Unable to make it to downtown St. Louis on the 4th to see fireworks, my sister hoped to do so on the 5th since she'll be moving to Nicaragua soon. Having already planned to spend time with our friend Crystal, the three of us headed East on the day after Independence Day. Wishing to take photos of the flooded riverfront, we left early. OK, maybe way early. We parked in the garage of the Arch grounds & began our walk to the Arch. After shooting some photos, we headed to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. On our way out of the restaurant, we made a pitstop in the bar to watch the end of the Cardinals vs. Cubs game going on over at Busch. We celebrated along with many others with shouts of jubilee when the Cards came back in the bottom of the 9th to beat the Cubbies. Cards victory--we could then leave. Back to the river we would go. We were able to get down close. Guess we could have waded out into the river if we so wanted. Granted, doing so would not have been wise. We were done with our flood tour & ready to go stake our place for the fireworks. The fireworks scheduled to start at 9:15-so we thought. I think it would be safe to say that we were probably one of the few groups that took a seat so early on. By the time we set up camp under the Arch, I believe it was around 5:30 or so. As you may imagine, we were looking for things to do at that point. Of course, there were hundreds of Chicago fans passing by. Personally, I entertained myself by patronizing many of the heartbroken Cubs fans walking by. Crystal & Haley did not find it nearly as humorous as I did--they were concerned that we were going to get killed because of my snide remarks to the people in blue. If we are good at anything, it's people-watching. We began to notice something & took notice. As you can see from the slideshow, we tried to come up with some creative shots of ourselves with the Arch. As one of the park rangers walked by, they commented that we shouldn't feel too stupid because they get to watch people do the same as us all day every day. Once we were exhausted from trying to hold poses for minutes on end, we finally retired to our chairs. You will see that we had a count down going to the start of the fireworks. The fireworks that actually did not start until 9:30! So, I guess if you are ever looking for a good time...just go sit under the Arch for a few hours--4 or 5. You'll find plenty to do even if you don't think so. Just be sure to take a camera. Despite our long stay, we had a blast.
