Meet Me In St. Louis - The Arch

Remember when I told you all about the awesome weekend I had planned when Ally came to St. Louis to visit me and then never blogged about or mentioned it again?  Yeah, I thought so.  Well finally, over a month later, I got some of the pictures uploaded.  Yay me!  She blogged about it like 18 hours after getting home and here I am totally slacking on recapping our awesome weekend.  Sorry!  I'll make up for it now with tons of pictures.  And on a side note: why does it take so long to upload pictures to Blogger these days?  I think this took about 45 minutes to upload 30 pictures.  Sheesh Blogger, get your shit together.  Anyway....

I was SO excited for Ally to get here.  We've been reading each other's blogs for a while and we g-chat almost daily, so I felt like I'd already known her forever and ever amen.  I picked her up from the airport Friday night, with a giant obnoxious sign I made the night before (after a lot of wine, so it was kinda a mess, but served it's purpose).  I've always wanted to greet someone at the airport with a sign and this was the perfect opportunity!  I loved standing in the airport seeing everyone greet their family members and loved ones - it felt like being in the final scene of Love Actually.  Oh, I love that movie. 

Anyway, I recognized Ally immediately - you guys she's gorgeous and has the most beautiful hair of anyone I've ever met.  And then she spoke and I nearly fainted because she has the most awesome Texas accent and I just wanted to ask her a million questions so she'd keep talking!  It was getting late and we were both starving, so we went out for some margaritas and Mexican at one of my favorite little restaurants by my house, Amigo's (so fitting for new friends)!  Dinner was great and it was just like we'd been friends for ages.  It was so fun to finally get to chat face-to-face and so easy to hang out.  After dinner, Ally and I went back to my place, where she was introduced to Mally and Jigs.  Of course, they loved her just as much as I did.  Mally insists that she's going with me to Dallas when I go visit Ally in April.  We're going to have to figure that one out.

Ally had never been to St. Louis (shocking, I know...it's such an exotic tourist attraction), so I planned a weekend doing all kinds of touristy stuff.  Saturday morning we headed down to my old stomping grounds and had brunch at Soulard Coffee Garden.  I really miss that place - the mimosas were GINORMOUS!  Next up, the Gateway Arch!  We had to park a few blocks away - it was fa-fa-freezing cold, but we had the most beauitful clear bright blue skies and sunshine!  Gorgeous day!

Once we got to the Arch, we both turned into total tourists and took about 6 million pictures.  Here are some of my favorites.

Can you see those tiny tiny windows way way up there? 

Yep, that's where we're heading.

Isn't she super adorable?

Once we got inside and through the metal detectors, we had to take a picture with the giant bear before heading up.

Along the way, we checked out the museum and read about the construction of the Arch.

Finally, it was time to ascend.  Our tiny little egg-like elevators arrived and we climbed in.  By the way, I had NO IDEA that Ally was afraid of heights!  Seriously, she didn't say a word!  I had to find out about it later on her blog.  And there I was saying how cool it was that on a windy day the Arch swayed back and forth and everything - I'm such an ass. Please forgive me Ally.

I just love the view from the top. 

Downtown St. Louis, with Busch stadium and the Old Courthouse.

And then there's Illinois. 

Flat.

Ally, for being afraid of heights, you'd never know (obviously).  You did awesome! 

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Aren't we just adorable?

Pictures of the rest of the trip to come soon (well, as soon as Blogger lets me upload them).