The next adventure we went on was a mini road trip across four Midwest states! Chris' biggest bucket list item is to see all 50 capitols of the USA so that was the main focus of this trip! This was a more low-key type trip! We flew United and rented a car through Budget! They had the best deals and we received a AAA discount! Our first stop on this adventure was St. Louis where we stayed two of the nights and stayed our other two nights in Indianapolis! We checked into the Drury Inn, this hotel has a lot of great amenities! Free breakfast, free happy hour, we LOVE free, and its a very affordable price!
The first day we drove from St. Louis to the capitol, Jefferson City, Missouri! The drive was about 2 hours! A cute little stop we made as at Ozarkland general store! This store had tons of souvenirs and interesting nick-nacks! Great stop to stretch our legs!
Once we got to Jefferson City, we loved this little town! The capitol building is situated on a river and the grounds were just beautiful! Across the street from the capitol we had a delicious lunch at Arris pizza! Its all you can eat pizza for under 10 dollars! After this we drove by Jefferson City penitnerary. Its an abandoned prison that is over 100 years older than Alacatraz and is deemed one of the most haunted places in the state. Now it is open as a museum. Our next stop was Central Dairy! One of the most famous creameries in Missouri! The ice cream is homemade in shop and suuuper cheap! It was delicious!
After this we made our way back to St Louis! We then headed to the zoo!! This zoo was voted Americas BEST free attraction, it soooo was!! We loved every second of it! So many animals, the exhibits were beautiful, the zoo grounds itself was beautiful and free is always a nice touch! The penguins were so closer you could almost touch them! We ended our day by stopping by the arch to get some good pics beside it! I had no idea it was the largest stainless steel structure in the world.
The next day we spent with Chris' family and saw more of St. Louis area! We started at the Cahokia Indian Mounds! The site is made of man-made mounds that used to house buildings and villages. It was an incredible sight to see. It was also another free sight to walk around the grounds!
Next we made our way to the arch to actually go up and inside! One tip is pre buy your tickets! They had sold out and only three from our group got to go up! Another tip is if you are claustrophobic, this might not be the sight for you. The pod they put you in is extremely small and the ride up is about 4 minutes.
After our 63 story journey up it was lunch time! We found some of the BEST ribs I have ever had! The service was fast and the food was a knock out! The place was called Pappys! If you go here make sure you get the famous ribs! After lunch we had to sadly part ways with Chris family! They were driving home so they had to head back sooner and we journeyed to Springfield, Illinois! Home of Lincoln and the Illinois Capitol Building! On the way we stopped at one of Route 66 iconic stops that still stands today. The World's Largest Catsup Bottle YEE HAW!
XL pic for an XL condiment bottle!
On the way to our next stop on Route 66 we stopped at Cozy Dog, the restaurant that INVENTED the corn dog! yummm. This was also a fast grab n go lunch for our roadtrip adventure and was super cheap!
really liked the Springfield capitol building! It housed the Supreme Court at one time and it was very cool to be in a city with such an amount of history. A worker of the capitol bet Chris he couldn't climb onto Lincoln's shoulders.... welp didn't take long for him to prove her wrong and she even came back and asked if she could take a picture of him!
After we toured the building we got to see the only house Abraham Lincoln ever owned. The entrance to the home is free due to the final wishes of his son. His son signed over the home to the state as a monument with two stipulations. 1. It was kept in pristine condition and 2. No one would ever be charged admission to see his father's home. To this day this is still honored.
Springfield was such a charming little city and my favorite of the trip.
We next started on our 3 hour journey to Indianapolis where we would spend the night. I also got to experience Steak n Shake for the first time and these prices were unreal!
The next morning we headed out early to see the Indianapolis capitol building! Another beautiful building, this one was more situated in a downtown setting so it made getting pretty pictures without the buildings difficult. After a quick tour we headed to make our 2.5 hour drive to Columbus!
This was the last capitol of our trip and they had the coolest underground tunnels! We also learned about the company who offers a passport book of all the US capitols! You collect stamps at everyone! We went ahead and got this and we emailed the company and they will send you the states you have already been to! Very cool idea! Columbus did not have very much else we wanted to see so we decided to drive 1.5 hr to Cinncinati to drive through the town and see some of those sights! We made it back to Indianapolis in time for dinner at a popular fried chicken spot called The Eagle! The only regret I had was not ordering their delicious looking grilled cheese!
Our car rental company had a drop off spot in Indianapolis so it made it very convenient. When renting a car MAKE SURE YOU ARE THERE WHEN YOU SAID YOU WOULD RETURN IT. We cut it close by 10 minutes and the guy said if we wouldn't have made it, he would have charged us an extra day.
For this trip we flew United! We always download one movie from Netflix to watch together on flights so that really helps all of our fly time! When we touch downed in Houston it was time for our tradition of eating Mexican food and queso in honor of being back in the Lone Star State!
