La Tour

The place was empty; I only saw a handful of other people the entire visit, including the workers!  I was a bit surprised, seeing as how a similarly-touristy place like The Arch is fairly crowded year-round. 

I bought my ticket and headed to the waiting spot.  The gatekeeper guy asked me where I was from and when I said St. Louis, he started enthusiastically talking about the eggs.  "You know, the eggs to ride to the Arch.  We have a train car, you have the eggs."  Ohhhhh, those eggs!

At this point, the tram car arrived and I had my own personal ride to the top.

The car moved pretty fast, and it was neat to be able to see outside while ascending the 45º angle upwards.  

The view from the top was pretty amazing.  There were windows on all sides, with little binocular stands to see further.  I tried to find our hotel but I think it was too far away.

Seeing the Olympic Park grounds from above was exciting. You can really see the horseshoe crab resemblance to the biodome, how close the stair-step athlete quarters were, and the sheer size of the stadium.

After wandering around and looking out all sides for a while, I was ready to head back down and check out the museum.

(photos by e.hunt)