2nd day in Springfield, IL

Up and at 'em to the Presidential Museum and library today.  Didn't really care for the statue of Abe outside on Union Station because I think he looks like a beggar and told John to offer him some money

 and then we went into the museum.  I have to say that I was impressed.  None of the pictures do it justice, but you get an idea of the recreations and I thought that it was small, but it kept going and going through the White House and the log cabin...

They also had 3 different theaters that were showing shows and I think that we found the next level for movies and such in these theaters.  One was a hologram thing with ghosts in the library that was really unbelievable and then the theater with seats that shake, smoke out of cannons, and I have to say that I was proud that John did not scream. 

 We were able to look at all kinds of things related to the war, the campaign, his early life, and were mainly able to avoid the 4 busloads of students that arrrived after us. You can only take pictures in the marble floored section, but the whole museum is arrayed around this center star with a penny in the center.  We were able to get a shot of both of our feet around the penny, but were in danger of falling over to get that close and not have the rest of our bodies in the way of the penny.  Thankfully we have taken dancing classes or this might have been impossible. 

I swear it's harder than it looks with a camera in between the two of you...

We went down the street to get some food after finding some memorabilia in the gift shop and the irish pub that John remembered didn't serve food.  I think that he just saw the Jameson's, Guinness, and Bodington's signs and didn't pay attention beyond that...over by the law offices of Lincoln

we found a book store with rare and antique books (this is a bad thing if you know John and I) and the dealer was able to tell us that the Feed Store next door had great soups and sandwiches.  I wouldn't be bringing this up if they weren't the best soups ever because I was able to get a Mushroom Bisque that I was denied at Lattitudes the other night that was divine and John loved his French potato soup and pork barrel sandwich. We returned to the book store to commend the worker on her choice and had to buy a couple books...

  All of this action is taking place across the street from the old capitol building which looks like something from Rome because of the color of the bricks and the weathered air about it.  We went to the library to look at some of the artifacts there, but decided that we couldn't let this great weather go to waste and hit the links.  We were able to play 9 holes of golf on this beautiful day and one could tell that neither of us had played in many, many, many, months....