Shr k krkt Please read the About Me Sec...'s blog: "Sherina Owner of the Alter Ego Kricket's Blog"

I dont get out much but I can definitly say that theres plenty to do in this state. Although I cant wait till June to hurry up and get here. In June Im going to have some people come up and visit. Im excited and grow with anticipation as the time draws nearer. Most of you have read in Fortunes blog about her coming up here and us taking the kids to sixflags. Thats gonna be the main portion of the exhausting fullfilled day but we do have plenty more that we plan on hitting and ughh I wish they were here alot longer then what they are coming up for. There is so much Id love to share with them and show them. Illinois and Missouri most people would think ahh..nothing but farming country, oil refineries and fields. Well theres definitly those but all so much more to do here. Gypsy is suppose to be in the area around the same time fortune and her family is and Im hoping that he has enough time to sit and have lunch with us and finally get to meet the G man. He isnt going to be far from me and well hes been meaning to give me those shot glasses he bought me in the UK. Im so excited and I sit here and think to myself maybe I can talk Di into coming down and joining us with the great meeting of Fortune and family, and the G-Man and lovely Cubzy... She doesnt live far from me either. I love this god forsaken state Im surrounded by states on all sides that are just filled with people I love and hold so close and dear to my heart. Well anyways moving on to the things that I enjoy doing and would love to enjoy in the near future with future visitors. Okay well as you have heard sixflags is our first main stop...well okay wait a second..our first main stop will be the IHOP ( for those that dont know what this means International House of Pancakes ) My husband and my best friend are like IHOP fanatics..they made a date with eachother the morning of our sixflags excursion.. A date to meet at IHOP and YES each spouse and child was also invited...hahaha to meet at IHOP and just devour the best damn pancakes and waffels around. Drink our coffee and start our day. I dont think I need to post pictures and shit about sixflags , Im pretty sure most of you know what it consist of but Id like to share with you the other things wed plan on doing if we can fit them into our vacation, now mind we are also gonna have a day to do nothing but take in all the good times, get to know eachother on a one on one face to face basis and just relax and let the kids play. although Fortune and I have come to the determination that my Jasmine and her Kylee will not be able to split once met. LMFAO ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Okay so besides sixflags we have the St Louis Arch also known as the Gateway Arch. The Gateway Arch is like no other attraction. * The Arch is the tallest national monument in the United States at 630 feet; it is the city's best known landmark and a popular tourist attraction. * Construction began February 12, 1963 and the last section of the Arch was put into place on October 28, 1965. * The Arch is a structure known as a catenary curve, the shape a free-hanging chain takes when held at both ends, and considered the most structurally-sound arch shape. The span of the Arch legs at ground level is 630 feet, the same as its height. * Each year, approximately a million visitors ride the trams to the top of the Arch. The trams have been in operation for over 30 years, traveling a total of 250,000 miles and carrying over 25 million passengers. * The Arch weighs 17,246 tons. Nine hundred tons of stainless steel was used to build the Arch, more than any other project in history. * The Arch was built at a cost of $13 million. The transportation system was built at a cost of $3,500,000. * In order to ensure that the constructed legs would meet, the margin of error for failure was 1/64th of an inch. All survey work was done at night to eliminate distortion caused by the sun's rays. Since the Arch was constructed before the advent of computer technology, relatively crude instruments were used for these measurements. * The Arch sways a maximum of 18" (9" each way) in a 150 mph wind. The usual sway is 1/2" No matter what you're interested in, the Gateway Arch Riverfront has an entertaining activity for you, your family and friends. Book one of our combo packages. * A trip to the Top of the Gateway Arch is a must do! * There are many Riverboat Cruises choices: select from sightseeing, dinner or entertainment cruises * Take a thrilling Helicopter Tour of the St. Louis area * Enjoy touring the riverfront on a Rent a Bicycle or a Quadcycle and enjoy touring the riverfront * Stop by the Museum of Westward Expansion * There are Movies available for your enjoyment * Visit the Historic Old Courthouse * Enjoy the ever-changing special Exhibits Isnt she beautiful. I havent gone up in that thing yet, Im actualy abit scared to, yes the Kricket the same person who has skydived, jumped outta plans, jumped off bridges into the florida on many occassions is abit scared to go to the tippy top of the Arch..ONLY cause last years those elevator shafts got stuck and me with cramped spaces dont mix..lol Okay so there the Arch , we plan on hitting that on one of our days of touring and having fun and painting the town Kricket and fortune like ! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- next on our list is the St Louis Zoo. Now this Zoo I have been to MANY MANY times and Im just as excited as if it were the first time, why you ask, well its simple math really, every year for the past 2 years they have added 3 new attractions to the Zoo one being Dino -Land, New babies to the Zoo family, New sculptures and a new improved train. The Saint Louis Zoo has educated, entertained and earned a place in the hearts of St. Louisans for generations. With the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, there began a long and slow process to establish a zoological park. Sure enough, local pride in the giant elliptical bird cage led to formation of a St. Louis Zoological Society in 1910. The City of St. Louis set aside 77 acres in Forest Park for a zoo and named a Zoological Board of Control in 1913. State legislation provided that "the zoo shall be forever free," which has kept the Zoo accessible to millions of visitors ever since Zoo Timeline 1904: World's Fair Flight Cage 1910: establishment of Zoological Park 1921: Bear Pits, Primate House, Reptile House 1930: Bird House, giant pandas, Phil the gorilla and Miss Jim 1962: Zooline Railroad and renovation 1972: ZMD tax and Big Cat Country 1983: ZMD tax increase and Jungle of the Apes 1989: The Living World and Veterinary Hospital 1998: new Children's Zoo 2000: River's Edge, Insectarium, new Zoo president 2003: Penguin & Puffin Coast, Conservation Carousel, WildCare Institute, Cypress Swamp and Fragile Forest Zoo Zones ..tr> ..table> Did you know the Saint Louis Zoo is a world leader in saving endangered species and their habitats? Many of the animals you will see at the Zoo are threatened in the wild by shrinking habitats, disease and poaching. The need for conservation is greater than ever, with one vertebrate species disappearing from the Earth every day. Ultimately, we need to save the ecosystems on which animals and humans depend. The Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Institute, with the support of its Conservation Fellows, takes a holistic approach to troubled ecosystems by addressing three key ingredients in conservation success: wildlife management and recovery, conservation science, and support of the human populations that coexist with wildlife. The Zoo is FREE to ALL who want to come and visit believe me Ive been there a million times. Your think to yourself woohoo a free day, there is a catch like always, there are certain attractions inside that you must pay for if you want to see/do...none the less I have never spent NO MORE then 45 dollars here on a FULL day of excitement and pure educational pleassure and family fun. Theres a butterfly and Bird house the size of our Mall here in the Zoo that is just so MAJICAL...I think the girls are gonna love it, feed the bird os all many tropicalness and have the butterflies land on your face and suck nectar from your hands is such a beautiful experience..My kids go every time we go there they love it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Alton area if you look it up and know how to google the right way , LOL you will learn that Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi is the most Haunted Part of the United States. I love this Part of the state, so many Haunting tours to go and so much that I cant fit it all in but heres just a little bit of what there is to experience here for hauntings. I. HISTORIC ALTON The Settlement of the Region – The Mound Builders – The Explorers – Lewis & Clark where the Great Rivers meet – Indian Massacres & The War of 1812 – Legends & Lore of the Area Settlers – The Beginnings of Alton II. ELIJAH LOVEJOY & THE SPIRIT OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD History of Slavery in America & Illinois – The Life & Times of Elijah P. Lovejoy – Lingering Haunts of the Lovejoy Murder – The Haunted Warehouse – Lovejoy's Wandering Corpse – Alton & The Underground Railroad – The Hanson Mansion & the Enos Apartments – Ghosts of Times Past III. THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS The Railroad comes to Alton – The Chicago & Alton Railroad – The Worst Train Disaster in Illinois – Railroad Ghost Stories from the Chicago & Alton Line IV. GHOSTS ALONG THE RIVER The History & Mystery of the Golden Age of Riverboats – The Heyday of the Alton Steamboats – Great Alton Floods – History & Mystery Along the Rivers – River Ghost Stories – The Phantom Funeral of Fort de Chartres – The Legends of the Blue Pool – Elsah – Portage Des Sioux – Chautauqua – Ghosts of Grafton – The Hauntstown Treasure – The Diamond Island Mystery – The Old Stone House V. ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN ALTON Abraham Lincoln & The Duel that Almost was – Bloody Duels where the Great Rivers meet – The Lincoln-Douglas Debates VI. SPIRITS OF THE CIVIL WAR IN ALTON Civil War comes to the Meeting of the Great Rivers – The Alton Penitentiary – The Confederate Prison Opens – Escapes & Horrific Conditions – The Smallpox Epidemic – The Sunflower Island Pest House – The Destruction of the Penitentiary – Ghosts & Haunts of the Prison Site – The Prison Stones: A Ghost Story that Wasn't – Hauntings Along Hop Hollow Road VII. SPIRIT OF ALTON'S BUSINESS HISTORY The History of Business in Alton – Alton's Limestone Quarries – The Sparks Milling Company – The Ghost of David Sparks – The Mysterious Lady in Black VIII. ALTON HISTORY REVISITED Highlights in Alton History from the 1800's through today IX. ALTON'S GENTLE GIANT The Life & Times of Robert Pershing Wadlow – Alton's "Tallest Man in History" X. NO REST FOR THE WICKED The History & Hauntings of the Region's Criminal Past – Murder, Mayhem & Executions in the early days of the Region – "Three Days Penitentiary Horror": The 1856 Hostage Crisis at the Alton Penitentiary – Law & Order: History & Mystery of the Local Police Department – The Murder of August Mayford: Unsolved – Prohibition in Alton – A History of Alton's Breweries – The Haunted Brewery Cave – Gangsters of the Great Rivers Region – S. Glenn Young & the Ku Klux Klan – Charlie Birger & The Shelton Gang – Frank "Buster" Wortman – Lakeview: The Legends of the Hartford Castle – The Kidnapping of August Luer – James Early Ray & Alton – Paula Sims & Her Precious Victims XI. SCHOOL SPIRITS History & Hauntings of Alton's Schools & Colleges – School Spirits – Harriet Haskell: Ghost of the Monticello Seminary – The Haunting of Milton School XII. SPIRITS OF ANOTHER KIND The History & Hauntings of Alton's First Unitarian Church XIII. DINNER & SPIRITS Haunted Hotels, Restaurants & Theaters in the Region – The History of Area Hotels – The Ruebel Hotel – The Mansion House – History & Hauntings of the Franklin House – My Just Desserts – House of Plenty – Belleville's Pasta House – Meridian Coffee House – Flickering Images of Theater History – The Ritz Theater – Haunts of the Miner Theater XIV. ANTIQUE SPIRITS Ghosts & Hauntings of Alton Antique District – Possessed Possessions – The Cracker Factory – The Mineral Springs Hotel & Antique Mall XV. GHOSTLY GREETINGS FROM THE GRAVEYARD Cemetery Ghosts from Around the Region – Haunted Graveyards – History & Haunts of the Alton City Cemetery – Deaf Bill: May He Rest in Peace – Alton's Pirate Grave – Graveyard Ghosts & Vanishing Hitchhikers XVI. THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT The Piasa Bird, Bigfoot & Mysterious Creatures Where the Great Rivers Meet XVII. HAUNTED HOUSES A Collection of Haunted Dwellings from the Land Where the Great Rivers Meet – The Three Mile House – The Montgomery House – Phantom Footsteps – "Ghosts Along the Mississippi" – The Alton Poltergeist – A Ghost to be Afraid of – The Meyer House – Our Own Ghost Story: The Ghost of the History & Hauntings Book Co. XVIII. THE MCPIKE MANSION History & Hauntings of the McPike Mansion – The "Most Haunted" Site in the Land Where the Great Rivers Meet ((Many people had manifestations in the wine cellar; men felt their hair being touched, women felt someone combing their hair, some tourists with canes had their canes moved, a man had his flashlight disassembled while he was holding it...)) ((The old Milton School would be really creepy even if it weren't haunted. Some tourists had attended school there as a child; for some it was a pleasant walk down memory lane, for most it was just as bad as they'd remembered. Sensitive tourists experienced the common manifestations of negative energies: headaches, light-headedness, nausea, and sudden weakness. Many tourists met the ghost called "Charlie", some had a much nicer time when they met the spirits of a few children who still play there.)) ((The Alton City Cemetery had its fair share of dark shadowy figures and the Union Cemetery provided a lot of unexplained phenomena; fully-charged camera batteries would suddenly die, voices were heard where there were no living people, a single leaf danced and twisted on a branch where no other leaves moved on a very still night...)) These pictures are of the two that have my attention to want to go explore and learn more about. Theres TONS more but dont want to over whelm everyone and dont want to over do this blog and have it so long that noone wants to read it..LOL ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As for some more relaxation and the Lovely hotel that the Browder family will be staying in is set in a town not far from me just west/south of me named Pontoon Beach ( no theres NO real beach here just a River Bend that they call a beach ) There is on the other hand beautiful landscapping and lakes near the hotel. We Will also be coming over this way for a BIG Bonfire, grilling, marshmellow roasting and some good ol starry sky talking. All this land behind my house is perfect for a bonfire and some starryskies talk between best buds and running wild children. We have one every year and its gonna be a great feeling to be able to share one of our family traditions with my bestest buds ever. We do this to celebrate the changing of Spring into Summer and just a reason to set the wood ablaze and engourge in marshmellows and drinks and loud music with fireflies and stars illuminating the sky around us. Well I hope I havent bored you guys to death with my boredom LOL. If this blog is too long for you to sit down and read please feel free to come back when ya have more time, its very rare that you get a SHORT blog from Mrs Sherina..LOL You should always know to come to my blog with plenty to drink, plenty time to spare and plenty of smokes. I also hope this has opened up your mind to the wonderful things that surround my area and indulges you to research it. We have so much more around here but like I said I didnt want to over do it but there is ONE more thing Id love to share with my readers / viewers. This place has arroused me, a place I havent been to yet but would LOVE to go one day. I find it to be very educational and yet peaceful all at once. This lovely places is called the bluffs and the caverens of Illinois and Missouri. Nestled agelessly among the lush foothills of Missouri's rolling Ozark's, these magnificent caverns chronicle over 400-million years of history including: The formation of caves and stalactites, fossils and limestone, Indians of Missouri, European miners and explorers, dramas of the Civil War, train robberies and great escapes, ballroom dances around the 1900's, the Great Depression, World War II, Hollywood movies, and the list goes on. Beneath the fertile rolling hills of the Meramec Valley, lies a complex of mineral formations and color as rare and unique as they are beautiful. These jewels of nature which took millions of years to grow, are preserved in the spectacular sights of Meramec Caverns. Guided tours by trained rangers are conducted along well-lighted walkways. All cavern facilities are accessible to the disabled. Learn how Mother Nature built an ancient limestone "Wine Table" and an entire 5-story mansion... all underground. The Stage Curtain, the largest single cave formation in the world, is the crown jewel of Meramec Caverns. This extraordinary mineral deposit which measures 70 feet high, 60 feet wide and 35 feet thick is called America's number one cave scene. Estimated to be 70 millions years old, the Stage Curtain is the focal point of a dramatic light and musical presentation which climaxes an informative cavern tour HISTORY The history of Meramec Caverns is rich with the treasures of time. Going back through the centuries, the Indians revered the cave as the home of their god. An 18th century French miner, Jacques Renault, found the Cavern's greatest natural resource, saltpeter, which is used in the manufacture of gunpowder. Spanish lead miners used the caves as did slaves who were sheltered there as part of the 'Underground Railroad.' During the Civil War, a Federal powder mill in the cave was blown up by Confederate guerrillas of whom Jesse James was a member. Jesse James, as a member of the Quantrill's Guerrillas, gained knowledge of Meramec Caverns back in 1864, when the guerrillas captured the gunpowder mill. In the early 1870's he and his band used the cavern on numerous occasions because it afforded a complete hideout for men and horses. In 1933, Lester B. Dill, noted caveologist, discovered five upper levels of the Caverns. Further exploration revealed 26 miles of underground passages. Meramec Caverns was opened to the public as a tourist attraction in 1935. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ After all the excitement and getting wore out on the day of sixflags we will most likey do the Arch and Zoo all in one day Hopefully...LOL theres ALOT to do around the arch like museums and parks and just so much more Im not really sure how all of this is going to fall in place or even if we will fit everything in while they are here. The River and the bluffs is soemthing Id love to show Mindy. Shes alot like me and beautiful landscapping and history artifacts and Haunted realms are a major thing and Id love to take her to see the bluffs down by the river and maybe some huanted caverens and realms on the way to the river front for a day of nothing but RELAXATION... Here are just a few of the Historical sites that surround my area on the riverfront and river side drive about 5 minutes from my home.( I WAS GOING TO PASTE SOME SITES AND STUFF EHRE BUT MYSPACE IS BEING A PRICK SO HERES THE SITE THAT I WENT TO FOR A LIST OF HISTORICAL SITES IN MY AREA )(( this blog copied from My blog on myspace ))) TOUR ALTON Now the Clark Bridge is the Bridge I travel daily everyday almost that takes me from Illinois to Missouri and crosses the Big Meeting of the 3 great rivers. Not that knowledgable of what rivers run through my town here ya go.. Illinois river, Missouri river and the Mississippi river. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well Everyone I hope you enjoyed todays blog and that you get the feeling of how excited I am for June to be here so I can indulge myself in friendship, fun times and new beautiful memories.