Springfield, IL

OK, so I'm a little late and out of order. I've finally figured out how to do the slide thing. So... over Spring break, we decided to take the kids to Springfield, IL and do a little history tour. What a marvelous time! We left in the afternoon on Wednesday, April 1st and ate at Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket--an experience--to kick start our vacation. That evening entailed driving, checking into our hotel, swimming, and dinner at McDonalds. Carter, my hardest to please child, said as he stepped into the hotel room, "Is this it? Well, it'll do." Whew! I'm glad we can at least meet expectations. Saturday was supposed to rain the entire day. Here is where we received a tender mercy. We tried to shove in all of the out-doorsy stuff ASAP so that we could be inside the museum during the rain. Well, we first visited Abraham Lincoln's tomb. Next, we drove 30 miles outside of town to New Salem, where he spent quite a bit of time, ran a store, got into a fight, read, became a surveyor, read some more, etc. They had a nice little museum and an old fashioned village that the kids enjoyed. We could tell later in the season that they probably have employees dressed in time-period clothing teaching ways of life back then (similar to Nauvoo). We only got 1 lady in the saloon, but she was great! We went back to town for another Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives location: Charley Parker's Diner. Fun, fattening, and cheap. Lincoln's home came next and then a sprint past the old capitol and into the museum, which blew me away. I loved it! The shows were impressive and educational. The "tours" presented lots of material in a memorable way. I cannot give it a higher thumbs up. I'm so glad we went! They even had a kids' play room, which was a relief. As we walked out of the museum, we felt our first few drops and within 5 minutes of driving, it was pouring rain. What an absolutely lovely day! Enjoy the slideshow!