Springfield and Liberty Jail

After a long day at the Indianpolis Children's Museum, we drove westward to Springfield to rendezvous with Lindi over the weekend before heading out to Utah for Christmas...

We stayed at Lincoln's old seminary teacher's house.  The Muehles (and especially their dog Gatsby) were incredibly gracious to share time/attention/space with a curious 2.5-yr old (and his parents, it should be mentioned).  They were good sports to try Lincoln's homemade Chicken Saag curry for Sunday dinner, too.

With the old Springfield 1st ward Christmas party on Saturday night and of course church on Sunday, we had one afternoon to ourselves so we made the most of it.

Last-ever horseshoes at D'arcy's Pint?  We hope not...

We took Bennett to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum for the first time.  We'll be lucky if he has more than a shadow of memories, but at least we did our due diligence by Grandpa Andreasen.

Bennett fully enjoyed Mrs. Lincoln's Attic.

Dad by his young namesake.  We did the two Lincoln walkthroughs and the temporary exhibits of Lincoln documents and artifacts (deathbed, buggy, several speeches).  Bennett was awed by the cannons, smoke rings, and a skulking John Wilkes Booth up on the catwalk during the Lincoln's Eyes movie.

Bennett met Civil War Santa...

...and even got the special treat of a Christmas Storytime with him.  Unfortunately, Civil War Santa chose a 12 Days of Christmas storybook.  Aye oh.

Monday morning arrived and we were off!

Our first stop was Liberty Jail around lunchtime.  Tracey and Bennett had never been.

Bennett was startled by the Voice of God revealing D&C 121 during the audio presentation.

They had a creche exhibit up for Christmas.

Lured in by the promise of the 'Oasis on the Plains', we stopped in Colby, KS for the night.  Oasis might be a tad strong, but the Quality Inn had a nice pool and breakfast was free.

 For some reason, we neglected to take any pictures staying at Tyler and Lindsey's house outside of Denver.  Lincoln and Bennett had a blast playing pirates and monsters outside and soccer and legos inside with Max and Franklin while Lindi and Tracey baked some cookies and chatted with Lindsey.  Tyler came home in the evening in time to take a dart to the face, chokeslam Max into a giant beanbag, and procure some Peyton Manning-approved pizza for dinner.  Thanks, guys, for putting us up for a day/night!

Sinclair brontosaurus at Little America?  We're getting closer to Utah...

Lindi and Indianapolis

Lincoln's sister Lindi came home from her mission right before Thanksgiving. Unfortunately her parents moved back to Utah right after she left for Brazil. When she got "home" to Utah, her only desire was to come to Springfield, IL and visit people before she started school again. We were already planning on heading down to Indianapolis for another of Lincoln's interviews, so it would be pretty easy to swing over to Springfield and pick Lindi up on our long road trip out to Utah. 

Lucky for us we got spend an afternoon/evening with her in Chicago before putting her on a train bound for Springfield the next morning (requiring an unprecedented sub-1hr Utah vacation packing job by Tracey and some awe-inspiringly heroic driving by Lincoln to get her to the platform mere seconds before the train pulled up).

Waiting for the train to take us into the city (always Bennett's favorite part of downtown excursions) so we could explore the Chirstkindlmarkt with Lindi

Every year they make this tree out of lots of other evergreens

Bennett was asleep for the first part of the adventure, but we made sure he'd get a sip or two of hot chocolate from the commemorative mug we bought (and Lindi procured a snowglobe).

We also browsed through the homemade ornament shops and devoured some German food.

We mainly brought Lindi along just so she could snap this family portrait.

Lincoln and Lindi took a quick jaunt through Millennium Park and the Riverwalk so she could get a more complete Loop experience.

Back at home, Bennett was happy to show off his room, toys, and books to Aunt Lindi.  Wednesday morning, we made the bold decision to commence packing for Holiday month away from home a mere hour or so before we'd need to leave to get Lindi to her Springfield-bound train in time.

After the aforementioned train-catching heroics, we continued eastward and made the first stop of our month-long travels at the Albanese Candy Factory in Merrillville, Indiana. 

We'd heard tale of the finest gummy confectioneries in the nation, so we enjoyed some free samples before purchasing some cinnamon bears, fruity gummy bears, and Lincoln's favorite 8 flavors of jelly bellies (what are those, you ask? toasted marshmallow, buttered popcorn, caramel popcorn, strawberry cheesecake, french vanilla, A&W creme soda, A&W root beer, and sizzling cinnamon).

It was mid-day by the time we reached Lafayette to make our obligatory 19th-century historical site visit.  We stopped in the town of Battle Ground for lunch at TC's Restaurant & Tavern.  Tracey happily ordered the TC Special sandwich: prime rib, coleslaw, and all the other fixings.  Lincoln got some sort of chicken sandwich and Bennett got a corndog.

The monument at the Battle of Tippecanoe.

Tragically, we had to make do with our own little tour of the grounds since the battlefield museum was closed only on Wednesdays.  Anyway, here is a look at the place where William Henry Harrison's 1000 surrounded troops held off an assault by Tecumseh's American Indian forces at dawn numbering somewhere around 600.  Tecumseh himself was not present but his one-eyed prophet brother commanded the attack, which was repulsed after about two hours.  The Americans suffered 62 casualties to the Indians roughly 50.

Bennett and Dad ventured down to the nearby Wabash River tributary to better picture the battle...and throw some rocks.  From there, we briefly stopped at the Prophetstown visitors center and carried on to to our hotel in downtown Indianapolis. 

While Lincoln was at his interview Thursday morning, Tracey and Bennett went to the Indiana Historical Museum. Bennett had been super excited to ask Santa for a toy gun. He was a little shy, but he did it!

The museum had Santa's Playhouse all set up with games and toys for kids to play with.

We stayed the night near the Indianapolis Speedway and had the hotel's atrium/swimming pool/hot tub complex all to ourselves.  We happily swam as old-timey Christmas tunes played through the PA system.

We blocked off a whole day to explore the famous Indianapolis Children's Museum!

Tracey in the midst of a harsh realization.

Dad remembers this carousel from his childhood visits to this museum (still playing the same medley of organ songs).