Audubon Center at Riverlands

3013 Riverlands Way
West Alton, Missouri 63386
636-899-0090

Free admission and free parking in multiple lots

https://www.audubon.org/riverlands  

Opened in 2011

This center is part of a network of thirty-three Audubon Centers in the USA. It is located in the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary, which consists of 3700 acres on the Mississippi River near the confluence with the Missouri River.  

The center's mission is to "to connect people to the beauty and significance of the Mississippi River and the Great Rivers confluence, to inspire conservation of the river’s rich diversity in birds, wildlife and other natural resources, and to support healthy, vibrant communities."

Inside the building are a number of displays about birds and other wildlife found in the area. 

The back of the room is mostly glass allowing visitors to look out and observe birds from inside.  You can see the windows looking out towards water on both sides of this duck display below. They have telescopes set up allowing you to see eagles from the building.  

Facing the windows are several benches with wonderful quotes on their backs. 

There are more than 8.5 miles of trails through the Riverlands. They go through prairies, marshes and bottomland forest habitats. This trail goes by the water. 

This view looking towards the locks and dam was from a viewing platform.

And then there are the birds! 60% of all North American birds and 40% of the nation's waterfowl find food, shelter, and safe passage here. Each season brings different species with a total of 300+ species coming through here annually. 

Unfortunately, we were too late to see the 1600 trumpeter swans that were at the Audubon Center two weeks prior to our late February visit. But we did see eagles and a pelican.

We also visited one of the two large bird blinds in the sanctuary. The Avis Spiralis or "spiral-bird" is a one-of-a-kind bird blind and observatory. It sits 20 feet tall.

It was designed and largely built by a professor at Washington University and was dedicated in October 2025. About 85% of the concrete used was made with locally sourced material such as sand from the Mississippi River.

The observatory overlooks Heron Pond, the best wetland area in the sanctuary for observing birds. 

When we left the Audubon Center we drove 30 minutes to Pere Marquette State Park north of Grafton, Illinois, where we spent the night in the lodge after enjoying their well-known family-style fried chicken dinner. 

In the morning we went into the Visitors Center to hear a talk on eagles and for a quick tour of the displays which included animals, murals, and other typical museum items.

We then took off caravan-style on a six-hour eagle hunting expedition with a wonderful guide who has been doing this for many years and knows where to look.  Unfortunately, we did not see many eagles on this late date but it was a great experience.  And we learned a so much about eagles. 

We also saw trumpeter swans and Canadian geese. 

And we ate lunch by the Joe Page bridge in Hardin, IL, the bridge with the largest lift span in the world.

And we got to see the lift go up!

The eagle tour which is only held certain days January-early March, was a great experience. We even rode the vehicle ferry twice!

Comments: We highly recommend both the Audubon Center and the Pere Marquette eagle tour - both are free! I hope to return to see the Audubon Center sanctuary in different seasons when it draws different birds. 

The eagle tour was excellent helped by a blue sky and fairly decent weather.  I do feel like we went maybe too late in the season and would recommend going in January or early February.    



  

The Lazarus St. Louis' Pinball Museum

26 Western Plaza
Fenton  63026
314-808-6611

Admission is based on time in museum and ranges from $9 for an hour to $30 for the day.  

Parking is free and easily available.  

Thelazaruspinballmuseum@gmail.com

Established in February 2024

This museum was started by a husband and wife team after they visited a pinball museum in another city and saw a need in St. Louis. You not only can learn about pinball machines but you definitely can play any and all of them!

The museum is housed in a strip mall.  The building contains over 40 pinball machines as well as other arcade machines.  They own an additional 20 more pinball machines which are rotated in and out.  The owners have traveled over 10,000 miles to at least 9 states fulfilling their goals to purchase certain machines. 

Yes, they have leagues and tournaments!

The machines are spread throughout several rooms. 

In case you are wondering where the name came from you, the answer is written on the wall when you enter the museum.  

If you can pull yourself away from the games and take the time to read the walls you actually will learn quite a bit about pinball machines! 

One sign tells us that The Adams Family above is the best selling pinball machine of all time, selling more than 20,000 units.  It came out in 1992.  

This is their oldest machine, Tropicana, which was built in 1948.

Slick Chick came out in 1963 when they were still having smaller flippers.  

One of the rooms has a wall of machines placed in the order in which they were built. 

Others are just mixed up in other rooms. The one in the middle, Hot Line was built in 1966 while the other two - Liberty Bell (1977) and Charlie's Angels (1978) - were built in the next decade. 

Moving to the next decade we have Black Hole (1981) and Haunted House (1982).

John Wick is the newest one on display.  It came out last year. 

Movies are a popular theme. This Jurassic Park was built in 1993 and this Star Wars was built in 2017. Needless to say, different versions have been made for each of these music themes.

This 1979 machine obviously has a rock band theme! 

Who doesn't love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!?! And look how fun and complicated this game is!

This 1995 Apollo 13 machine is very special.  It is the only pinball machine that can put you in the position of controlling 13 balls at once. 

If you can shoot the ball up that metal trough into the rocket, 8 balls come out from the back plus 5 from the bottom.  

This machine has three levels.

This top level (back corner) has its own set of flippers. 

Unfortunately the glare from the glass makes the bottom level hard to see in this picture but that rectangular area is definitely down a level. 

You never know what you are going to see inside a machine!

The glare blurs the images some but you get the idea!

The number of ramps in some machines can create quite a challenge but lots of fun. 

Each machine has its own set of sometimes confusing instructions! 

I checked out all the ball launchers for variety.  There were mostly the simple spring ones but occasionally a fun one!

There is one entire room dedicated to arcade games. 

I believe that there is an extra fee to play these.

There is also a grabber in this room.

No museum is complete without a gift shop.  They mostly have t-shirts, snacks, and drinks.  They also have special prizes for children age ten and under that do well. 

We went to the popular Twisted Tree Steakhouse in Sunset Hills for lunch and I forgot to take photos!  

COMMENTS:

We were hunting for a fun museum day and we sure had one!  Playing these machines brought back a lot of great memories for several of us.  

The owner was present and very nice.  He took the time to talk to me about some of the machines as there were not a lot of signs up explaining them. They hope to add more signs, he said. My hunch is that most visitors that come there come to play the machines more than learn about them.  But he was full of information and more than willing to answer questions from all of us.

They have only been open 20 months and are hoping that they will be able to expand some day. 

There were a few machines not working on the day we were there but on a Friday mid-afternoon it was not crowded at all so there were plenty of choices on which to play. If we had any problems the owner was right there to assist us. 

We all agreed that our grandchildren would love this museum!