Exploring St. Louis with 250 Cakes: July 2014

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!