Driving west from St. Louis we entered the big rolling hills and forests of central Missouri. Our campground was only a few miles north of the city of Columbia. As we had spent the entire morning and early afternoon visiting the last few St. Louis neighborhoods we arrived in the early evening and called it a night.
Jefferson City, MO
The next morning we woke up ready to go. Today would we would be visiting the state capital in Jefferson City as well as see some of the Missouri Ozarks. We hopped in Bubbles and we were off. Jefferson City is located roughly half an hour south of Columbia so after passing small farms, woodlands and a river we had arrived.
As far as capital cities go, Jefferson City is small. It is one of only four U.S. State capital cities that is not located on an interstate highway. Since the town is so small you are able to see the big dome of the capitol building from pretty far in the distance. After we found parking we made our way to the capitol building. To our disappointment the entire outside of the structure was under a massive renovation and covered in scaffolding and tarps. The grounds were still nice however. It was here that we learned that Jefferson City was named after a still living Thomas Jefferson. It must have been a pretty cool honor to have a new town named after you when you were still alive to appreciate it!
Luckily we were still able to go into the building, which we did. The inside was beautiful. Normally when touring capitol buildings we try to get on a tour as the tour guides are generally very knowledgeable. This time however the building was packed full of middle school groups. We were invited to join one of their tours, which we did. This was short lived however as the school group was pretty large and we were unable to hear much of anything the tour guide said. That’s ok though, we had our own guidebook and went on our own self-tour. For anyone reading this out there, if you live by your state capitol building or are traveling by one please go and check it out. They are free to see, chock full of history and are always beautiful structures.
Lake of the Ozarks
After strolling around the small downtown for a bit we hopped into Bubbles and headed south to Lake Ozark. Being from the east coast we had heard of the Ozarks but didn’t really know what exactly to make of it. We knew Branson was in the Ozarks but that was a pretty touristy town we had heard. We really didn’t know but we would find out. We looked on a map and found a town called “Lake Ozark”. That sounded good enough as any so off we went. From Jefferson City it was another half hour or so south to get to the town. The town of Lake Ozark is situated right next to the lake called “Lake of the Ozarks”. Doing some research we found that the lake is actually a reservoir and is quite big. Overall it has a shoreline of 1150 miles and zigs and zags for quite a while.
Going into the town we found that we were a little bit early for their summer season but everything was still open. This seemed like a bit of a small party town. There wasn’t really a hotel to speak of but there were bars/restaurants and tourist tee shirt shops. We wandered into one of the shops getting a few postcards before walking around a bit to see if we had missed anything as we had driven through first. To us it seemed like this was a great little town to get a beer in but as we were driving we moved on. We looked at the map and found the little town or area called Village of Four Seasons (Not to be confused with the Four Seasons hotel chain). We drove around this little town for a bit and stopped at the Lodge of Four Seasons Resort/Hotel. This was the nice area and where we would stay if we ever went back. We walked around the property getting some good views of the lake before hopping back in the van and driving back to our campground north of Columbia.
Columbia, MO
The next morning we woke up and after a good breakfast ventured into the city of Columbia. Columbia is Missouri’s 4th largest town and home to the University of Missouri. We found parking then ventured out. We walked around the cities main street downtown stopping into a few shops. As a college town it had some pretty interesting shops, everything from school memorabilia, outdoor gear and vintage costumes! We then walked onto the schools campus. Over the course of the last two years we have walked through many major universities and for the most part (this one included) they are all beautiful. We walked around the campus taking photos and stopping in a few buildings before heading back into town. At this point we were getting a bit hungry so we stopped in for lunch at a Thai restaurant called Bangkok Gardens. It was tasty! After lunch and a stop at the post office we were off once again.
We were heading west but not before a stop at Les Bourgeois Winery located just a few miles outside of Columbia in Rocheport. We had been told about this place by the host at the campground that we had stayed at. She had raved about it so we thought we should check it out. After a small tasting at their tasting room adjacent to I-70 we were told that we should go to the vineyard and a secondary location tasting room/wine bar that they called the “A-Frame”. So we went. The A-Frame turned out to be a small A-Framed structure tasting room. It was situated overlooking the Missouri River and boy was the view good. While Julie and I didn’t have anymore wine at the A-Frame the views were spectacular. If you are ever in central Missouri this is one spot not to miss.
Next up….A spectacular memorial, too many fountains to count and mouth watering BBQ – we tour Kansas City!
