July 3-5, 2010

July 3-5, 2010

We are in Godfrey, IL to not only celebrate our country’s birthday but also my mother’s. She will be 90 years old next week. My dad turned 90 six months ago. My aches and pains make me doubt I inherited their longevity genes.

The Monday after the holiday my baby sister and I thought it would be safe to venture into St. Louis and visit the city’s major monument, the Gateway Arch. We were wrong; the crowds were in force. After waiting in a security line to get in the lobby, another line to buy tickets, another for the bathroom, a fourth line to wait in line and then another two lines for good measure, we crammed ourselves into a tiny barrel-shaped elevator for the four minute ride to the top of the hollow arch. Thankfully I was the biggest one of the five in our car. Interestingly after waiting in line for a few hours to get there, we only spent a few minutes looking out the windows. Go figure!

The monument’s official name is the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and was built as a tribute to St Louis’ place in history as the Gateway to the West. We watched a movie about Lewis and Clark, the most famous group to use St. Louis as their disembarkation point. It was surprisingly outstanding!