Girls' Trip to Missouri - Part One

Denisa has gone on annual girls' trip with her two sisters and her Mother for the last 24 years. We missed a few years when our children were very young, but we've made it a priority to get together for around twenty different adventures. This year's destination is Missouri.

To introduce our cast of characters for this trip we have the following picture. Yes, we are all dressed alike in the blouses we bought on last year's girls' trip. We got lots of smiles and a few very puzzled looks when we dawned them again this year. The picture below is of Denisa, her sisters Debra and Connie, and her 86-year-old Mother, Betty. (We have found that after 80, women are proud to publicize their age. We will not be divulging the ages of the other members of our party.)

Our first stop was Joplin, Missouri, where we had lunch at Sandstone Gardens. Betty is standing among the 50,000 square feet retail store filled with everything to decorate homes inside and outside. We were more interested in the bistro, filled with everything to fill up our insides. We thought the carrot cake with cream cheese icing was especially good.

Our second stop was Branson, Missouri, where we changed into our matching blouses just in time for the evening performance of "Moses" at the Sight and Sound Theater. We love this theater that "brings the bible to life." It took 48 18-wheelers to transport the costumes and stage sets for this show, and we understood why when we saw it. They do a monumental job of using the entire theater, and we always enjoy the live animals that are part of the cast. We have seen their productions of Noah and Jonah, but Denisa now thinks her favorite is Moses.

The next morning we got to meet up with some more relatives--our aunt and cousins from Colorado. They just happened to also be vacationing in Missouri at the same time.

Our next stop in Missouri was to St. Louis--home of the Cathedral Basilica.

It's a grand church on the inside and the outside. The mosaics that cover the interior are made up of 41.5 million tiny pieces of tile.

Most of the mosaics included portraits of people. Looking up into the domes and arches, we felt certain that the faces were painted because they were so clear and detailed.

But when we looked closely at a face, we could see that it was made entirely of tiny pieces of tile, about one-half inch square.

Really zoomed in, we could see that all that detail was achieved by using tiles of unexpected colors. The artists used over 7,000 different colors of tile to do the shading and texturing that look so real from a distance.

Seeing the detail up close made us appreciate the grand pictures that these tiny tiles can produce. The museum in the basement of the church describes the process used to make these large murals. The tiles are actually temporarily glued upside down onto paper, in sections that can be lifted to the ceiling. The back sides of the tiles are then cemented to the ceiling, and the temporary paper patterns are cleaned away from the front edge.

Just like the artists used unusual colors in the shading of the face, we noticed unusual colors sprinkled into what looked like solid colored backgrounds. Those subtle green tiles among the solid brown background fooled our eyes into adding texture.

Wikipedia says that the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis has the largest collection of mosaics in the world. All we can verify is that it was a beautiful place to be this day!

Nearby, we saw familiar bright blue and yellow of the Ikea brand. Since two of us had never been inside an Ikea store, we took a tour.

Here's the difference of shopping habits between a sister that lives in a big house, and a sister that lives in a motor home.

When we travel, we try to taste foods that are locally famous. That would include something called toasted ravioli. They were accidentally invented when a cook dropped the ravioli into hot oil instead of hot water. This toasted ravioli appetizer was followed by a St. Louis style pizza, made on a cracker-like crust with whole slices of bacon and local provel cheese instead of mozzarella.

Speaking of iconic St. Louis food, we also made a trip to this Ted Drewes location, made famous for its location right along Route 66. That long list of menu items on the side of the building describes the many different flavors of frozen custard they serve.

Around the corner is where the constant line forms. Most people are ordering their most popular item--concretes. Made from frozen custard, a concrtete is mixed so thick that it is served upside down. On this day with the temperatures close to 100 degrees, we didn't try the upside-down test. That heat also kept the lines short, as we heard there are often people standing all the way around the corner.

We also went in search of another St. Louis treat--Ooey Gooey Butter Cake. We made a stop at Gooey Louie's, but had enough sense to leave when we found our only option was purchasing an entire cake. Instead we purchased a single piece at a bakery.

This is a close up of the Strawberry Gooey Cake that we were too full to finish.

We have definitely consumed more than our share of calories in our attempt to eat our way across Missouri. But we have more adventures than one blog can hold, so we'll continue it tomorrow.