Headed to Paducah

The nice thing about taking a trip with no schedule, is you have no schedule.  We slept a little longer this morning, but it was nice to sleep in a little without the stress of having to hurry somewhere.

We took a quick tour of Music Row in Nashville before we left, which mainly consists of several, several small record company offices.  Then we headed back on the highway towards St. Louis.

Lunch was planned to take place in Paducah, Kentucky......since there was a Civil War Museum that we wanted to visit while we were there.

So 2 hours later we pulled into Paducah and had no idea of what we would see while we were there.  What we discovered was these beautiful painted wall murals that provided the flood walls for the city.  Amazing.  Pictures cannot capture how wonderful these were.  You will see from the pictures below:

 One of the streets near the River. 

 Two rivers join together here in Paducah:  the Tennessee and the Ohio Rivers.

 We found a BBQ place to eat our lunch here and later we indulged at an ice cream shop on this street.....it was an incredibly hot day!

 A cobblestone street runs along the sea wall.  I LOVE places like this!

 The other side of the seawall.......where the two rivers meet

 Some of the beautiful murals

After hanging out by the murals for awhile and snapping pictures.....we headed to the Civil War Museum.  It was located in an old house from one of the founding members of the city.  We were the only people there and we had a personal tour and learned so much history about the importance of Paducah during the Civil War.  We spent such an enjoyable 2 hours there.

 Here's the museum from the outside

 

We got back in the car around 4pm and headed west for our 2 hour drive back to St. Louis.

 

We totally enjoyed our quiet time together with just the two of us.  Of course, most of the conversation revolved around PZ......but of course, PZ is what makes it possible for us to have all this fun.

 

We arrived in St. Louis around 6pm and headed to the casino hotel that we had rented for the night. 

This one was also located right on the Mississippi River....and offered a beautiful view!

We gambled for a short while, but decided we didn't want to eat there and we really didn't like the gambling there.....so we jumped in the car for another casino destination.  We stopped for gas and I got a shot of my favorite brewery:

After a couple of hours of eating and gambling and having a great time......we headed back to our room and called it a night.  Tomorrow would be our only all day sightseeing day in St. Louis and we wanted to get an early start.