Springfield, IL

I started my day at Wm. Van's Coffee House (link) where I had a Nitro Cold Brew coffee.  They do a cold brew with three different beans and then store it in a keg.  It's served cold and slightly carbonated, no ice.  It really looked like a beer when they first handed it to me..  Here's a pic after it had settled some.  Did I mention that it was wonderful?  Well it was!

 I took my coffee across the street and wandered around the Abraham Lincoln Home National Park. It's a  two blocks section of perfectly preserved homes including Abraham Lincoln's home where he lived in Springfield. The Lincoln Home can be toured while the other homes appear to be used for administration, conference rooms, etc. Really a cool little walk through history.

 

I then went a few blocks over to the downtown area to walk around. If you ever come here bring lots of quarters as all of the parking meters only take quarters. Which is super annoying!  I've seen lots of parking meters that do credit cards and bills.  These need to be upgraded.  Anyway, I finally found a spot in the underground parking...I think I was directly below the old State Capitol Building (link).  Make's me wonder what battles were waged to get to excavate under this building for a parking garage.

Next stop The Abraham Lincoln Museum.  This was amazing!!  I think the main difference from other Museums I've been in, is that they have sound playing in each of the different areas.  This really added to the exhibit.  For instance, for this room of Lincoln's kids playing in his law office, there were sounds of the boys giggling like crazy.  It was so cute.

But it sounds like they were kind of brats!

Seriously this was an awesome museum (link) and you should stop by if you're ever near Springfield, Illinois!  I have some more pictures, but they just don't do it justice!

None of these frames were square and all the prints were critisism of Lincoln.  Interesting!

 I stopped by the Southwind Park to take in the Sundial...and yes, it was 1:30!

Few more stops and then back to my Airbnb to do laundry (Still avoiding laundromats!!  Woo hoo)  and some planning for stops after KC (where should I go next?)

This has been a good stay, but this Airbnb host (link) doesn't lock her doors - not the first I've stayed with like this.  Maybe it's just me, but I'm pretty sure in this day and age we should ALL lock our doors.  Once again so thankful I brought my door lock thing along with me. Here's a link to one similar to what I'm traveling with, apparently Amazon isn't selling mine any longer.

Another travel tip is to get a good sleep mask.  Here's the one I use and really like (link).  My room had very sheer window coverings which made sleeping past sunrise difficult.  Sunrise! 

Today I'm traveling to the Kansas City area to meet up with my kids and grand kids on Friday!  Looking forward to seeing them.

Now I'm off to conquer the day...by driving hundreds of miles.  Ugh!