come on, feel the illinoise: part two

ok, i know i said i would continue the post on thursday or whatever and now it's monday -- i've been busy as you are going to find out.

but let's wrap up rogray's illinois birthday post first. . .

where were we? ah, yes!

the chicago chophouse about to grant rogray his biggest, bestest birthday wish:



a trip to springfield!!!

yay!

springfield.

so, like, what's in springfield? i mean, is there anything in springfield? what could possibly be in springfield. . .maybe the one, the only, ABRAHAM LINCOLM MUSEUM & LIBRARY!!!!!!!

that's right -- we woke up the next day at 6 a.m. to drive 3 hours to springfield to spend the day with rogray's favorite president (his words, not mine).

so we got in the car and rogray was already reading up on what we can expect:



and i am really excited to be up that early in a car without a cup of coffee:



after a healthful mcdonald's breakfast we took one stop in the middle of nowhere:



for a bathroom break.

no really. . .it was the middle of nowhere. don't believe me? look closely:



there is nothing on that blue "attractions at this exit" sign.

we finally got there and the first thing we did was situate ourselves for the lincoln museum's 3-d HOLOGRAM production of ghosts of the library:



and then we weren't allowed to take pictures of the actual show because you wouldn't want anyone to steal the secret to the 3-d hologram technology.

rogray stopped for a quick chat with young abe about shakespeare:



and then we went into the wax museum awesomeness but not after reading the first placard:



which i believe compares lincoln to christ:



wow. "with the possible exception of jesus christ." possible.

the first part of the library takes you through honest abe's life as a young, poor, self-taught, romantically mercurial man who had uncontrollable children who used his smarts to get all the way to the white house which was part two.

but before you could get into the white house you had to pass by some people like john wilkes booth (boo! hiss!) and rogray tried to convince him not to do it!



i tried getting in on the convo with general lee and some other dude but they ignored me because i'm a lady:



rogray and frederick douglass compared hair styles:



while sojourner truth was too sad to give me a high-five:



we went through the white house years which were scary and hard because wow. . .lincoln really had it rough and it shows in his presidential portraits and we came out for one last picture with the lincoln clan -- family photo!!



see how rogray has his hand on abe's shoulder? that might be the happiest i've seen rogray in a long time.

after the museum we went over to the library:



where rogray discovered some pretty scandalous political secrets:



we can't tell you what it was though because we signed a document given to us by the department of homeland security after we were body slammed by 10 secret service dudes who took the book away and said that it was best if we forgot this ever happened. forgotten!

next rogray and abe had a last moment together:



before we went to. . .what? you thought that was all the lincoln stuff? are you crazy? we haven't even been to his home!

after lunch we headed over to lincoln's old neighborhood preserved as it was in the last year that he lived there (1860) before heading off to d.c.



we waited for the tour which featured chamberpots:



mary's toilet:



abe's shaving area:



and my hand on the actual bannister that lincoln himself used:



we loved the house so much we bought it!



after dinner and a lovely evening stroll through abe's old 'hood:



we headed back to out b&b (which i'm not even going into but really, i've never met a person so terrified of the homeless as the woman who ran this place and she needs to get over it) to pass out because rogray admitted that he was "all lincoln-ed out."

the next day we ate b-fast, headed back to chicago, bid adieu to rorgay's dad and stepmom and then waited for our delayed flight by drinking beer, eating nachos and playing boggle & set at the fox sprts bar next to our gate. once on the plane rogray settled in and ended the trip the way he began it:



asleep and dreaming of lincoln.