As a kid I traveled through Branson about twenty years ago and although I don’t remember it, my dad says there was nothing there. Now there’s too much. It’s a poor man’s combination of the Wisconsin Dells, Myrtle Beach and Las Vegas. Go-carts, water slides, musicals, flashy signs… we can’t precisely judge the quality of the entertainment, since we didn’t partake in any, but when you see all the signs for the Duttons’ family variety show looking a lot like the Osmond’s and the random magician who performs with a white tiger, I think it’s a safe bet there’s nothing innovative going down here.

St Louis. This place is really cool. Rather than feeling like a big city, it feels like a collection of neighborhoods, each with a distinctive personality and friendly people. Just west of downtown is Forest Park’s 1,300 acres that served as the grounds for the 1904 World’s Fair, along with some buildings from the event. Driving around, there are all kinds of architecturally-rich buildings, especially many red brick townhouses. Some have been restored, but there are quite a few in neglect. It seems like one of those areas where it’s the perfect time to buy a fixer-upper, before everyone else has. But we learned that St Louis perpetually feels like it’s on the verge of a comeback that never comes. Sadly, so many of these buildings have been razed that red brick salvage is a big industry here. The stuff that stands is so collectively cool that I can’t imagine why attempts at rejuvenation haven’t rocketed. And why this city doesn’t have a wide reputation for being a hip place, I do not know.

The arch in St Louis could use a new publicist. We had no idea that it’s a monument created in honor of Americans who pioneered and settled the land stretching westward. It’s a national monument, officially named the Gateway Arch, but I was always under the impression it was just a St Louis-centric thing. The elegant, understated appearance of the arch belies the engineering behind it, too. It’s almost 100 feet taller than the Washington Monument. In order to construct it, each side had to be built independently of the other, and then connected at the apex. One 50-ton stainless-steel triangle after another was stacked, welded together and filled with concrete to form the arch. An inaccuracy of more than 1/16th of an inch and the two arch sides would’ve ended up not meeting properly. Completed, the arch weighs 17,246 tons—the same as an aircraft carrier.