Wrapping up our Saint Louis Trip ~ Cahokia Indian Mounds and Lots of Food

On this trip we added two new states to our children's travels. This brings our kids' state travels up to 24 states. That really feels like an accomplishment. I hope to get them to one or two more states in the next year. It would be awesome to hit the halfway mark and be able to say we got them to half of America. The closest states to us that we haven't seen are Arkansas, Michigan and Rhode Island. To be honest, we do consider Connecticut to be one of the states that we have seen; however we only ate at KFC, stood in front of  Mark Twain's home (which was closed), and spent several hours in traffic. We usually only consider that we have done a state if we did at least one activity in the state. If we decide to see Rhode Island, we will have to stop in Connecticut and actually do something. 

It was a long 9.5 hour drive that started off with snowfall as we were leaving the mountains on twisting roads, but everyone did great. Thank goodness for headphones and Spotify.

So besides St. Louis, Missouri, we also visited the Cahokia Indian Mounds in Illinois. The remains of the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico are preserved at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Within the 2,200-acre tract, located a few miles west of Collinsville, Illinois, lie the archaeological remnants of the central section of the ancient settlement that is today known as Cahokia. Unfortunately, the museum was closed, but there are some pretty good videos of it on YouTube.  We arrived on what seemed like a very windy day, but we later found out that it was just a typical day. Welcome to the plains! We were not used to experiencing so much sustained wind that wasn't part of a storm. My photos don't give this place justice. It was even bigger than the pictures suggest, and we could walk all around on top. Everyone climbed to the top, including Grandma. It was really beautiful, and we could even see the gateway arch way off in the distance. 

A little bit of advice if you are going to Cahokia. The museum closed in March for about a year so you might want to wait. Also, we followed Google Maps to get there instead of the signs on the highway. The signs on the highway take you all the way around East Saint Louis (which is actually in Illinois). It would take longer to follow the signs than to follow Google Maps, but it would be safer. Everything we read said to stay as far away from East Saint Louis as possible. Instead, Google Maps took us through a corner of it. Luckily, it was early in the day and the streets were pretty deserted. However, there was no mistake that we were in a desperately poor area where crime was very high (according to everything we read). Many buildings were dilapidated, with huge holes in them and walls missing. Honestly, we felt in more danger while lost in Cincinnati where a man was brandishing a gun and a gang war was about to break out at the intersection where we were sitting in our car. It is the only time in our marriage that I have told my husband to run a red light. Nonetheless, I am glad that my children have had a few opportunities to see the terrible conditions that some of our fellow beings live in. It is pathetic that so many live in such desperate conditions in such a rich country. Just sayin'.

We enjoyed lots of food in Saint Louis. We ate at Imos (famous for their Saint Louis pizza which tastes like a sweet sauce pizza on a saltine cracker), Fritz's (famous for their floats), Sugarfire BBQ (famous for their ribs), and Ted Drewes (famous for Concretes--a thick milkshake). Our favorite was the BBQ and the floats. 

Lastly, we stayed in the Clayton Hotel in the suburbs of Saint Louis. It was very safe and was probably a grand hotel back in the day. It had a lovely heated indoor/outdoor pool, buffet breakfast included in the price and lots of grandeur from marble floors to chandeliers throughout. The pool had a wall that you could swim under from the indoor to the heated outdoor pool. However, the service was a bit of a struggle. They didn't empty trash cans or do anything else for the room as most hotels don't anymore unless you stay there for more than three days. You could not carry breakfast out for late sleepers (Elijah and Grandma) and getting towels for the pool was impossible (even after we asked three times). I got lots of points that brought the price down on booking.com, but considering the original price for the rooms....I was not super impressed. The rooms were very clean and comfortable. For that I was grateful. 

I also wrote a post about the zoo here.

Blessings, Dawn