Woke to a beautiful day - clear, blue, cloudless day, cool but not warm - no jumper required.
Hotel-provided breakfast - they provide cups which extol the virtues of turning off the water when brushing teeth in order to save water, yet every piece of cutlery and crockery is plastic and polystyrene - not quite sure where the logic is.
Drove in to St. Louis. Missed the turn-off and ended up over the Mississippi river into Illinois. U-turn and back into Missouri.
First stop, the Gateway arch, a magnificent structure eventually finished in 1968 after first being proposed back in 1939. An elegantly simple monument initially a memorial to President Jefferson, but coincidentally became a celebration of St. Louis as the gateway to the west for explorers Lewis and Clark, as well as a number of other symbolic meanings. Also had an excellent museum in the basement, particularly a brief chronological year-by-year history of America from 1801 onwards, and a National Geographic film in I-max which highlighted the remarkable endurance, persistence and indeed luck of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Then to the City museum - not so much a museum as a junkyard which has been refurbished just enough to satisfy the occupational health and safety lawyers from having conniptions. An amazingly complex and varied installation, with an almost psychotic mix of twists, turns and flights of fancy at nearly every turn. Great fun - and the kids enjoyed it too.
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