Pre-Thanksgiving Weekend

The Pre-Thanksgiving weekend in Loraine IL

This past weekend Jeannie and I headed north to Loraine IL to visit with her parents. We decided to celebrate her Mom's birthday and thanksgiving on the same weekend. It was a very nice trip full of surprises. 

We left the house on Thursday 11/19 after work and headed as far northwest as we could, ended up in Clarksville TN for the night. Off course we used the inevitable I-75 to Chattanooga and I-24 all the way to Metropolis IL after crossing the Ohio river.

The next day saw us using mostly 2 lane roads all the way up to Loraine, through most of south central Illinois, east of St Louis MO. We saw towns like Pinckneyville, Couterville, Mascoutah, Lebanon, Staunton, Bunker Hill and finally Loraine. It was a very nice two lane ride in the car. We are also scoping out two lane roads for our motorcycle ride up there in the spring.

Most people find driving in the state of Illinois boring, me in the contrary I like the large grain silos, the small farming towns, with a cluster of home, barn and silo all together, I appreciate that very much.

We woke up in Loraine Saturday morning to snow!!!

Oh yeah this is Cochise, he is the chief in these parts!!

After a great day and dinner with family we woke up Sunday morning and headed for a day of shopping and visiting St Louis MO. This was a very nice day, cold!!, but a nice day indeed. 

The courthouse downtown.

The arch and gateway to the west. This is by the way the tallest stainless steel structure in the world. There is a considerable amount of construction around the arch area right now for a brand new park that once completed will be worth another visit.

Next we headed to the Anheuser-Busch museum and tour which by the way is a FREE!! tour with samples and ONE beer of your choice at the end, check out the picture. This tour takes you through the beer making areas of the complex, the Clydesdales are always an attraction, and finally the beer drinking itself !!

And NO Jeannie did not order a glass of wine in a Beergarden, she is trying the new Stela Artois Cidre beer, and they serve it in a wine glass!! She loved it said it was very good.

Food!! We had dinner at a great restaurant, highly recommended. Broadway Oyster Bar on 736 S Broadway, St. Louis, MO 63102. I liked their food and mostly how they choose to recycle this beer cage

Thanks for keeping up with us we will back soon.