Take Me Out to the Ball Game

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A Visit from the Atkinsons

We have had SUCH a fun week! We had a wonderful visit from some of our favorite friends: Angie, Matt and Ben Atkinson from Gettysburg. We had a great time visiting them last year in Pennsylvania, and it was so fun to see them again. I met Matt and Angie when I worked in Natchez. Angie was my supervisor, and her husband Matt worked at Vicksburg. They have been wonderful friends ever since then. They rolled into town from Chicago on Monday evening, and we had a fun time eating pizza and watching football before bed. On Tuesday morning while Matt was doing some research at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Greg was at work, Angie, Ben, and I went to the Lincoln Home. Growing up with two parents who work at Gettysburg, Ben knows a lot about "Yanks," "Rebs," and "Abaham Yinken," as he says. He was pretty excited to see Yinken's house, but a potty emergency cut our house tour a little short :-)

A visit to a local playground was more to Ben's liking than the house tour. We had a fun time playing at the park for a while before heading to Cozy Dog Drive In for a yummy lunch of corn dogs, hot dogs, and ice cream. This was Angie's first time ever eating a corn dog! It was a big hit. She and Ben also liked the Route 66 ambiance. That afternoon I tried to keep the dogs quiet while Ben had his nap, and then we all met up for a delicious dinner at one of our favorite restaurants: D'Arcy's Pint.

On Wednesday we stopped at Lincoln's Tomb where Ben got to rub Abraham Lincoln's nose. He thought he was being so funny! :-)









We then went to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum while Matt was across the street at the library wrapping up some research. Ben thought it was fun that Tad Lincoln was about his same size. We even ran into a real woman portraying Mary Lincoln. Ben was a little scared of her, but after a minute he warmed up to her. He ended up asking her, "Where did you get your boys?" She smiled and said, "Well, the same place your mom got you." I suppose that will require some explanation at a later date.

That afternoon we all drove down to St. Louis for a Cardinals game. Angie, Matt and Ben are big baseball fans, just like us, so we had a great time. The Cardinals were playing the Mets, and during the Mets' batting practice, one of the ushers brought a ball that had been hit by one of the players and gave it to Ben. He was really excited and wanted to throw it back to the players on the field, but Angie told him it was a special ball that he needed to keep. We had a great game, and the Cardinals ended up winning thanks to a home run hit by David Freese late in the game. It was especially exciting since the Cardinals are a couple of games behind in the race for the playoffs--so every win helps! It was sad to say goodbye to the Atkinsons that evening, but Greg and I had to head back to Springfield for work on Thursday. Matt, Angie and Ben stayed in St. Louis that evening and flew back to Pennsylvania the next day. I don't like it when fun times come to an end, but we'll just look forward to the next time we can see the Atkinsons. We had so much fun together!

Welcome Fall!

After a hot, dry summer here in Springfield, we have welcomed the cooler, fall-like weather with open arms. As a fun way to celebrate the coming autumn season, Greg and I went to the Fall Festival at historic Clayville on Saturday. Clayville is a little settlement about 8 miles west of Springfield that was settled back in the 1820s. The centerpiece of the little village is the Broadwell Inn, this beautiful building that is supposedly the oldest brick structure in Sangamon County.

Even though the leaves haven't changed colors yet, it still felt very fall-ish around the village with the corn stalks and pumpkins around. These are some old cabins from the area that were moved to the site. The festival was a lot of fun and included Civil War re-enactors, craftsmen, black powder demonstrations, and other period-style crafts.

We had a great time welcoming fall!








One of our favorite things to see was the bee display. Even the bees around here love Lincoln! We were so impressed by the Lincoln honeycomb that we bought some honey from these people. It was a beautiful day and a fun event to attend!