Random Thoughts on Friday

I kind of mentioned Illinois the other day, and I definitely wanted to bring it up again, as I have made a couple of fun road trips to the state lately.

We were originally thinking about taking a few days off and going to St. Louis.  We love St. Louis, and thought another trip was needed to that fun area.  Well, as I was doing my research, I starting finding things on the other side of the river that looked fascinating.

So, with a somewhat limited amount of vacation time, and with our desire to visit new places over places we have been to before, we made the choice to skip St. Louis all together, and to just hang out in the Collinsville/Belleville area of Illinois!

In the area we visited the Cahokia Mounds and the Lewis and Clark National Park visitor center nearby.  The replica fort at the Lewis and Clark center was great and so was the museum section!  The Cahokia Mounds are unbelievable!  BOTH sites were somewhat mysterious and strange.  Obviously, I will write more on both later.

We went to the Skyview Drive In.  WOW!  It has been forever since I went to one!

This was a lot of fun.  I do get a little nervous when cars are driving around, and a lot of people are walking around in the same area, but everything was OK.

This place gets a good crowd.  We parked about 2 hours before the movies started and the lot was pretty packed by then.  This was a fun treat, and I am going to have to do the drive in thing more. 

Skyview went in to business in 1949!  I love that kind of history!

http://www.skyview-drive-in.com/

We went to a Gateway Grizzlies baseball game too!  See my other blog (kentuckybaseball.blogspot.com) for more on that.  This is a friendly, gorgeous park.

The other thing that impressed us in the area was Eckert's Orchards and Country Store!  Yeah, this place was very comfortable on a nice day.

http://www.eckerts.com/

After briefly resting at home, I made my way towards the southern end of the state for some traveling around Marion!

Cave-In-Rock and the city of Herrin were big on my "places to see" list.  We also attended another Frontier League baseball game (again, see my baseball blog for more on that).

Look up Herrin and the Herrin Massacre of 1922 when you have a moment.  It is strange how certain events ripple through history- Check out this web site for more info on a current situation relating to the 1922 event.

http://www.herrinmassacre.com/

We stopped at the Annex coffee shop/deli.  Again, MUCH more on this place later.  This is an amazing little place to stop for a nice meal or coffee in an old theater!  This little shop is sleek for a little indy place.  They have obviously put a lot in to the decor and the product. 

PLUS, driving between the Calhoun area of Kentucky, and Marion Illinois is just a nice, relaxing drive.  I would love to hear from others who are familiar with that drive!