The unexpected response & the ride to the top...

I was asked this morning if I wanted to check out the St. Louis arch and I thought...why not? Good photo op for the blog. Diane asked if I wanted to go up in it and I gave the immediate & emphatic no. Then I started to think...I don't want to be an "on the sidelines" person, I want to get in the game. I want to live my life. Every day is a gift. I was psyched. So I said "OK - Let's go up!"

UM.... {what did I just say out loud?}

Then I saw it. That thing is HUGE, and it doesn't really look like you can fit people in it. The more pics I took of it I realized, I didn't really grasp the commitment I made driving in. Wow. That's a lot of up. I had to lie on my back on the ground to get the whole thing in my camera.

Anyway, we walked through the entrance and bam - we were in this really cool underground museum of the west. It was amazing. We did the whole museum thing {I loved it} before we got in line for the "elevators". Now, if I had seen these before the point of no return, I might have changed my mind. They're these little metal balls that you sit in that are jerked up and sideways through the arch to get you to the top. It takes 4 minutes of pull-jerk!-pull-jerk! UM, I'M OK. Luckily, there was a kid on the way up with us so I had to act like everything was fine because he wasn't so sure.

So we reach the top and they say, "It's perfectly normal for the structure to sway in the breeze when the wind blows, so don't be alarmed". Pardon moi, my middle name is alarmed at these heights. So you lean on these big slopes on your stomach and look straight down. I can't believe I did it. I'm still kind of in awe of myself. It was actually great. I'm so glad I went. I have some great pictures, but left my card reader at home {again!} and will share them once I get rested. I pulled these off the net so you could see what I saw today.

It is freakin' freezing here. I forgot & had to go buy socks. Also, I am the master of suitcase packing...I had 1 case with class materials in it that Matt swore was over the weight limit {55 lbs} & we had this big disagreement and I said I've flown enough that I could tell it was under...anyway...it weighed in this morning at 54.85 lbs. Whew...and I was right. I just love it when I'm right.