Illinois Tales....Chapter 3 :-)

Day four!  

This was, by far, the coldest day we spent in Illinois...well day five was pretty heinous weather wise too.  It actually snowed in St. Louis!  For us...only rain, rain and more rain...and of course a horribly biting wind. 

Zoe's annoying find at Cracker Barrel

 

Our day began with a yummy breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  Zoe was introduced to the triangle peg game.  That nearly drove her nuts, which of course, made us all smile.  After eating we headed into the shop for a look around, and Zoe found one of her most prized possessions from the trip...a pair of clacking teeth.  I freakin hate these teeth...just sayin. 

Next we were off to the new Lincoln Museum...and holy wow was it cool!  It is separated into two sections...Lincoln as a young man and lawyer, and then Lincoln as our President.  I don't have many pictures, unfortunately, because you are very restricted on where you can take them.

Three things of note...1.  They had a very graphic display of a slave auction that basically featured a family being torn apart.  Bravo to the designers for not holding back or sugar coating this horrid part of American history.  2.  The "ghosts of the past" movie is friggin amazing...that's all I am going to say on that.  You simply have to see it.  3.  The other movie...I think it's called Lincoln's eyes or something...was also very informative and entertaining.  I will NEVER forget how Lonnie thought the building was actually on fire...hahahaha :-)

So happy we had an opportunity to stop in and explore!!!!!! 

After our travels back through time we headed to Lonnie and Sharon's house to warm up.  Sharon and I sat back and enjoyed the finale of the Bachelor while Zoe and Lonnie got in some target practice.  It was an amazing end to a great day :-) 


Day five!!!!

Oh my goodness...it was doom and gloom the entire day!  It rained...the wind blew...and it was so overcast it was depressing.  Zoe, Lonnie and I headed to an amazing outdoorsy kind of store called Gander Mountain.  I don't think we have those here in Arizona..but holy crap...they are full of everything you'll ever need to survive in the wild.   

Zoe and Lonnie spent the better part of their time looking at the vast collection of killing machines.  Zoe was in heaven!  I, of course, just stood and shook my head "no" a lot.  We finally decided on a pair of binoculars of her very own (she had been packing Lonnie's binoculars all over the state up to this point).

The rest of Zoe's afternoon was spent riding Sharon's bike up and down the street 8 million times.  I stayed inside where it was warm and watched out the window...I am totally a desert dwelling girl :-)

It was great having a day of doing absolutely nothing...and it was a good thing we rested up...we were headed to Sullivan to meet up with our cousins and Aunt Nancy that very next afternoon....