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I was about 13 during my first trip to Missouri, The Show Me State. While nobody agrees how they got the name, some say it describes Missourians as not “gullible, conservative, and unwilling to believe without adequate evidence.” The name Missouri likely comes from the word ouemessourita, the word for a dugout canoe by a local Native American Tribe.
My family flew to St. Louis, Missouri and then did a road trip through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky. There is quite a bit to see in Missouri.
St. Louis, MO
St Louis was fun. We took a tram/elevator ride to the top of the famous St. Louis Arch. It was a bizarre ride that everyone should try once.
The next morning was spent at Grant’s Farm where we saw Ulysses S. Grant’s humble abode. (Sort of ironic that I leave near his Tomb in NYC.)
That afternoon we went to Anheuser-Busch, which was super fun, even if you don’t drink beer as I most certainly did not as a kid. From there we continued east to Illinois. My second trip to Missouri was during a Covid family road trip that began in Oklahoma, stopped in Arkansas and then to Missouri to see relatives in Kansas City.
Kansas City, MO
We ate the famous Kansas City BBQ, which instilled a new love of bbq in my son. (We now order his favorite sauce online). There are also some fabulous museums in KC. Even my kids liked the Arabia Steamboat Museum, which didn’t take too long and is definitely worth the time. Another fabulous museum we visited was the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, which I highly recommend. It is quite a lesson in segregation and another place my kids enjoyed.
Kansas
We did a day trip to Kansas, The Sunflower State, named for the wild sunflowers that grow throughout the state. We had hoped to go to a museum in Topeka that took center stage during Brown v. Board of Education. Unfortunately it was closed because of Covid restrictions so we went to a fun brunch in the town of Lawrence instead.
From there we continued North on our road trip.
