Day 21-Final day!

Happy 4th of July!  What an amazing day to be spending at one of our National Monuments. 

We packed up the car for the last time this morning and checked out of our hotel pretty early.  Brad has gotten pretty efficient at packing the car.  There seems to be more room even though we have accumulated more items along the way.  We have less food, but more clothes and souvenirs to bring home.  It was just a short drive from our hotel into downtown St. Louis.  We didn't know when we got there about all the cool activities going on during the day.  

The kids in front of the arch.   

Riding the "pod" that only fits 5 people up inside the arch to the top.  I go crazy about closed in spaces like this.  I look happy, but inside I was freaking out!

Once at the top, I didn't have a problem with the heights, just the closed in space up there.  It is not big and the windows are not large.  Beautiful views, but not a happy momma!

There was a parade going on downtown.

The shadow of the arch.  So cool.

See the small windows and short ceilings.  Yeah, I didn't like that much.  I would rather be standing on the edge of a large platform with nothing around me than with everything closing in on me. 

View of the stadium.

Once we got down and large crowd had formed in the park.  There were concerts going on and an airshow that was about to start.  The kids had never seen anything like this.  I grew up going to and watching air shows.  I just loved that we got to see this!

Down by the Mississippi.

We left shortly after lunch to drive to Nashville to watch fire works.  However, the rain that has insisted on staying around much of the southeast this summer had invaded Nashville.  We took a vote and the kids voted to just keep driving the rest of the 4 hours it took to get home instead of hanging out in the rain waiting for fireworks.  We pulled in our driveway around 1 am. 

I am so grateful that we took this trip.  I will never forget the places we saw, the cool people we met and all the experiences we got to do as a family.  I have gotten a few questions like, would you do it all the same if you got to do it again?  Yes, I would plan it the same way and the only thing I would do differently, is be gone for a 4th week and gone into Montana and Canada.  I look forward to planning a trip similar in a couple years to go up the East Coast of the US.

What an adventure!