250 Reasons to Love Our City

When this year began, the Woodman's were still without a house and wandering the countryside. Then, as reality sunk in, it was time to head back to St. Louis, find a home, and start some new adventures. After a few months back in the Gateway city, we already started getting that itch. We needed a new goal. A new challenge. Since putting everything we owned back into storage and hitting the road wasn't possible, it had to be something close by. What, though? Short weekend trips or overnight camping trips were fun, but we needed something grander. Something bigger.

Most Interesting Cake: Venice Cafe

Then, one day in early spring, we read about the St. Louis 250^th birthday celebration. Originally founded in 1764, this was our great city's sestercentennial. And since every birthday needs a cake, the STL250 group decided it would place cake sculptures throughout the city to honor this event. One for every year of it's existence. Two hundred and fifty 4 foot high “cakes”, each made of fiberglass, and each one individually decorated by a different artist, were spread throughout the region. A website was set up with a map to all of them, so people like us, “cake hunters” as we came to be known, could find them . And just like that, we had our next adventure.

Best Cake Photo-Op: Kiener Plaza

So, just where were these cakes? Well, to put it simply, they put them at places that held some sort of significance to our town. Historical places. Popular hangouts. Important buildings. They were everywhere. North County. Mid town. Downtown. Jefferson County. Illinois. All over. Some locations were obvious choices. Busch Stadium. The Arch. The Zoo. Real St. Louis landmarks. Others held historical meaning. Old churches. Schools. Sites where important events occurred.  Some places were local favorites that were actually chosen in a public vote. Restaurants. Parks. Museums. A wide variety of locations were selected. A perfect sampling of what makes our city great.

Coolest Place The Kids Want To Revisit: Bellefontaine Cemetery

We started our undertaking in early May quite simply. Ted Drewe's was our very first cake. I'm pretty sure we were going there anyways, so it was an obvious choice. (In fact, I think we visited that cake 3 or 4 times this year). After that, we would hit areas that has a large concentration of cakes.
Forest Park. University City Loop. Grand Center. We were on our way. The task seemed daunting. The list was huge. We were up to it.

Hardest Cake to Find: Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing

At first the whole family would be involved in a day of hunting. We'd pick an area, make out a list and pile into the van. The hunt often involved lots of U-turns, making up parking spots, and the kids running in and out of the van like a crazed Chinese fire drill. They would all pose on the cake. They would always argue over who got to be on the top. We'd take a picture, and move on. After the first month, we had a fair number. Fifty, or so. At that pace it would take just the remainder of the summer to knock this out.

Most Interesting Place I Didn't Know Existed: Black Madonna Shrine and Grottos

Eventually, the newness wore off, and the eagerness to go "hunting" wore thin.
Dragging all 3 kids to every cake suddenly seemed more like a chore than a fun, family adventure. We decided to adjust our strategy. Now, only one (maybe two kids) would go at a time.This lessened the bickering and lead to more quality one-on-one time as a result. The outings continued on.

That Was Too Damn Far for a Cake: Clinton County Courthouse (Carlyle, IL)

Ultimately, the trips got longer. Some cakes were far away. (Too far away if you ask me). Instead of a short drive to hit a bunch of cakes, it turned into a long drive for just a few cakes. We remained undeterred. Our quest moved on. Somewhere along the way, the idea of bribing them with sweets came into play. 
"Who wants to go cake hunting today?"....
"Can we get a treat?"
 Luckily some cakes were at places that offered such a tasty reward. Serendipity for ice cream. Sweetology for cupcakes. Crown Candy. It kept  them motivated.

WTF? Artwork Award: Six Flags (zoo animals?)

As we started posting pictures of our cakes, others became interested in our adventure. Soon, other families wanted to join us on some cake hunting expeditions. The Murphy's. The De La Cruz family. The Schoenborn's. The Rummel-Winfreys. All made appearances in cake pics. Other family members would also tag along occasionally. Big sister Haley, their cousin Joaquin, and even a visiting Aunt Kelly made it into a cake photo-op.

Summer turned to fall, and fall into winter, and the list grew smaller and smaller. Then with a week to go before Christmas, we headed out for our final cake, #253 (Don't get me started on why there are more than 250 cakes... That's a whole other rant for another time. I mean come on, make it a hard cut-off at 250. Geez. And I hear there's even another one being released at midnight on New Year's Eve... C'mon now! 250 means 250!)

Our task was complete. Our adventure finished. In seven months, we had seen more of St. Louis than I ever had in my 40 years of living here. We had traveled to all corners of our great city. Found every cake. And, hopefully, had a little bit of fun along the way.

Now that it's done...what next???