Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis...

On Friday, September 22, we "ran away from home" for a much needed weekend getaway. We pointed our car west and headed toward St. Louis. Before arriving at our final destination, we stopped off at Cahokia Mounds State Park, site of "the remains of the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico." Who knew something like this existed in the state of Illinois. It was truly amazing.

We arrived at the St. Louis Hilton downtown that is located in a rennovated bank building just one block from the Arch. Our room was perfect and even featured one of the corner "turet" windows where we had a table and four chairs. After unpacking and a short nap, our evening consisted of a prime rib dinner aboard a riverboat, complete with cruise.

We began Saturday by visiting the Anheiser Busch factory for their free guided tour. Our homework had been done, however, in that we knew they were featuring a special photo opportunity with one of the Clysdale horses. The stables were amazingly clean and we even played with the dalmations. The afternoon was spent touring the Arch (Ed had never been). We had dinner at the rennovated Union Station and, because of a festival that was occurring that weekend, we were hosted to a full fireworks display that was framed in the arch - very cool!

After checking out on Sunday, we visited the restored Fort de Chartres located in Prairie du Roche, Illinois. We were the only ones there and hope to revisit in the future to participate in a French and Indian rendezvous. Then homeward bound we were.

It was the perfect weekend and I would recommend it to anyone. The trip is a straight 4-hour trip along I-70 and driving in the city of St. Louis is no problem whatsoever.