Sunday morning, time to head back to Madison. We made a detour on the way out of town and headed to St. Louis Fair for some final farewells and fun with Teena, Dave and Matt. We met everyone on the north side of the arch, and wow was it huge! Most of the park was blocked off and crowded with fair activities, but the sky was beautiful. Laura touched the arch for the first time, and then we headed to the river bank and watched some "incredible" dogs doing frisbee stunts like in Flight of the Navigator. The heat overwhelmed us, so we gravitated to underneath the dome and to the AC museum. We had fun reading about the history of Lewis and Clark, browsing books in the store, and discovering some old fashioned goods at the mercantile, namely hush puppy mix, shampoo soap, and taffy.

Then, our time came, and up the arch we went. We sqeezed into the space age pods with room for 5, which was exactly the size of our group, so not much room except to huddle. Only 4 minutes to to top, and then we were 630 feet up, with only tiny windows that could see for 35 miles, and kids rampaging around going from side to side... We saw a wonderful view of St. Louis and the surrounding area, the neatest part was finding the stadium filled with people wearing red shirts for the Cardinal's game.

Finally headed back down to safe ground and out to find some lunch. We reluctantly joined in the ticket scam, where you can only buy in groups of 9, while nothing costs exactly 9 tickets, so you're forced to use the rest or lose money. We luckily found a nice kabob of chicken and some custard for 18 tickets. Later on, we ate Dippin' Dots, the ice cream of the future from 20 years ago. Saw planes fly overhead for the Air show, doing loops and spins and death-defying falls. Headed out, passed matt Lavine on the road, ate dinner at taco bell, and were finally back in madison.