Independence Day at the Gateway to the West

i looove flying in to cities at night. this night, the horizon had a perfect blend of the entire color spectrum. i know you can't really see it, but the photo is enough that you can fill in the gap.

[the night sky over St. Louis from the plane]

Tim is lucky enough to have a loft downtown, so i just put on some earrings and out we went. Saint Louis is definitely more than i expected. it's cleaner (and less cold) than Chicago, but still has a lot going on. not even a stone's throw from the loft is an outdoor bar with two beach volleyball courts and has a weekly tournament. most of the attractions are free too!

Forest Park is apparently bigger than Central Park in New York City and houses a golf course, a zoo, a substantial art museum, giant turtle sculptures and tons of picnic/pavilion areas. it was beautiful just driving through it.

[the mall in front of the St. Louis Art Museum]

the art museum had a little blip of an Ansel Adams exhibit, but the prints are still impressive. i liked the variety of what they had. it is always great to see artwork in real life. i value all the stuff in my art history textbooks, but they really don't do the actual pieces justice. the colors are ten times more vivid and the textures are irreplaceable.

i was craving coffee, so we headed to the Loop shopping area to scope out cafés. along the way was a pretty nifty thrift store with sub-culture trendy threads, shoes, glasses and WIGS. there were some very awesome cowboy boots, but i couldn't bring myself to even check the sizes. no extra money for luxury spending. people-watching will have to do.

[drinking coffee on the Loop]

right between the Arch and the Mississippi, you can drive and park on the Riverfront. very neat. it's an easy hangout spot, though most of it was blocked off for the Independence Day celebrations. we walked down for the fireworks the night before, which ended up much better than the actual holiday. it rained most of the day and the left over clouds kept all the smoke from blowing away, so the fireworks got masked out. bummer. apparently there are usually fireworks the day after also, but those got canceled.

[parking at the Riverfront]

the Sunday after, Tim mentioned wanting to go up in the Arch before his project in St. Louis was over. it was an interesting experience. the tram up is like an enclosed ferriswheel and you're in these tiny Star Trek looking pods that hold up to five people. i guess it's only fitting. the Arch itself is an interesting thing. i've seen documentaries on how it was made and the history behind it. very very neat. i'm a huge fan of our frontier history and the Arch is like its own museum.

[St. Louis from the Arch]

the Arch also lent itself to very interesting photos. i dig the design and it is definitely something you can't find anywhere else. that helped me open up a bit, i think. in a lot of the other photos in the album i was feeling very impersonal and cutting people's heads out of the shots. down at the Arch, in all its originality, i got out of zombie mode and back to my everyone-is-an-individual mindset. the Riverfront did the same thing. you've got the most random assortment of cars parked down there and people are all doing their own thing.

poo on all the people who think the Arch is a gaudy eyesore and waste of money. i'm all about how strongly the arts are supported in the MidWest. so what if it's 'weird'? because it doesn't exactly have a label to be placed under, i got the impression that people all got their own thing from it without strings attached. there's a nice sense of peace about that and i got that vibe from everyone there too.

[my beautiful new friend]

[line of horse buggies between the Arch and the Riverfront]

[sparklers by the Mississippi River]

well, that's that. it was interesting to have a skip in my travels. i was so used to driving to all my destinations. still, an enjoyable tangent to the big loop i have going on. parking in Buffalo wasn't bad. i kind of left the city in an odd blur from just getting off a plane, but i got a little juiced up after a few counties since my next leg was straight into Central PA in all its beauty.