September 27-28, 2026

September 27-28, 2026

We fly home tomorrow, so we checked out of our Alton, IL hotel, and drove back to St. Louis. Never one to miss an opportunity to explore, after crossing the river we followed an unpaved road east to Confluence Point State Park. At the road end we hiked the short trail to the narrow tip. To our left is the wide Mississippi, and to our right is the equally impressive Missouri River. Back at the parking lot we perused several storyboards describing the importance of this river confluence and the many passing VIPs, including Jolliet & Marquette, Lewis & Clark and Mark Twain. The first steamboat sailed past in 1817.

Back in the car, we retraced our path to the highway and continued south to Forest Park, the jewel of St. Louis. We parked and visited the Art Museum. It sits inside a building from the 1904 World's Fair. We climbed the stairs to the upper floor and first explored the tiny Egyptian hall before checking out the American art section. It has several paintings by George Caleb Bingham, especially a famous one that highlights the importance of the local rivers to our nation. We visited Bingham's home in Independence, MO many years ago.

I have learned I have to feed art history to Aimee in small doses so we finished with a quick walk through the main floor concentrating on the Impressionists. It has an over-sized Water Lilies by Claude Monet. Aimee is intrigued by a Edgar Degas sculpture of a young girl dancer. Degas had a thing for ballerinas.

On the way out Aimee and I stopped to look at the huge murals gracing the entry hall. We were amused to learn they were painted by a visiting artist who was inspired when he visited the river confluence we saw this morning. One panel is of the old bridge I saw thousands of times as a kid.

Outside the museum, we took a quick photo of the 1906 monumental equestrian statue of St. Louis (King Louis IX of France) gracing the entrance.  He overlooks the Grand Basin, another remnant of the World's Fair. During the Woke protests of 2020, the statue was almost lost.

From Forest Park, we took the highway west making a brief stop in Chesterfield to check out the Awakening statue. It depicts a giant struggling to free himself from the earth. I am not sure why I like this kind of outdoor art.

We finished at my sister's house in suburban St. Charles for another reunion. This time with my immediate family who all drove in for the event.

We spent the night again at the airport Drury Inn and caught an early afternoon flight home today. Because of a delay, we had to run to catch our connection to Tucson. Thankfully the airline waited for us to arrive. Seeing the three rivers merging from the air as we left St Louis made me realize this long weekend excursion was a trip devoted to all sorts of confluences (alumni, relatives, and rivers)