capture a city

I spent several days last week at a conference in St. Louis. It was my first time to go there, and I found myself thinking what I often do when I visit a new city: what is the take-away image? It's not that easy, but this time I snapped some pictures to see what I could come up with.

This image is the one everyone thinks of. . . and, no, I didn't take the ride up it. Too high for me (and I hear they cram you in a little car. Not for me.)

I snapped this one as I was walking around looking for food. I guess it could be any city, anywhere, but there wasn't a lot of traffic (foot or auto) downtown St. Louis, and this image represented that empty feeling to me.

I snapped this one because it seemed to symbolize, for me anyway, the combination of old and new in downtown St. Louis. There is the old (red brick or pioneer style architecture) and the new (glass and angles) in downtown buildings. This image captures some of that, I hope.

But if there's one take-away for me, it is the walking girl, part of a series of sculptures (apparently) that are placed around the city. I wish I'd had time to find them all. I found her captivating with her smile and energetic stride, taking off for the next place. Since St. Louis was the stepping-off place for the westward movement, I guess it's an appropriate image for the city.

 But for me, it just symbolizes an enthusiastic forward motion, something I hope to emulate.