Springfield, IL, Lincoln House and Tomb

Geese hanging out in the camp ground at Prairie Lake:

We drove back into Springfield Tuesday to check out the Lincoln Library, house and tomb among other things.  The Lincoln Library is directly across from the Lincoln Museum downtown and it turns out is an active research center and holds no viewable Lincoln history or memorabilia.

We then walked across to the center square where the beautiful, restored train station houses a couple of movie sets used in Spielberg's movie "Lincoln". Very cool to see the sets up close and the painstaking detail used to recreate the rooms, clothes and Lincoln personal items.

Old Springfield train depot

Sets from the movie "Lincoln"

 Then we drove past the old state capitol building not in use at this time.....

 ...to visit the Lincoln house.  But as we were thirsty, we stopped for a brew at Obed and Isaacs Brewery where I had a very nice ale and Mike had an IPA, of course!

Obed and Isaac Brewery

 Then it was on to tour the Lincoln House:

Lincoln's home 1837-1860. Originally a one story, added on to after marriage and family grew

In the formal living room/parlor,
the the black horse hair furniture
belonged to the Lincoln's

Lincoln's tiny desk!  Hard to imagine the
6'4" man working here for hours
at a time!

Lincoln's Tomb, a beautiful monument and tribute to a great man:

Lincoln's Tomb

Front entry to the tomb with corridors opening to left and right

Small replicas of larger Lincoln statues found elsewhere in the country adorn the halls:

corridor leading to Lincoln's resting place

Lincoln's remains are buried several feet under ground below this red marble headstone

Mary Todd and 3 of their 4 sons are entombed directly across from Lincoln

In front of the tomb Mike rubs Lincoln's nose for luck

Land of Lincoln, IL

We are spending a week at the Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area Prairie Lake Campground! Whew! Oh yeah, it is the Land of Lincoln, Illinois.

Another beautiful state park with a large, man made, lake.  It is about 33 miles west of Springfield.  We have been into Springfield to visit the Lincoln Museum and will be going back to visit the Lincoln Library, Lincoln's tomb and the old train depot which houses sets from the movie "Lincoln".  The museum has some personal items of Abraham, Mary Todd and others....very cool!

Yesterday, we visited the Hill Prairie Winery for a BBQ wings contest, dueling pianos and, of course, some wine tasting.  We actually bought a bottle of Traminette, a white semi-dry wine!, to enjoy outside in the miserable 90+ degree weather with matching (OK, it felt like it) humidity.  Met a very nice couple from Springfield and had a very nice time1

A thistle sports a couple of very
colorful bugs!!

dock at the campground

a couple of permanent residents
of the campground:)

look at all that green!!

downtown Springfield

wanted a pic with Lincoln, of course, but the seat was too
hot to sit next to the great man!


even in the pic below, I am not
touching him

The Lincoln Museum, I was not allowed to take pics in the gallerys, of course

The Lincoln family greets us....wait who is that guy in the back row!!!!

after the museum we went to Engrained for some tasty brews and tasty foods!

Mike checking out the wings at Hill
Prairie Winery.....








Hmmm, I like this one!

dueling pianos (keyboards) outside, bet these guys lost a few pounds yesterday!!!

view of part of their vineyard, very pretty!

Honey Creek State Park, Iowa

Our first stop after Omaha was Honey Creek State Park, Iowa.  We spent the last 2 nights there.  A very nice park, 828 acres, next to Iowa's largest lake, Lake Rathbun. A man made lake built by the U.S. Army Corps in 1969, it is impressive in it's size.

Only 5 miles of hiking trails, if you can call them that. Once again we find trails marked but not maintained.  However, you could walk or bike the  roads and get some miles in that way:

lots of blue birds in the area

I thought the sites were a little close together considering the size of the park. We did get some shade from mature trees though which helped in the 98 degree heat and humidity!

down on the shore line.......

a flock of vultures taking a morning bath

Heading East Soon!

Hi All:)  We are wrapping up our month stay in Gretna (Omaha), NE, where we visited family and took care of our annual medical stuff.

Will be heading east in a couple of days and we'll be seeing a lot of new area for the rest of the year so there may be a few posts;)

We have seen such a great variety of colorful birds in the last 5 weeks I wanted to share a few of the pics. Some of the regulars and some I had never seen before.  I managed to get a few names but will need lots of help! No bird expert here!

always nice to see a barred owl

bluejay

bluebird

hairy woodpecker

indigo bunting!

oriole

red bellied woodpecker

?

??

American goldfinch

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cardinal drying wings

??

?

?

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wax wing

yellow warbler