At any rate, my amazing husband took the four oldest kids down to breakfast while I downed some Tylenol and tried to sleep it off with Ms. Miah. In the end, I felt good enough to eat breakfast in bed (cheesy eggs and cinnamon rolls) basically in my sleep and managed to roll out of bed at the last possible moment for our day 5 adventure…
We decided to take Amtrak into the city, partly because we thought Caleb would love it. Seth thought it was a pretty silly idea, since we aren’t too far away from St. Louis to drive. Have I mentioned that he’s getting older fast? In the end, I think Phil enjoyed the ride the most. And, it was certainly worth it financially speaking, because it didn’t cost us any more… altogether… round trip… than it would have been to get a good parking spot! Here are some pics. of our ride:
Once we reached downtown St. Louis, we started booking it for the Arch. It was a longer walk than I anticipated, but we made it. Here are some pics. of us outside at the Arch. The kids thought it was pretty cool that they could touch it. Actually… I thought that was pretty cool, too:
I didn’t really have a good idea how everything was laid out, so I found it particularly interesting that the museum, theaters, store, and boarding for the tram all happened underground. The security was surprisingly tight, as well. This was the first time I ever remember having to take a baby out of the stroller to gain access anywhere. This all left us wondering if the Gateway Arch serves more purposes than we realize…At any rate, we purchased our tram tickets for 2:40pm, enjoyed a quick trip through the museum (I would have enjoyed a more leisurely trip, but Ian and museums don’t mix real well if you can’t touch the exhibits), and I purchased a few souvenirs. Then it was time for our trip to the top… sort of… It still takes awhile once you get in line…
All seven of us squeezed into a five person tram that reminded the kids of the space pods from Wall-E. To be honest, I felt a little bit claustrophobic, but I did my best not to let on, since Grace was slightly concerned that we were going to blow up, and Caleb exclaimed, “We’re going to die, just ‘cause we’re having fun!” :
The Door For Our Tram... It Was Small:
On the Tram:
The view from the top was just incredible! Definitely worth the ride! All of the kids, even Miah, enjoyed looking out the windows on both the river side and the city side. We took tons of pictures, but I’ll just showcase a few here:City Side:
The Shadow of the Arch:
River Side:
All 5 Kids Enjoying the View:
Miah:
The only real disappointment was that I wanted a picture of our whole family together at the top… and I got one… but it doesn’t really show how much fun we were having, because moments before we took the picture a fight broke out (I’m talking both screaming and fists flying) between Grace and Caleb. Since I didn’t actually see what happened, you will have to check out Phil’s blog if you want further details. I did tell Grace that this picture is going to hang in our living room and that everyone who comes in will see it and comment on how crabby she looks. Grace said that anyone who looks at it or says anything about it will be, “wasting half of their lives”…
And with that, we took the return tram down… panicked momentarily because our stroller was gone (oops… we took the South tram up and the North tram down, duh Lisa…)… and began our long trek back to the Amtrak station with just 45 minutes until our train was supposed to leave!My poor Ian tripped and fell three times on the walk back, because we were really flying (as fast as you can “fly” with 5 kids in tow). Once we reached the outside of the station, I picked him up, because he was screaming, “Mama,” and I thought somebody was going to think I’d kidnapped him if he didn’t stop! I would have picked him up earlier, but then we never would have made it back. The kid is heavy!
We did… indeed… make it back in time, and as a matter of fact, we found that there was no need to hurry, because the train didn’t board until long after it was supposed to leave! This afforded us enough time to rush to the platform… only to be told we had to go back, because it wasn’t time to board… so the kids were able to use the bathroom… fill their water cups… and knock down a barrier… Even though we were first in line; when they took down the barriers we had to work our way through a series of elevators, while most of the other passengers used the escalators (which almost proved disastrous earlier in the day when Caleb attempted to leap on the up escalator from the top… we caught his attention just in time). Our elevator rides resulted in having to board the train after many other riders, but in the end we managed to slip though into a completely empty car, making it a worthwhile endeavor. I’m sure the other passengers would agree, because Miah was very unhappy at the beginning of the ride (although once we got started and she nursed, she fell asleep).
About an hour later, we were back where we started, settled into the van, and looking for dinner! We stopped at Steak & Shake, where I think I had the best milkshake ever and a pretty good grilled chicken… although I questioned the wisdom on that later, because what good does it do to have your chicken grilled if it is covered in cheese and bacon?
Everyone was still awake when we made it back to the hotel, so I tucked the kids in with each of their special stuffed animals, and for some reason muttered, “Miah is my special animal,” when I snuggled down with her. I think there was a beat of silence… and then laughter… like deep, exhausted, very happy belly laughter… I love it when my kids laugh…
Sleep came quickly for the rest of the family, while I worked my way through hundreds of pictures and listened to the people above us banging on the floor…
Tomorrow, we take it easy!
Lisa
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