Two weeks ago, the kids (and my wife, who is a teacher-have I told you that? She is.) were on Spring Break. So I took a little time off, too, and we had a few days of family fun. While we weren’t able to make a week long trip work this time around, we decided to do a day trip to our neighboring state of Illinois and visit Springfield to “do all the Lincoln stuff.”
In an effort to make things a little more special, we opted to take the Amtrak train instead of driving. It didn’t save time or anything, but it was kind of fun and different, and it gave the kids a new experience. I hadn’t been on the train since I was a boy, so it was fun for me too. For some reason, people don’t take trains very often around these parts, or at least you don’t hear about it much. Sure, some major cities have trains that you can ride around the city, like St. Louis’s MetroLink or the elevated train in Chicago, but as an option of travel from one city to another it falls well behind driving or flying. I get the impression that train travel is much more widespread in Europe, but what do I know?
Anyway, the Amtrak experience was, um, interesting. Not unpleasant, I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite what I expected. For one thing, security doesn’t seem to be a big priority. Now, I believe that security at airports can be a little too strict, but I don’t think there was much security at all. Our car was more secure in the parking lot than we were as travelers.
There were no metal detectors for one thing. Bring whatever you want on board, guys, it’s all good. Also, nobody checked our tickets at the St. Louis station. I’d like to think it was just a mistake made for our group, like a miscommunication between conductors maybe, and everyone else got checked. I don’t know that for sure, though. I do know that we didn’t need to bring all that ID that the website said would be required because nobody checked that either. That’s not a big deal either, but in an age where most people/businesses are overly cautious about everything, it just felt weird. Some would call it liberating, but I don’t know. It seems like there should be a middle ground between the TSA and pretty much nothing. There are signs posted inside the trains that read “If you see something, say something.” Well, the conductor didn’t see my ticket and I say that’s a little off putting. For the record though, the Spring field station did check tickets (not ID though), so there’s that.
I don’t want to dump on Amtrak too much, though, because I did enjoy the ride. I spent most of the trip staring out of the window, watching the countryside roll by, and spent very little time on my phone. That was kind of nice. It was also nice not to be in charge of the driving for once. I mean, I actually like long drives for road trips, but every once in a while, it’s nice to let that responsibility go. The ride was pleasant, the employees were all quite nice (even when having to break the news to large groups that they couldn’t sit together), and while we didn’t get anything from the dining car, others around us did and it smell pretty good!
Okay, so on to Springfield, Illinois. Springfield is the state’s capital and is pretty much Abraham Lincoln’s adopted home. He moved to Illinois with his family at the age of twenty one, and spent many years in Springfield before being elected to the White House. The city has embraced and capitalized on this fact. I mean, honestly, the Lincoln thing is really all they have, so they’ve run with it, but they do it well. As daughter Tessa said when asked what she thought of the trip, “That’s a lot of Lincoln.” True, but interesting and kind of cool. You know, in a history geek kind of way.
Springfield’s main draw is, of course, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. While we did not visit the library (which would have been interesting, I think), we did see the museum, and it is well worth the trip and price of admission. The exhibits are mostly divided into Lincoln’s early years (in the log cabin section) and his presidential years. Roughly one-half of the museum is devoted to each. The tour is a self guided, move at your own pace type of thing. Pro tip: try to go when schools are not in session, as the roaming groups of pre-teens on field trips made sticking to your own pace somewhat difficult. There were a lot of them!
Also, be sure to see the special multi-media shows if you ever go. The one entitled “Ghosts Of The Library” is particularly good. The gift shop is also excellent for those who care about such things. Lots of high-quality knick-knackery on display for the discerning souvenir shopper. That may be my favorite sentence I have ever typed.
Another Lincoln based attraction is the Lincoln house and neighborhood, which stands just as it was at the time (lovingly maintained of course. It’s not just a bunch of old neglected buildings, what kind of tourist attraction is that?) and is an interesting walk back in time. Pro tip #2: Get there early, as tours of the Lincoln house sell out quickly. We got to the Lincoln house around 11:30-and it was sold out for the rest of the day. So, go earlier than that, I guess. We didn’t tour the house, but we got to look at it and take a photo or two, so that’s all right.
Downtown Springfield is very walkable, though strangely empty. Perhaps Wednesdays in March aren’t exactly high season, but it felt a little ghost town-ish. There were lots of buildings and a theater, city parks, and some restaurants, so signs of life abounded. We just didn’t see much life. We did, however find a cool used book store that I forgot the name of, but it was a just barely organized, shambolic place that smelled of old paper and housed an old out of tune piano for no discernable reason. I love out of tune pianos, even when they have books all over them.
Lunchtime. We found an awesome spot called Obed And Isaac’s Microbrewery and Eatery, with the slogan “Eat well and drink better beer.” My kind of thinking! People who don’t go to breweries often don’t realize that the food is usually pretty phenomenal. Sure, microbrews can be an eye-opening and pleasurable experience for the beer drinker, but don’t sleep on the food, man. Obed & Isaac’s is all ages during the day (as most microbreweries are), so we got a table and got tucked into some eats. The kids had burgers made to order, which they raved about, and my wife had a brisket burger which she assumed would be a beef brisket sandwich, and the burger part was in name only. Nope. this was beef brisket on top of a patty. I had a bite and it was excellent!
My meal of choice was a “pony shoe” sandwich, which is a miniature version of the horseshoe, a Springfield staple. For those unfamiliar, a horseshoe is an open faced sandwich with thick sliced toasted bread, meat (usually beef or pork, but ham or corned beef versions are not unheard of) covered in cheese sauce and topped with french fries. Look, I said the food was good, not good for you, okay? I also had a “Fuzzy Slipper” milk stout beer made with chocolate and vanilla beans. Oh, and it was 9.75% alcohol, which they will only serve in 10 oz. pours due to its strength. It was actually way too sweet for my tastes, but it’s worth trying. In retrospect, I should have had the red ale. Anyway, we very much enjoyed the meal. A little bit on the expensive side (with five people, what’s not), but really good.
Before returning, we also toured the state capital building. It’s a beautiful building, though honestly, if I was an Illinois taxpayer, I’d be a little annoyed by the opulence of the place and the money it surely requires for upkeep. Remind me not to visit the Missouri capital building. Still, it was interesting to see. Also interesting were the many statues and portraits of Illinois governors. Illinois has quite famously had its fair share of questionable elected officials in that particular role over the years. This is not a political blog, so I’m not about to comment, but they’re all there on display if you ever want to see them.
Well, that’s about it for our trip. After about six hours of walking the city, we were quite ready to board the train, relax a little, and head for home. While I wouldn’t make a full vacation out of it, Springfield is a fun day trip for those who would like to take in a little bit of history and explore not only the life and times of one of our most famous and influential presidents, but also get a slice of small town Midwestern life.
Wherever you go and whatever you do, take care of yourself, and be good to everyone else. See you next time, MonDavers!
MonDAVEs with Dave Brink 