Al's Place, Kaskaskia, Salty Dawg & Landmark

We went for a little road trip yesterday to McBride Mo. to try out Al's Place which is just across the Mississippi from Chester.  For some reason I have it in my mind that Chester is a further drive than it really is, it took us just under 45 minutes to get to McBride and that's with going through Chester instead of taking the bypass.
When we got there it wasn't the type of place I'd envisioned.  I thought it was going to be a bar type place with food but it's a diner type restaurant that has beer.  They have a lot of food options with daily specials.  I ordered a the fried pork chop special with a side salad and slaw while the Glue went with chili.  The Glue said her chili had a lot of beans but she liked it.  My salad was fine and my pork chop was real good.  The highlight was the slaw, it was great.
Since we were close and neither of us could really remember going to Kaskaskia we decided to take a drive there to check it out.  Of course we had to try out Bader's in St, Marys on our way.  We'd wondered if Missouri still allowed smoking and that was answered the minute we walked in Bader's, they either still allow it or Bader's doesn't care.  The beer was good and cold but neither of us finished because of the smoke. 
Kaskaskia was just five miles away and it was kind of cool to go to a place in Illinois that can only be reached from Missouri.  It was also the first capital of Illinois and at one time had a population over 7000 people.  There were a couple cool buildings in the town and there's also the liberty bell of Illinois that I'd thought to be a sister of the actual liberty bell but it's not.  Not much else to see there.
We decided to stop at the Salty Dawg in Chester for a drink and were surprised they had Killians on tap with 23 ounce drafts for $2.50.  Not much happening in the bar but they were going to have bingo later on which surprised me.  The Landmark had a Mardi Grais special that started at 4pm so we decided to have a second draft and stop by there to get some cajun to take home.
We got to the Landmark a little before four but the barmaid said they'd been serving all day since the beginning.  If we'd have known that we'd have went there instead of Al's.  The barmaid said that they may include some of the items on their regular menu which would be great.  We ordered some etouffee and jambalaya to go both of which I thought were a little expensive at around $14 each.  When we got home I tried both and thought they were real good and hopefully they'll keep both on the menu especially the etouffee.