoy another cup of coffee and blog writing time (which always seems to come at a premium on these trips). As noon came and went, we voted for lunch, my voice shouted the loudest and so it was off to Steak & Shake. For those of you not familiar with Steak & Shake, they serve steak burgers, skinny fries, chili, and about 50 types of milkshakes. I had a hot fudge brownie shake and mom indulged in the turtle shake (caramel and chocolate with pecans). The service was slow, but it was worth the wait to satisfy my fix.

We slathered on sunscreen and headed out for what would be an 8 ½ hour adventure. Our adventure started with a ride on the Metro link. It is the light rail commuter system in St. Louis. The train was crowed but not packed. I gave a laugh at the décor. The whole train, inside and out, was decorated with an ad for Coors Light beer. When I was growing up in St Louis, Coors was contraband. It was illegal to sell or bring Coors products into the state of Missouri. Coors was a non-union beer and we were the home of Anheuser Busch. I guess once the Busch family sold the company to a Dutch brewery the old rivalries died.

Our train dropped us downtown at the base of the Gateway Arch. As we began to walk along the coarse cobblestone streets we saw the first of the sky divers floating thru the arch with the American flag. We quickly found an empty spot on the hill and looked upward. For the better part of two hours we were entertained by a variety of planes, including a Corsair, several WWII trainers, a Chipmunk, and a Bi-plane that was making us cheer.

With the air show over and “only” 3 hours to kill before the fireworks, yikes, we took a walk to look at the crowd. We could still see some grassy areas, but they were filling up fast! The crowd watching was very interesting! Most people were dressed in their Red, White, and Blue shirts, shorts, or hats, but a few of our favorites included a women with 4” stars and stripes platform heels (ouch) , the lady with the flag hat, jacket, shorts, and even socks, and several little girls with their stars and stripes sun dresses. Some people were, well, just a bit odd, but that is the fun of people watching! We thought about standing in line to get something to eat, but realized that the lines were not moving. Some people reported standing in line for up to 2 hours for food. We decided to bag that idea!

As the sun set and the crowd filled every possible space, the barges were positioned dead center between each leg of the Arch and anchored in the center of the Mississippi river. The fireworks set off “Oooh’s” and “Ahhhh’s” from the crowd. The black sky was peppered with bursts of red, green, blue, gold, and orange in shapes of circles, spheres, stars, and even hearts. The colors and lights flashed and sprinkled across the night sky and reflected against the stainless steel arch. It was beautiful!

We waited for the crowds to begin to thin out a bit. Finally we could see some grass and some pavement again, so we folded up our blanket and set off. It was a nice night, we thought maybe we could get a bite or a beer up in the Laclede’s Landing area, boy were we wrong! As we started walking, we realized that the crowd of over a half a million people hadn’t dissipated at all, it just moved to a different spot. On the positive side, there were live concerts or DJ’s on almost every block and people everywhere you could imagine. It was certainly a party atmosphere (have we somehow been teleported back to Bourbon St?). We headed back to the Metro Link only to discover that the line snaked up and part way across the Eads Bridge (the bridge to Illinois). An hour later, we found ourselves herded (moo!) onto a train. Unfortunately, after pushing to get on a train for an hour, we discovered that the friendly transit employee had directed us to the WRONG train! At the transfer stop we launched ourselves out and found the correct platform. The security guard said, “I will try to get you on the next train.” And she did. She pushed us in like we were that extra pair of shoes you want to squeeze into an over stuffed suitcase. All’s well that ends well however, and we found the correct station and even found our car.

We made our way back to mom’s and fell into a pile. Mom and I made sandwiches and Don settled for a bowl of cereal in lieu of a real dinner and then off to sleep!

Thanks for reading,

Jill and Don

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Photos

Through the Arch
What a thrill that must be.

Fair St. Louis Airshow
Formation flying

Part of the crowd
About three hours before the fireworks.

Fair St. Louis
Crowd gets heavier as dark skies get closer