MikeyChalupa

Yup. Been there in the middle of summer too, about 100 degrees downtown, so you could imagine the heat radiating off of this gigoondus arch. I really wanted to touch it but couldn't for more than a second or two or else I'd get burned. My father was surprised that the arch didn't span the river (apparently he was expecting that) but the river is wider in St. Louis than the arch. There is a neat little tourist center that runs underground beneath the arch, and the litlle trolley elevators that rotate as they go up and down so you're always oriented the normal way. And at the top is a little room where you can look over the city. I didn't know you could go inside, I thought the whole thing was hollow and empty. There's a lot to learn about that arch. The way those legs had to be precisely aligned as they built them is truly an engineering feat. One of the five most impressive things I've ever seen, and I'm from New York, a city full of impressive stuff.

I really liked St. Louis as a whole, there is a lot to see within a short walk of the arch. You MUST see a Cardinals game when you visit the city. I still have yet to see a city so completely devoted to their baseball team as St. Louis. EVERYONE wears red and cheers like crazy. Bob Tewksbury took a no-no into the 9th against the Cubs the day we went, which made it even more exciting. Another little surprise was the Bowling Hall of Fame, across the street from Busch Stadium, being bowlers my dad and I made sure to stop in there.

And one thing that I will NEVER get jaded to is flight operations on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Unfortunately not many people get to see this in person, and watching it on TV or in a movie simply does not do it justice. There's always some cheesy soundtrack, and you don't get a sense of how busy the deck truly is. You also don't get to feel the breeze of the 30 knot relative wind, the smell of the JP-5 mixed with the scent of the open sea, and of course the NOISE LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD IN YOUR LIFE, THAT YOU HAVE TO SCREAM AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS SO THE GUYS RIGHT NEXT TO YOU CAN BARELY HEAR YOU!

At night is the real show. The twin cones of fire shooting out the back of an F-14 as it sits on the catapult at full afterburner, and then roars off into the night. Takes my breath away every time. Then the recovery begins, and you watch pinpricks of light slowly approach the ship, to become jets slamming down on the deck and screeching to a stop in under 400 feet. In the back of your mind is the eerie sensation that at any second, any of a hundred things could go wrong and you might witness a horrific mishap. This is why the walkway that overlooks the flight deck is affectionately named "Vulture's Row". My ship's been in drydock since January, and I can't wait for us to get back to see so I can experience it all again.

By the way, whoever mentioned C-5 Galaxy aircraft... true dat. I live and work out of Naval Station Norfolk, and those big boys fly in and out of the Air Station daily. If you're REALLY lucky, one will land on the runway that overpasses I-564 as you approach or leave the base. I have been on the tarmac as one taxied in and HOLY CRAP they're unbelievably big. Hard to imagine something that massive can stay in the air.

-Mikey