July 28: Alton/Grafton Area

Today was supposed to be the first day of a trip to North Carolina to visit family. Between some health issues and the insueing medical expenses plus car repair expenses, we had to cancel the trip. John still had vacation time so we decided to turn it into a stay-cation and try to get a few cakes this week. Today we crossed the river and hit Alton and Grafton. We had a lot of fun exploring the area. We are disappointed to not be going to NC, but we are making the most of the week anyway.

1st Stop:

 West Alton Memorial Park

This was a quick stop. Not a lot to explore here. This cake has lots of disasters recorded on it. Tornados, floods, earthquakes, mudslides, etc. 

Crossing the Bridge into Alton

 

2nd Stop: 

National Great Rivers Museum

Lots to see here. This was a favorite for the day. We didn't have time for the museum, especially as everyone was starting to get hungry for lunch, but we did explore the outside quite a bit.

This was new sight for us. 

On the path to the roof.

  Some of the  flowers that we found around the base of the building.

Butterfly

Spotted her as I was loooking through the trees. At first I thought it was just a nest. Then realized there was an occupant!

On the roof.

View from the roof

Life in a drop of river water.

After exploring the Educational Center, which we came across first, we headed down to the museum at the Lock and Dam where the cake is located.

 The Lock and Dam

National Great Rivers Museum Cake

You'll notice no one is getting too up close and friendly with this cake. That's because it already had a visitor when we got there.

 We decided to give him some space!

 Alex enjoyed running in the "river".

 Another view from the top of the Educational Center.

 We headed for some lunch before hitting another cake. We ate across the street from the CVS pharmacy that we used to drive over and buy Pirates of the Caribbean game cards from before they stopped selling the cards and before they put a CVS on every street corner in St. Charles.

3rd Stop:

 Robert Wadlow Statue

Robert Wadlow Statue

Apparently he is the tallest man in history at  8', 11.1" tall.

Height Comparison

4th Stop: 

Alton City Hall

Alton City Hall

5th Stop: 

Lincoln-Douglas Square

Lincoln-Douglas Square

The kids had fun posing like Lincoln and Douglas.

6th Stop: 

Alton Visitors Center

Alton Visitor Center

7th Stop:

Piasa Bird

Piasa Bird

 

8th Stop: 

Aerie's Riverview Winery

It was a STEEP drive up to the winery! It took us a few stops and starts before we found the winery up among the buildings on the hill. We wandered into the zipline place first and they directed us on the right path. Alex and Jacob were both game for the zip line, but I wasn't so sure about that! Maybe sometime. Nice view from up at the top. But we were glad our brakes held on the way back down! 

Aerie's Riverview Winery

Nice view from the cake

 

9th (and last) Stop:

Pere Marquette Park

Pere Marquette Park

Nice view of the river as we drove home on the Great River Road.

And another shot of the bridge. 

CYIA Adventures Week of July 21-25

Jacob has found a few more cakes than the rest of us as he and his CYIA team found a few during down times in between 5 Day Clubs. A few are repeats for us, but several of them are cakes we still need to find. Here are some of their adventures during club weeks. These pictures are taken and posted with permission by Jeanne Hulme.

Ferguson Station (a repeat for Jacob)
(Taken during the week of July 14-18)

Teaching 5 Day Clubs. The main business of the day!

Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion

Original Imo's Pizza Location

Lemp Mansion

Lemp Mansion

Missouri History Museum
(This is one we still need to find. The cake we found here has been moved.)

Payne Gentry House

Eating Shawarma

Tower Grove Park

World's Fair Pavilion
(Another repeat for Jacob)

July 24: Ft Zumwalt Repeat

We gathered with our Peculiar Treasures book club friends to celebrate the birthday of Christy Miller, the main character in the books that we are reading and discussing together. What better way to celebrate a birthday than with a giant cake! After taking pictures with the cake, we enjoyed a picnic lunch and then joined some more friends for a game of Ultimate Frisbee. 

July 23: Seussical at the Muny and Loop cakes

On July 23rd we went to see Seussical the Musical at the Muny with Shatterglass friends. Shatterglass put on Seussical several years ago, so they wanted to see the Muny version. We took a couple friends and headed out early to secure a good spot in the free seat line. During the four hour wait, we made some friends in line. Here they are playing Apples To Apples dice version.






 Playing Signs.

The play was good, the company was great. Alex and Jacob were excited and extremely grateful to each get a turn to use a friend's 7th row tickets and watch the play close up for one act a piece. The rest of the time, they joined us back in the free seats. We had 1st and 2nd row seats in the free seat section (2nd row has a lot more leg room for tall people!)


On the way home, we decided to grab a few cakes. I spotted the Moonrise Hotel which was added since we were last on the Loop so we decided to stop there. I thought it was appropriate that we got the Moonrise cake in the dark!

Moonrise Hotel

Next we stopped at the St. Louis Walk of Fame. We had done this one before, but Jacob and Israel Y had not and I thought it would be cool to do with fellow acting friends.

We disovered these fun bike racks outside Fitz's.