My dear friend Laura, who normally resides in Wisconsin, decided to take a break from the snow and come home to St. Louis for Christmas. So we decided to venture to a far and distant land...for the day. We chose Springfield, Illinois. We started our journey with Bread Company egg souflees and breakfast sandwiches. Then proceeded the LONG 1.5 hour drive :) to the Home of Lincoln. In case you are thinking of making the long trek for yourself...here is "DANA'S QUICK TRAVEL GUIDE: TIPS FOR TRAVELING SPRINGFIELD IN A SANE (AND NOT SO SANE) MANNER": (there are also some photos included for your enjoyment)
inside a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
a lamp whose twin just sold for over $1 million
Cozy Dog Drive In Diner- 2 Corn Dogs in love...isn't it pure bliss!?
a family photo with the Lincolns
Dana in front of a room of a 1920s reproduction of an enbalming room
our craziest stop in Springfield!
Laura in front of the Lincoln home downtown Springfield
1) First and foremost, trust no travel guide (except mine!). I ordered one from the Springfield's visitor center. The included map got us lost repeatedly. Now I have no sense of direction as you already might be saying to yourself but Laura has manneuvered her way around many foreign countries and U.S. cities with success. Not in Springfield! As further proof of the horribly constructed map, Our first touristy attempt was to go to the Lincoln Home. Due to our our favorite Springfield cartographers', we ended up at the Governor's Mansion. When we called the museum to tell them we were lost and to ask for directions, they asked us if we were using the travel guide.
2) Springfield has a wonderfully quaint downtown atmosphere. Unfortunately, whoever designed the street layout in Springfield was not aware of this. Therefore, all of the main streets are ONE way! We are talking about a SMALL city, NO TRAFFIC. I am convinced that they only exist to confuse tourists. Just be aware that if you want to go anywhere, you need to walk.
3) Because of it being a SMALL city, parking is either free or runs about 25-50 cents an hour!
4) The area code for Springfield phone numbers is 217. You will need this information if you pick up the Springfield Visitor's Guide and try to call for directions when you are lost. The TOURIST brochure did not include area codes!
5) Lincoln! Lincoln! Lincoln! If you have a fondness for our 16th president, this is the place to go! Our first stop (well, actually, our second stop, after the Governor's mansion) was the Lincoln home. We went on a guided tour through the home that him and his family lived in for the 17 years before they left for the White House. When it was first bought by Lincoln for $1,500, it was only three rooms. Due to winning a big law case, he was able to upgrade and add on an additional 4 rooms. Below is a photo of Laura in front of the house. Just in case you were wondering, good old Abe and his wife Mary slept in seperate beds.
6) If visiting Sprinfield, be warned, you will be unable to avoid death. There are countless museums talking about the civil war and Lincoln's assassination. There is Lincoln's tomb, a huge cemetary, and last, but certainly not least, The Museum of Funeral Customs. We just couldn't resist! Now my instructions to you, Resist! and if you'd still like to be morbid, at least go to the Race Riot museum instead. And if you really can't resist, save your 4 bucks a person and visit
http://www.funeralmuseum.org/museumonline.html where I have discovered you can get a virtual tour of the WHOLE museum for FREE. But keep in mind that if your children are behaving badly in the car, children 5 and under are free. The museum was quite deathly. We were, however, charmed by the ever so eerie gift shop located in the museum. I was very tempted to pick up one of the shirts that had cute death phrases on them! There were also the ever so cheery Christmas ornaments with the name of the museum and the motto: "Death is only the beginning" No, I am not kidding. Oh, and wait, there is something else you must know about this museum...they actually sell memberships! For $45, your whole family can go free for a year and get 10% off of those tshirts I was talking about! Save up so you can buy all your Christmas presents there next year! We got a lot of laughs at that museum. And may I tell you that the curator was anything but lively. Below you will see a photo of me in front of the Enbalming room- exciting huh!? Don't you want to go to Springfield?
7) The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library is FANTASTIC!!!! It opened in 2004 so the whole museum includes various multimedia exhibits. If you attend the shows, you will see ghosts, smoking canons, and your seats will move! One thing I learned that I didn't know before was that Mary Lincoln wrote many letters to her son after the death of Abe. Her son destroyed all of the letters as he claimed Mary had gone mad and didn't want the letters to ever get in the hands of the public. You may also get your photo taken with the Lincoln's themselves! See photo below.
8) Cozy Dog Drive In...another idea we got from the Visitor's Guide. We should have known! We went there for dinner and ordered, what else, a corn dog and fries and onion rings. At first we were suprised by how cheap they were. And then we ate them. They were horrible! We decided we must go somewhere else for dinner- it was THAT bad! The best thing about them is their logo- two corn dogs embracing. See below. I bought a postcard with their logo and made Ryan's Christmas card out of it. Awwww!
9) If you are dressed in sweats, you are very limited to which restaraunts you can go to in Springfield! It was getting late and it was the Saturday before Christmas, either the restarants we wanted to go to were no longer open, too busy, or my attire was not permitted. When we called a restaurant at the Hilton, they said the dress was casual and then I proceeded to tell the nice lady what I was wearing, at which point she said, "Not THAT casual" It was a duh moment but I thought maybe we could sneak in the hotel lobby and get a bite to eat. Not so easy when the restaurant is on the top floor of the Hilton overlooking Springfield! So we settled for the Holy Land Diner. It was a Meditarranean/Lebananese/Greek (I guess in case you couldn't decide!) place with a buffet. Laura enjoyed the food immensely. I enjoyed the ice cream and baklava!
10) Our last stop- the Dana-Thomas House, built by Frank Lloyd Wright. We went on the nightly candlight tour for Christmas. Very pretty. The architecture and layout for the house was amazing. He had quite the knack for creating huge houses with lots of space while keeping the feel of the house incredibly intimate. Stunningly designed. Much better at Christmastime and at night. So there you have it folks.
My visitor guide is complete. I hope you enjoy.
Oh, and one last tip, 11) Get your gas in St. Louis! Much cheaper!
