In the tradition of Lewis & Clark, we began our westward exploration from the gateway of St Louis. The drive wasn't bad at all and on the way we surprised the kids with our announcement that we had lawn tickets to the Coldplay concert - hoots & hoorays all around. The Drury Inn that we stayed in was basically in the shadow of the famous Arch. The accommodations were quite nice...Drury has free drinks (wine, beer & mixed for adults) and snacks in the evening and the kids were all about "free" stuff. Any way we checked in, grabbed our snacks and headed west on I 70 to the concert spot.
As expected, the show was fantastic with lots of cool stage special effects to keep the crowd on their toes including a release of a bunch of big yellow balls during the rendition of "Yellow". It's been a while since I've been to a big, highly orchestrated production like this and they can often seem a bit mechanical and short on spontaneity. However, I thought Chris Martin & company included a nice touch when they ventured out onto the lawn area late in the show (nowhere near us unfortunately) to play a short set of eclectic songs including a fun cover of MJ's Billy Jean. We made the tactical move to leave a bit early as the drive and shift to Central Time had left all a bit tired. We listened to a couple of songs from the car as we drove out and crashed hard back at the Drury.
On Saturday morning we grabbed our "free" breakfast and then headed over to the arch. Fortunately, Maryanne had secured tickets for a tram ride to the top in advance and we proceeded to the the departure point. The arch is 630 feet high and is made of three principle materials: stainless steel, concrete and carbon steel. The tram car sat 5, but I was glad that everyone in my group was smaller than me. The view from the top was spectacular, but from the ground it was hard to conceive that there was much space up there for observation. Incredibly, there was probably enough room for 50-75 people There was a utility access panel in the floor of the observation area...I told kids that it was the "quick" way down.
Maryanne and I agreed that StL was deserving of more exploring...6.5 hour trip from CHM, hmm...weekend get away in the near future?
