We moved from Iowa to Springfield, Illinois. Because of the snow, we got a later start than normal plus crossed time zones making it an hour later in Illinois. We arrived at our RV park after dark. It felt remote and a bit creepy. We had no clue the beauty that surrounded us until we awoke the next morning.
We decided to drive around to check out Springfield. I was captured by the beautiful fall leaves on the trees aligning the road that lead to our RV park.
While we were out, we drove by the Lincoln Library and Abraham Lincoln’s home. A few days later, we set out to explore all things Lincoln.
We parked near the Lincoln Library, put on our masks and walked in…only to find out that we were at the wrong library! Ha! The Lincoln Library is a public library. We were looking for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. It was just a few blocks away, so we walked over to it. It was closed, but the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum next door was open.
We decide to go, and we really enjoyed it! It was really neat to walk through what represented Lincoln’s boyhood home and ultimately walk through the White House representing his presidency.
Our kids learned a lot, and they were very saddened by the tragedy and loss Lincoln had to live through as well as the way his life ended. But they loved hearing, reading and learning about his life.
As we were leaving the museum, a man we had enjoyed talking with handed each of our kids a bag of candy for Halloween. And a woman gave them Lincoln hats, tattoos and stickers. Our kids were so excited! They enjoyed eating some candy as we walked from the museum to Lincoln’s home.
I don’t know if the home was closed because it was Saturday or because of COVID, but typically you can go inside. We got to walk the perimeter and see the exterior, though, which was really neat. This was the home where Lincoln, his wife and 9-month-old son lived prior to his presidency.
After visiting Abraham Lincoln’s home, we drove to the cemetery where he and his family are buried. We arrived too late to drive through the cemetery, but we could see the tall tower of a tomb sticking up in between the trees.
After experiencing all that rich history, we ended our Halloween evening with all ten of our kids dressed up as…guess who? Abraham Lincoln.