A weekend in St Louis

I was off to St Louis this weekend. It is magical, how the prices of tickets nearly double during the vacations. So, while I enjoyed Christmas and New Year's celebrations right here, I went over to St Louis for the first weekend in the new year. My old manager from Accenture called me over: he is here with his family now and my good relations with almost everyone from the past sure seem to come handy at these lonely times :) The biggest attraction of the whole visit, I'd say, was this little angel, who took a great liking to me as I was the only person in the house ready to converse in her language of random syllables instead of meaningful sentences others tried to talk to her :)

Anyway, the tourist line for the city reads "You don't know what is cute until you've seen St Louis". I don't know about cute, but the arch did seem to invoke one feeling in me: majestic!


Yeah, if that did not give you an idea, maybe this will:


Really, it is all of those Six Hundred and Thirty Four towering feet tall, spanning across the sky
in all its breathtaking beauty. Oh, by the way, if you click on the picture above, you'll perhaps see the little dots right at the top of the tower, and the view from those windows looks like this:
You can see the shadow, can't you? The red speck you see in this picture is a helipad, really :)

The next day, we were off to visit the Meramec Caves. The drive was beautiful, really. If you've played Roadrash and remember the rolling planes of Sierra Nevada, this picture will probably remind you of that a bit:
The meramec caves are famous for being the hideouts of Jesse James and Frank James, the American Outlaws who were sort of the yankee Robin Hoods. Oh, they are also famous for being the settings of the adventures of Tom Sawyer. But the rock treasures inside were the real show. Take a look at this natural screen of stalactites formed through 70 million years of formation
There were 7 levels of such formations: nature in its full patient glory: all crystals and minerals and the timeless stories preserved in its bosom.

St Louis had some other sights as well, such as the forest park

And yes, although the next picture does look like something very familiar, I assure you that it is not the Howrah Bridge :) I did spend some time staring at it and reminiscing, though. But right now, back to school and back to work!!