Ride to the Top

Today I finally got the boys down to the arch and was actually able to go up to the top. Now, I’m not necessarily afraid of heights or small spaces, but the tram ride to the top was rather, well, scary. Brandon said so himself about half-way up. He said, “OK. Now this turns to fun rather than scary.” Near the top he said, “OK. Now this is freaky instead of fun.”

For those of you who haven’t been to the arch and up inside it, you go down in the “basement” of the arch and load up on these tram-pods. They look on the inside like they would appear in a 1960’s B-movie about space travel. The interior is white, with 5 white plastic stools. You step in through a door that measures 4′ tall by about 20″ wide. The tram door closes, and you’re off on a four minute ride to the top. It’s pretty smooth, and the only thing you can see is the interior of the arch through the glass tram door. The interior of the arch consists of steel beams and emergency exit stairs, which I duly noted and worried about having to carry 30 pounds of writhing toddler down in the event of an emergency.

At the top, it is quite a small space. You can lean on the window sills and look out the windows. Matthew loved it. He kept running from one window to another as if the view were different from each window. As soon as the first announcement for a departing tram was made, Brandon said, “Let’s go.”

I endured the three minute trip back down, strapped Matthew back in his stroller, and we wandered around downtown STL until Max & Erma’s opened. We had lunch and chocolate chip cookies, then went home. We had a very nice morning.