St. Louis, Missouri

Holy cow! Those gnats drove us right out to the Mississippi river, which used to be the western border of the US- did you know that? Until Thomas Jefferson (the third president, one of my favorites, and Greg's cousin) made the Louisiana purchase and bought the whole mid west from the French. For only 15 million, by the way!!

That happened in 1803 and opened up the "gateway to the west". St. Louis was a big fur trading town and because of its location on the river and contributions to all the various groups of people at the time, it was the perfect place to set up a monument. Anybody know what this is?

All right! I'll give you a little bit more.

It's the "Gateway Arch", it is a national monument for the Thomas Jefferson expansion project. We thought we'd just go check it out for fun, and there ended up a whole incredible museum underground about the west, Lewis and Clark, the Indians, the settlers, the land.... It was set up in a expanding circular time line so you could follow the changes to all the people throughout the century. We gave our youngest resident photographer the camera.

You could also take a tram ride up the arch, and look out little windows on the top. But this arch is even higher than the Washington Monument, so mommy convinced us that buying souveniers at the store would be even better.
Pretty cool!!! We spent the rest of the day enjoying the AC in our car and making it all the way to Kansas City, where we met up with a hotel, more swimming (the pool is so small mom!) and a flat tire. Woohaw!