Gateway Arch & River Blenders

We decided to spend a few days of our trip here in St. Louis playing tourist. Do you know which monument is not only taller than the Statue of Liberty but also taller than the Washington Monument? It's the Gateway Arch in St. Louis standing 630 feet tall located on the Mississippi River and part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The Old Courthouse and the Museum of Westward Expansion located underneath the Arch, along with the surrounding park are all part of the National Park Service, and this is where we started our day on Monday.

Construction of the Arch began in 1963, and was completed in October 1965 for a total cost of less than $15 million. The north tram was opened to the public in July 1967, and the south tram was completed in 1968. The Arch has foundations sunk 60 feet into the ground, and is built to withstand earthquakes and high winds. It sways up to 1 inch in a 20 mph wind, and is built to sway up to 18 inches. Besides being 630 feet tall, that is also the distance from leg to leg at ground level. We watched a documentary showing the construction process, and it was truly an amazing feat. And to think, these men were working at these heights with no safety harnesses! Russ said they couldn't have paid him enough to do that! Even without safety harnesses, no one died in its construction.

The Arch stands on the site of the original fur-trading town that Lewis and Clark saw in 1803 and is a memorial to St. Louis' role in the westward expansion of the United States during the years of 1803-1890. There are two passenger trams, one located in each leg of the Arch, which carry visitors to the observation room at the top. Each tram has eight capsules, which hold five persons each. Passengers board the trams in the base of the leg for a 4-minute ride to the top. Electric motors keep the capsules level as they ascend and descend. The day of our visit only one leg of the tram was working as they still had not repaired the cables that broke a couple months ago. You may have read about it in the newspapers, and at the time all I could think was that I couldn't imagine being stuck in one of those capsules for several hours because I remembered how small they were!

The viewing area at the top can hold up to 160 people. There are 16 windows on each side of the viewing area, and each window is 7 x 27 inches. From these windows the view stretches for miles east and west over St. Louis and Illinois. On a clear day the view at the top can extend up to thirty miles in either direction.

Beneath the Gateway Arch lies the unique Museum of Westward Expansion, which is dedicated to the events touched off by Thomas Jefferson and the Louisana Purchase. The Museum preserves some of the rarest artifacts from the days of Lewis and Clark to help visitors understand what it was like to go west during the 19th century. On the walls are beautiful floor to ceiling photos showing different areas of the country with the words of those that made the journey expressed alongside.











That night Patty and I visited another local Sweet Adelines chorus called the River Blenders, a large chorus of over 100 women, who placed 2nd at this year's Regional contest, and scored high enough to receive wildcard status to compete in the 2008 International Competition in Hawaii next November!! They are directed by the fabulous Master Director, Diane Huber. Diane has been a Sweet Adeline for over 30 years, a chorus and quartet coach, a Queen of Harmony (quartet champion) with Ambiance, and Immediate Past President of Sweet Adelines International. She is extremely bubbly, vivacious, fun, and I would say humble as she never mentioned any of these things other than being a SA for over 30 years. I've heard and read about her for years, and it was such a pleasure to meet her in person.

This was the first night of a 4 week membership drive referred to as "Free Voice Lessons", which as Diane explained, are designed to be helpful with any type of singing. The first hour of rehearsal, while the chorus worked on choreography, Diane spent with the guests in another room explaining a bit about the organization, her experience, and about proper alignment and breathing. At one point, she came around to each of us and had us place our hands on her back at the ribcage while she breathed in and out to demonstrate proper breathing technique. Though I would have loved to watch the choreo rehearsal, I stayed with Patty for moral support and because it's always fascinating to hear the way different directors and coaches explain things.

After the lesson was done, we joined the chorus to watch them perform Proud Mary, And So It Goes (a beautiful Billy Joel ballad), and We Are Family. What fun!! Then the guests were free to leave, but Patty and I stayed. They worked on parts of a couple more songs then broke into section rehearsals, and here's where Patty and I got to join in! Patty hadn't been voice placed yet, so Diane said she could stay with me in the Lead section. The song they were working on was Crying Myself to Sleep, a song I already knew! (And yes, my Houston Horizon friends, I still remembered it!) The arrangement was almost the same with slightly different interp, but I barely had to look at the music except to see their breath marks. When the rest of the chorus rejoined us, Patty and I got to stay on the risers while they ran through the song in four parts. Then it was time for us to sit again while they ran some more songs with choreo.

There's one other large Sweet Adeline chorus here in St. Louis called St. Louis Harmony, which took 1st place at this year's Regional contest. They will also compete at next year's International Competition in Hawaii, but unfortunately I was not able to visit their rehearsal on this trip. So that will have to wait till next year's visit. They'll really be in full competition mode by then as will the River Blenders! I'll be sure to visit both, and I'm sure pay a visit to City Voices again, too! They will have just competed at the International Educational Symposium in San Antonio and hopefully be celebrating a win!