AALLSpectrum_May 4/12/06 3:35 PM Page 32 It’s a Drive! Holy Cow! It’s OuttaHere! There is plenty to see and do outside of the St. Louis Cardinals’ hometown by Joseph A. Custer 32 AALL Spectrum May 2006 AALLSpectrum_May 4/12/06 3:35 PM Page 33 ne of my fondest childhood downtown St. Louis. This community was music, and nibble on snacks from the memories is listening to Harry founded in 1769 and served as the state’s winery’s bistro. Bikers and hikers will enjoy O Caray’s radio broadcast of the St. first capital. Explore South Main Street the area’s Katy Trail, a former railroad right Louis Cardinals. As a young boy in rural where more than 100 shops, restaurants, of way converted into a scenic path through Iowa, I’d hold my transistor radio against and cafés welcome visitors to the beautifully the valley. my ear and jump up and down on my old preserved historic district. The Frenchtown In the picturesque town of Hermann, box spring mattress as Caray gave his blow- area, known for its antique shopping, has Missouri’s German heritage is celebrated by-blow account. He made us “go crazy” 58 historic buildings of French Colonial with Old World enthusiasm. about Cardinals baseball long before Jack and German architecture. Visit the Visit the Stone Hill Winery, Buck’s famous shout, “Go crazy, folks! Go Lewis and Clark Boat House to where visitors are crazy!” inspired us when Ozzie Smith hit learn more about the famous welcome for tours, the 1985 National League championship- explorers, or try your luck tastings, just-for-fun winning home run against the Dodgers. aboard the Ameristar grape stomping, When I finally got to St. Louis to see Casino. The First 2 food, and music the Cardinals, it was 1969 and Caray had Missouri State Capitol throughout the gone to Chicago. We stayed for three or building and the Shrine year. four days and witnessed the magic of the of St. Phillipine In the heart Cardinals and St. Louis proper before Duchesne are also of Missouri wine having the pleasure of touring outside of open for tours. country, the the city limits. While planning your trip to charming town of Daniel Boone Home St. Louis, keep in mind that there is plenty and Boonesfield Washington offers to see and do outside the range of a well-hit Village restaurants, gift Albert Pujols home run. shops, and galleries This historic site is located along the river where Six Flags St. Louis Theme Park approximately 35 miles west of visitors can shop, dine, St. Louis. The Boone family settled Hosting hordes of out-of-town vacationers and relax before heading back here in the late 1790s. The four-story and St. Louis locals, Six Flags St. Louis to St. Louis. Georgian-style house is where Daniel Boone theme park is one of the biggest attractions and his wife Rebecca spent the last years of outside the St. Louis city limits, featuring Kimmswick, an Old-Time their lives with their son Nathan, his wife River Town eight themed lands of adventure. The park Olive, and their 14 children. The Boone features more than 40 attractions and game Located just 30 minutes from downtown Home tour begins with a film about Boone areas, including the world-class wooden St. Louis, the tiny river town of and his life. Also on the site is the Boonesfield roller coaster, “The Boss,” more than 25 Kimmswick was founded in 1859 by Village, where visitors can see a potter’s shop, food outlets and gift shops, live shows, German immigrants. Today the community general store, one-room schoolhouse, chapel, and a tropical paradise water park called is a living museum stocked with homemade mill shop, and woodworker’s shop. Hurricane Harbor. crafts, antiques, historic architecture, and simple charms. Browse through specialty Grant’s Farm Missouri Wine Country shops and enjoy a leisurely lunch at one of Located just outside St. Louis city limits is Maybe you will want to spend a day or the town’s famous restaurants, The Blue Grant’s Farm, the former homestead more searching for your identity in Owl or The Old Steakhouse, known of President Ulysses S. Grant. Missouri wine country. While throughout the region for hearty It is also the ancestral home not boasting the same Midwestern cuisine and tempting baked of the Busch family (of 1 perfect balance of vibrant goods. Kimmswick’s newest dining Anheuser-Busch fruit and great soft attraction, the Lt. Robt. E. Lee, is now brewery fame) and one tannins found in open. Shops are open year-round but are of the Budweiser California wine closed on Mondays. Clydesdale breeding country, Missouri and training has some Mark Twain’s Hannibal facilities. More than charming, pleasing Jumping frogs and fence painting contests— 1,000 animals from wines, especially just two of the activities you may find six continents live in the Norton, as well during a visit to Hannibal. Just two hours the 281-acre wildlife as dry table wines. north of St. Louis, you can explore the town preserve on the You can explore that shaped America’s most famous author. property. Visitors can your failures and Mark Twain’s historic boyhood home and travel by tram through question your the Mark Twain Museum are open to the the wildlife preserve and relationships, just like public in this small Mississippi River town. then visit the Tier Garten the endearing characters Tour Mark Twain Cave or take a guided area, which has a petting zoo, did in the movie Sideways, trolley ride or riverboat cruise for an overall animal exhibits and shows, and by taking a wine tasting tour view of the town where young Sam Clemens the Bauernhof courtyard complex, a as you travel southwest on scenic dreamed up the adventures of Tom Sawyer, 19th century farmstead with stables and Highway 94 through river hills and German Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher. Becky’s a carriage house. towns, such as Augusta and Dutzow. home, the Clemens Law Office, Grant’s In Augusta, sit back and enjoy the view Drug Store, and the 30-room Rockcliffe St. Charles, Missouri at the Mount Pleasant Winery, located on Mansion river estate are also open for tours. St. Charles is nestled on the banks of the top of a beautiful terrace high above the Another bonus, you can visit the birthplace Missouri River just 30 minutes west of river valley. Sample wines, listen to live © 2006 Joseph A. Custer AALL Spectrum May 2006 33 AALLSpectrum_May 4/12/06 3:37 PM Page 34 of the Unsinkable Molly Brown of Titanic world, and the Underground River. State of the St. Louis area’s most dramatic scenery. fame. On the way back to St. Louis, you’ll naturalists lead tours of Missouri’s scenic Drive along the Great River Road with the get a view of the unspoiled Mississippi that Onondaga Cave, and more adventurous Mississippi River on one side and soaring looks the same today as it did when Twain spelunkers can explore nearby Cathedral limestone bluffs, first noted by 17th century was a young riverboat pilot. and Fisher caves with hand-held lanterns. explorers Marquette and Joliet, on the other. Canoe float trips are available along the The bluffs lead visitors deep into Piasa French Colonial Territory scenic Meramec River and the crisp, clear Country, named for the fierce Piasa Bird of Use St. Louis as your base to explore the Huzzah and Courtois creeks. Native American legend. Just north of Creole Corridor of Missouri and Illinois. Alton, you’ll find an image of the serpent- Named after the patron saint of Paris, the Go Down Under in Missouri like bird painted on the bluffs. village of Ste. Genevieve was Diving in Missouri? Yes, Enjoy antique hunting in Alton and founded in 1735 as the first believe it or not, divers charming Grafton, Illinois, to the north permanent European can take the plunge along the River Road. Picnic beside the settlement in the year round at the river, bike on the trail under the bluffs, or Louisiana Territory. legendary Bonne explore the grounds of Pere Marquette Stop at the Great Terre Mine less State Park and its classic log-style lodge. River Road than an hour Cross the Mississippi or Illinois rivers on Interpretive south of St. one of four ferries at Kampsville, Grafton, Center—less than Louis. Named Brussels, and Winfield, or stop in the an hour south of one of Center for American Archeology in 3 St. Louis—for an National Kampsville to learn more about the region’s overview of the Geographic prehistoric heritage. town’s French magazine’s On the way back to St. Louis, visit Colonial roots, or best Argosy’s Alton Belle Casino or the take a tour of the adventures, National Great Rivers Museum at the area’s historic the mine is Melvin Price Locks and Dam. Take time to homes, including the largest fresh enjoy the Lewis and Clark State Historic the Maison water dive resort Site in Hartford, Illinois, which is located at Guibourd-Valle in the world. Even the site of the explorers’ Camp Dubois, and (1784) and the National famed underwater climb to the top of the observation tower for Historic Landmark Bolduc explorer Jacques a view of the confluence of the Mississippi House (1770), the most Cousteau visited the mine and Missouri rivers. authentically restored Creole house and called the billion-gallon in the United States. lake’s cobalt blue waters “magnificent.” Southern Illinois On the Illinois side of the Mississippi With constant air and water temperatures Twenty minutes east of downtown St.