We've been wanting to go to Springfield, IL for a while now because Scott & I have heard wonderful things about the Abraham Lincoln sites. Nate has taken a new interest in Lincoln and the Civil War so we knew we needed to capitalize on it. We had a free summer weekend, so we decided to take a short road trip!
We left on Friday and it was still very rainy in St. Louis. We actually had to drive through standing water on the interstate to get out of town. Crazy weather! We arrived safely at our hotel around lunch time and after we got checked in, we headed out to get some lunch and explore. We stayed at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel. It's a Doubletree and I highly recommend it.
The crazy people that we took with us.
Everything that we wanted to see was mostly within walking distance, so after lunch we walked up to the Illinois State Capitol. Of course Abraham Lincoln is in front of it.
Lila loved the statues - this one happened to be Stephen Douglas. Scott & I were constantly looking up facts about famous political figures all weekend - some times we were able to piece the answers together with our history education, but it was nice to have the info at our fingertips to answer the 3,543 questions Nate asked throughout the trip.
After we walked around for a bit, we went back to the hotel so the kids could swim. We drove out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and really had the best time, just the 4 of us.
The next morning, we set out for our big day of sight-seeing. Lila is very into standing directly in front of Nate for pictures. It's lovely. And annoys the tar out of Nate. That's her goal in life, by the way.
We had to take a road trip selfie while waiting on Dad to get Starbucks.
First, we visited the Lincoln Museum. It was built in 2005 and let me just say, it was amazing. I thought it was a perfect mix of history for adults and interactive areas for kids. Nate is right in the middle of these 2 groups, so he really enjoyed it all. Posing with the family.
After we went through the history wings - they basically started when Abe Lincoln was just a boy and ended with his funeral - we went to an interactive area called Mrs. Lincoln's Attic. They both thought it was fantastic!
We thought it was very cool that Nate was as tall as Lincoln was when he was 9 years old.
And hopefully he'll be this tall some day!
And of course, since we took Nate's picture, we had to take Lila's too.
We spent about 2.5 hours in the museum but it didn't seem that long at all. And when you consider that we had a 4 year old with us, I'd say we deserve some kind of medal. After we rested a little bit at lunch, we walked over to the Lincoln's house.
We had to wait a while before it was our turn to tour, so we took some pictures, ate ice cream, and...
took some more pictures. But it was totally worth the wait. The house is 85% original and you can feel some history in there. Nate thought it was very cool when the National Park tour guide said that he was putting his hand on the very same stair railing that Lincoln did. Of course you couldn't touch hardly anything and you had to be careful about brushing up next to the wallpaper,so I was a little worried about Lila. But she did very good and followed all the instructions.
The National Park Service has done a wonderful job with the house as well as the houses around it. The 2 block area around his house has been restored to look like it did when Lincoln lived there. You can go in a few of the houses and read about the people that were his neighbors. We thoroughly enjoyed all of it!
This was about at the end of our day, and I know it's fuzzy because it's taken in a window reflection, but I kind of love it. This is us. The Boyle Family Four. In all our glory. Conquering Lincoln.
After swimming some more, Scott went and got us dinner and we vegged out in the hotel room. It was fabulous. Everyone slept really well that night!
The next morning, after we checked out, we drove out to Lincoln's Tomb. The website said it wasn't going to be open (I misread the website when planning our trip and yes, I heard about it from Nate) but to our surprise, it was open so we got to go inside. I was saved.
It was reallllly neat. Abe Lincoln is in there of course, and also his wife, Mary and 3 of their sons (Eddy, Willie & Tad). The other son is buried at Arlington. Just ask me, I'm all about the obscure Lincoln facts right now.
When we got home, we celebrated the Dad that lives in our house for Father's Day! I made this ice cream cake. If you've never made one, you totally should. It's just a box of ice cream sandwiches, Magic Shell syrup and whipped cream. I'm telling ya, when you cut into it, it looks like you've slaved over a layered cake for days!
Thank you for all that you do Scott! We love you!
Springfield was an excellent edu-vacation for us. We all really had a good time. I highly recommend it!
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