Tuesday the 17th: Lincoln's Tomb

 Unexpectedly, Lincoln's tomb is not at his Library and Musuem, as it is with Eisenhower and Truman. Lincoln is buried in the nearby cemetery along with all of his family except for one son (that son is at Arlington). The tomb is appropriately grand and fabulous, with a little hallway you walk through that contains small bronze statues of different points in his life and different clips of speeches. There are many unusual tombs nearby, so we spent a little time looking at them as well before finishing a loop through town and then going to Head West subs before heading East towards Chicago.

Monday the 16th: Springfield

The middle picture is actually from Hannibal: besides postcards, one souvenir from this trip was this lovely rainbow necklace with a loop so it can be used as a lanyard. It will be quite stylish for my id next school year.

Before leaving Springfield we did a good walk at Southwind park; the arches are from the 1893 Columbian Exposition, and the sunflower is part of a solar sundial. Lots of really fun things to explore. 

 

 

Friday the 13th: Springfield Illinois

 After finishing in Hannibal, we took that detour up to Quincy and then drove on to our nighttime stop, Springfield IL. Usually I'll take a picture in our hotel room to show our family that we made it; this was our last hotel with laundry for the next 5 days, so we did a quick load, swam in the pool, and had horseshoe sandwiches at D'Arcy's Pint. The next morning we did Mass at Little Flower for the Ascension and then went on to Lincoln's Tomb before lunch and a little more sightseeing on our way out of town.

 

 

Thursday the 12th: Lover's Leap

 *On our first day out of KC, we made a stop at Pershing State Park and then at Hannibal, MO for lunch. Upon arriving we found out that the bridge we needed over the Mississippi had closed the day before, and we needed to take a 40 mile detour. Okay. That also meant the park we wanted to eat in was closed, so we braved Lover's Leap high over the river and enjoyed our sandwiches there. In Hannibal we toured several Mark Twain sites, a gelato/chocolate store, and an art gallery. C and C also stopped into a game place and bought a dragon. Statue.

 

 

Wednesday the 11th: Back from Chicago

 I know the blog has been silent. Hopefully all 5 of my readers weren't worried. We went to Chicago and Indiana Dunes on a graduation trip for the Son, got back Monday, had a court date for my sister on Tuesday, and now today is hopefully a normal day before leaving tomorrow for a family reunion. Whew.

We ended up spending 4 days in the theatre district in Chicago, so I thought I would start with that part of the trip before describing the journey there and the national park and the journey home. To get the most out of this trip, we bought a City Pass that let us see 5 attractions for about 50% off. The first one we use was the Architectural Boat tour. This tour takes you up and down the river and then briefly out on Lake Michigan while having a docent share information about Chicago history and the architecture around us. This shot is looking back at the city from the Lake. Our docent was a history teacher on summer vacation, and he was both funny and super informative. We enjoyed the tour immensely. 

 

 

Friday the 30th: Puzzles

 These are the other two puzzles we have finished so far this year. We are working on a third, of the astronomical clock in Prague, but it's slow going with moving the boy home and moving rooms within the house to accommodate him.

 

 

Thursday the 29th: Music of the Week

 *Without work music, it's actually been very quiet. I have four or five pieces that I practice every day, but otherwise the house is mostly silent. While I do really enjoy music, having a chance for the auditory stimulation to be a lot less is really calming. I've even started singing in the shower again since I'm not overwhelmed with pieces to learn for work.