Good Family Trips
Cahokia Mounds is near I-55/I-70 as the two Interstates are merged before crossing the river into downtown St. Louis. The Lewis and Clark Museum called Camp DuBois is west of and relatively near the SIU Edwardsville's campus. When our family visited Cahokia we stayed at Pere Marquette State Park.
Ridge Trail
I love the area which is the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. I like the little car ferries run by the state in the area. The best thing at this time of the year are the peaches. Calhoun County is a narrow county as it fits on a ridge between the Illinois and the Mississippi Rivers. There is a small but nice visitor center at Pere Marquette State Park. Erik continues to warn people about bee holes. As we were hiking the Ridge Trail, it runs along a geologic fault line, he decided to look in a hole on the cliff wall. He heard bees and immediately came back. Not wanting to admit I had warned him to be careful about looking in the hole; he has continued to insist that I will direct people to stick their head in a bee hole on hikes. The bee hole joke is just one of those inside jokes between Erik, Alex, and I, that makes our relationship as sons and father a good one. Experiencing a new place together is always a memorable time for a family. Pere Marquette has camp sites and a lodge.
