Jaunt to the old stompin' ground

Sean and I took a trip this weekend back to St Louis for a friend’s wedding; we left Fiona with Grama and Papa.  It’s the first trip we’ve taken together without Fiona since she’s been born.

We decided to visit the Cahokia Mounds since this is one thing we never did the whole time we lived there even though they were just up the road.  We visited the interpretive center first where we saw an orientation video and looked at the exhibits.

 

Front of the Birdman Tablet (“mascot” of Cahokia Mounds)

 

Back of the Birdman Tablet

Then we followed the 3 short trails around the smaller mounds, the Grand Plaza, Monks Mound (huge!), and Woodhenge (a wooden sun calendar).

 

Monk’s Mound looking from the Grand Plaza

Self-portrait with Monk’s Mound in the background.

From the top of Monk’s Mound looking at the Grand Plaza.  You can also see the Twin Mounds beyond the Plaza.

 

View of St Louis from the top of Monk’s Mound.  You can also see Woodhenge in the foreground.

Close-up of Woodhenge

We (synchronistically) saw the giant catsup bottle as we were driving to Collinsville for lunch.

After we grabbed lunch at a small pub in Collinsville (random choice that turned out to be very good), we headed back to the hotel to change and took off to the wedding.  We took the long way and drove around our old neighborhood just to see how things had changed.  We were really happy to see that quite a few new houses were going in.

The wedding was at the Renaissance Grand.  It was a beautiful ceremony, the food was excellent, and the reception was a lot of fun.  It was great to visit with friends we haven’t seen in a while.

A picture of us with the bride and groom.

 

A view from the hotel looking north-ish.