Mounds of Cake in Illinois...With Catsup! (Cakes 13-19)

We headed out the door today to see who could spot the most cakes. We went across the Mississippi River, into Illinois. Who would have thought that the World's Largest Catsup Bottle is only 21 miles from our house? Ah, a quest that would have made my daddy proud! Here's the catsup bottle in all of its glory. The cake is located right underneath.

To get a good picture of the catsup bottle, I had to drive back across the road.

The girls had fun using the binoculars to get a close-up view from far away!

   

Since we were already in the Collinsville/Belleville area, we decided to see what other cakes we could find. We drove to Cahokia Mounds next! Here's what the museum looks like, along with a little background information:

And here's the cake! I can't remember which girl saw this one first. They're keeping a running tally of who spots which cakes. Strangely enough, I've only been able to spot one or two cakes. (Wink!)

Honestly, I was surprised when the girls were eager to go inside. We walked all around the exhibit, and I had to answer a lot of questions and explain a lot about these Native Americans, the Mississippians, and their culture. Holly still doesn't really understand that museum exhibits aren't alive, and she had a lot of questions about why the women didn't wear shirts or dresses. 

Chloe was eager to watch the movie, so we did. Holly whispered to me that the music sounded Chinese. Then later she leaned over again and whispered that the people looked like the Tarzan movie. She was really trying to make sense of things. Chloe seemed to get a lot out of it, though. She was listening very intently.

After the movie, and a visit to the gift shop in which Holly got a lollipop and Chloe got a bracelet, the girls told me that they wanted to climb to the top of Monk's Mound. They were inspired from the movie. I wasn't seriously opposed to this idea, at least to the point that I would veto it, but I did try hard to explain that it's really HOT today. After explaining all about the heat, and the number of steps involved, and the height, I asked, "So who really wants to go to the top?" Both girls raised their hands and said, "ME!" So I was outvoted.

The view from the top:

There's our car! (The Honda Fit in the front row; right side)

Coming down was scarier for me and for Chloe. We didn't like the view of the stairs from the top. But we were just fine. We're not so afraid of heights that it keeps us from doing stuff like this!

We had a lot of fun at Cahokia Mounds, and we all agreed that this was a great field trip. But we were hot and tired. The girls thought we needed a snack, and I told them that we could head to Eckert's, get a snack, and find another cake. They liked that idea! (The Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows was right on the way...that was a "drive by" cake.)

We've been to Eckert's quite a few times...picking peaches, apples, blackberries. This year, they won't have pick-your-own peaches due to the harsh winter. Their ice cream stand was open, though! Chloe got vanilla ice cream, and Holly got a strawberry smoothie. We all drank a lot of water, too!

There were three other cakes in Belleville for us to see. Holly tried hard to explore the Emma Kunz House Museum, but the door was locked, and there were cobwebs. It hasn't been open in awhile, we think.

We still got pictures of the cake!

The next cake was at the Skyview Drive-In Theater. Tom and I have been considering taking the girls to a movie...but we both really like nice air-conditioned, surround-sound theaters. The playground at the Skyview is really rusty, and when jumping out of the car to get a picture of the cake, Chloe said, "Oooh, there's lots of pollution here." (Cans, candy wrappers on the ground.)

I like this cake, though!

This was the last cake of the day, at the Victorian House Museum. It was another "drive by" cake. I didn't even try to go in the museum. This was a tricky cake to get a good picture of. The girls were standing right by a brick wall, with me standing on the street below them.

We always like blowing out the candles:

So far, Chloe has spotted the most cakes. But Holly's catching up. I can keep both girls laughing by saying, "Oh look! There's a cake...no, wait...that's a fire hydrant." Or, "Oh look! CAKE! No...that's a trash can." They think that I'm simply terrible at spotting cakes. 

Some cakes are at good kid-friendly locations, and others are not. That's OK. I'm still trying to group a bunch of not-so-interesting, or not-age-appropriate cakes with some that are kid friendly. Today we had lots of fun at Cahokia Mounds, and the catsup bottle/water tower was fun, too!