They have a bunch of markers for Mark Twain sites all over. It was kinda cool.


We visited the Tom Sawyer fence and Becky's house.
Madi and I walked up to see a lighthouse but it was so high and so many steps we only went halfway and looked out over the town and the Great Mississippi.
We were going to go on a tour of Mark Twain's house but I wanted to go to the Mark Twain caves instead.
The caves were pretty cool, the tour guide was pretty funny. Madi was very interested in some of the stories and the stuff the tour guide said like our tour guide turned out all the lights in the cave and it was pitch black, she then informed us that if you were in darkness like that for 7 days you would go blind from your eyes straining to focus and find light.
Once our 20 minutes tour was over we began to head back to jump on the freeway.
Then we found this sign and decided to check it out.
And what a site we found.
There was a plaque that explained the name of the spot "lover's leap" by telling a story of 2 Native Americans that were in love from different tribes....basically a Romeo and Juliet kinda thing.

It was beautiful to see the whole small town of Hannibal.

When we got to St. Louis we went to the hotel and checked in and rested because the next day we were meeting my friend Heather and her daughter Haylee at City Museum. I will say the one thing that I was kinda upset about this entire trip was our hotel was right next to a Jack in the Box and I did not get any egg roles....there really needs to be a Jack in the Box closer to me!!
City museum is unlike anything I have ever been to!! We pulled up and there is stuff coming off of the building, there is a buss hanging off the edge of the roof....it is beyond awesome!!
(and people actually do live in the same building at the City Museum, crazy)
Once in the building there are 4 different floors and a roof to explore...(the roof was off limits on this day :( )

There are tree houses and small rabbit holes to crawl into, I could not fit most of these spaces, they are clearly built for kids. Maddy had such a blast.

There were points where we Maddy and Haylee took off down a hole and we would just have to wait for them to come back or try to find the other side.
There were in door slides...
We adventured outside into 2 skeleton planes, Maddy and Heather went off to check out the highest heights while Haylee and myself stayed back where we felt safest...we are kinda scared of heights.



Maddy and Heather are quite the adventurers!!

There is also a hall of mirrors



We found an indoor skate-less park...which is a skate park where you don't wear skates you just run around and climb of stuff.

10 foot slide

#selfie

For our final adventure at City Museum, we went on the 10 foot slide...which sounds a lot scarier than it was was....although the part that killed me was walking the steps to get to the top. Once there we waited in line where poor Haylee got scared, Maddy went first because that kid is a little dare devil (sometimes) then I went and I got stuck and had to push myself down the last part of the slide...word of advise, don't wear jeans, I think my pockets were sowing me down. Once Maddy and I got to the bottom we chanted Haylee's name to help coax her down, well she did it, then Heather...
It was so nice to see them and go to such an awesome place.
After the City Museum we headed over to the St.Luis Arch, you can go in the Arch and go in this little pod elevator and go to the top....this was closed, closes at 5 (and I was OK with that)


The iPhone app led us to St.Louis Union Station...where inside is a bunch of shops including an adorable fudge shop called The Fudgery where they sing and interact with people while they make fudge, I took video, unfortunately for some reason my video came out all black (maybe my finger was over the lens) but it is definitely worth a stop.

The reason we went to the Union Station to begin with was because of the ache in the building....according to the Roadside app it said it had interesting properties where if you talk to the wall, it will talk back.



As it turns out, you need 2 people and the way the arch is in the building, it carries sound. One person stands on one side and the other across the way and when you talk, the sound carries to where your friend is standing....it's less spooky and more architect engineering.
But either way.. it was interesting and the inside of the building is absolutely stunning.

After the Union Station we headed over to the Butterfly House (roadside app again ;) )

You walk in and then you go into where the butterflies are and they are flying free all around you, they even land on you and the butterflies are pretty big!





On our way back to Iowa City, we spotted a White Castle and considering I have never actually eaten there, I had to try it.
And I have to say, I do not see what all the hype is about....I am not so much a fan, sorry White Castle.