Springfield, IL: May 30-June 1, 2021 - The Lincoln Everything

If you go to Springfield IL, you better like Lincoln, because as one local actually told me: "we have one thing, and we do it to excess".

Which is interesting, because you'd think that being the state capital would be the big tourist draw.  Slight tangent, but why aren't capitals typically thought of as big destinations?  It's one of the many lists in my bucket of bucket lists, much like the National Parks or the states themselves, but I feel like few people go out of their way to see them.  Maybe it's because in America we have this odd tradition of state capitals being, often, a completely obscure town where no one would ever want to go, especially in states like Illinois that have other very well known major cities.

In any case, I took this two-night trip in the final days of May 2021 (hey look, I'm back to assigning specific dates to my posts).  I got in Sunday night and basically went right to bed, seeing nothing of the town yet besides the view from my oddly high up hotel room:

Blurry!  The view was a bit clearer the next morning:

My hotel, by the by, was the tallest building in the city:

I set out reasonably early that morning for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which aside from mask-wearing, was totally open and back to normal.

I accidentally went through the displays out of order, seeing his presidency first, then his early life second.  So there were major spoilers for how things turned out!

There were a few cool features, such as this room, that showed anti-Lincoln political cartoons in a disorientingly distorted way:

This video, that showed the progress of the war sped up to where 1 week equaled 1 second:

And this final room, which was almost moving:

I also saw the two shows they do, but no photos in those!

Leaving the museum, I went to Union Square park:

The old State Capitol:

And the current State Capitol:

Which is just as ostentatious and massive as you might expect from the state which also contains Chicago.

Next, I visited the Lincoln House, where he actually lived while working here as a state senator:

I'm sure it's been restored and whatnot, but it has a reasonable claim to be the actual house where he lived!

I got a little coffee and lunch from a coffee shop that I failed to get a picture of, which is a shame because it was in a neat like old-style house just a block or so from the Lincoln house.  All I remember is that the name of the place abbreviated "William" as "Wm.", much as one of my coworkers does.

For the afternoon portion of my visit, I went to Washington Park, probably the biggest park in the Springfield city limits:

it was fine and all but I got hissed at by a goose and that is not okay.

Then it was off to Lake Springfield, where I tooled around this bridge area:

and then headed to the Lincoln Memorial Garden:

I'm telling you, it's the Lincoln Everything down there!

Lastly, I made my way to the Lincoln Tomb.  It may interest you to know that Springfield is, in fact, where Lincoln is buried.  Just in case you were wondering why everything in town is about this president.

I didn't realize there was anything to tour, nor did I realize that it closed at 5pm, whereas I arrived at about 4:45, just in time to see it.  Serendipitous!  

And I suppose it's fitting to end with his burial place.