I’m ashamed to say that St. Louis, Missouri, wasn’t on my list of must-see-cities™. It’s not that I thought I wouldn’t like St. Louis, it just never crossed my mind to go there. I’d also forgotten about the Arch. I ended up in St. Louis because it was hosting the Library Information Technology Association annual conference.
I did the Arch Friday morning, before the conference. The day was rainy and gray, but the Arch still stood out as an amazing structure. The ride to the top takes about five minutes, and the view, even in the rain, is outstanding. Sitting in the in the “bucket” that takes visitors up and down the arch, waiting to descend, I heard footsteps. I set the camera for a one-second exposure and hand-held it for the shot above, left.
The city is also home to the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame. Considering my interest in weird museums, I could hardly miss it.
It was a matter of coincidence that St. Louis was also hosting the second presidential debate while I was there attending LITA, but it’s not like I could get tickets to the event. Unable to get into the “town hall” to take part in the debate personally, I went looking for a place to watch it. Sadly, the Sox game pre-empted the debate at most bars, but the Drunken Fish was showing it, with subtitles only (above, right).
LITA is an amazing conference. The quality and value of the presentations is far above any other conference I’ve been to, and participants were of equally good calibre. I think I can safely say that the presenters and attendees are all leaders in the field. Also at LITA, I discovered Veicon, a vendor of thin client solutions to libraries and education.
I was able to stay well connected, even without my laptop, using both the Veicon-sponsored internet room at the conference, and the free WiFi just next door to my hotel.
On the way home, I started snapping pictures from the plane. A few came out well, and they can be seen in my new Aerial & Scenic set at Flickr.