Gateway Arch // St. Louis, MO

It has been on my bucket list, and I am super thankful my husband took me all the way to St. Louis (read more HERE)
to tick it off my list:

Visiting the Gateway Arch!

              

The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot (192 m) tall monument in St. Louis, in the U.S. state of Missouri. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a flattened catenary arch, it is the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, Missouri's tallest accessible building, and the world's tallest arch. Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States, it is the centerpiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and has become an internationally famous symbol of St. Louis. 

The arch sits at the site of St. Louis' founding on the west bank of the Mississippi River.
The Gateway Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and German-American structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947. 

Construction began on February 12, 1963, and was completed on October 28, 1965, at a total cost of US$13 million ($97,300,000 in 2014). The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967. 

via wikipedia.org

       

We even paid the $10 each to ride the capsule to the top of the Arch. It was a super foggy day, but the view was awesome anyway! If you ever visit St. Louis, I really tell you to invest the money to do the ride! I was a wee bit claustrophobic and sick during and after the ride up the Arch, but it was totally worth it.

...you can tell I wasn't feeling THAT comfortable 630 feet up in the air. After a 4 minute ride in a tiny capsule.

There is a tour every few minutes, so the waiting time shouldn't be that long. I think it took us about 20-30 minutes from the minute we've bought the tickets to the second we stepped out of the capsules. You can stay on top of the Arch as long as you want to, but since there is not that much space up there, they might kick you out after a certain amount of time...

We've stayed up there for about 15 minutes, and took a ride back down. I've had a wonderful time!

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

People kept asking me about my Watermelon hat - so I decided to put it on my Etsy shop as well:

  Check out my amazing sponsor:

Dred and Harriet Scott // Wordless Wednesday LinkUp

An InLinkz Link-up

get the InLinkz code

  Check out my amazing sponsor:

Trip to St. Louis // Weekend Recap LinkUp

Good Morning and Welcome to a new week!

I have a serious case of sleep deficit, not really sure how to make it through this day. But: The reason WHY is worth it!

My husband is the bestestest when it comes to doing fun stuff. So this weekend he decided he will show me the Arch in St. Louis!! I've never been there, and it definitely is on my bucket list, so I was super excited!

We took off at 3am on Saturday. Very super duper early. The first stop was at the gas station, for some gas of course, and for tons of energy drinks.

The drive was very boring and first I thought Missouri looks like fresh out of a Vampire movie. Since it was foggy and cold, everything looked just plain grey and sad.



What I've quickly realized is all the German heritage though! There are so many businesses with German names! Around noon we've entered St. Louis. First thing I saw was the Anheuser-Busch brewery. Impressing! I want to go there next time! Then we drove past the "St. Louis Union Station" - BEAUTIFUL!! I saw the Cardinals stadium and the "Ballpark Village", and then there it was:

A photo posted by Anni S (@anni_s) on Dec 12, 2014 at 9:25am PST

The Arch! What an impressive sight! I went all crazy and started taking pictures like a group of tourists from Asia in a Bavarian village. I guess M was a little annoyed at that point, since he lived in St. Louis for about 1 year. Nonetheless he let me be the crazy chick.

I've found a great deal for a hotel room online! We stayed at the "Crowne Plaza" on 4th street - the room was $96! Which included parking. Amazing! It's a very nice hotel. Our room was on the 23rd floor, and check out the view:

Breathtaking view from our hotel room 🇺🇸🌃 #StLouis #Arch #Missouri #Hotel #downtown #view #roadtrip

A photo posted by Anni S (@anni_s) on Dec 12, 2014 at 6:41pm PST

Everything we wanted to see was walking distance from the hotel, so we were finally able to have some drinks together at the Ballpark Village Saturday night. And trust me: we enjoyed it!

I will share more pictures tomorrow. But now make sure to link up at the "Weekend Recap"! 

An InLinkz Link-up

get the InLinkz code

 Check out my amazing sponsor: