A Royal Trip

Before I write about our latest trip to Arizona/Utah, I need to do a bit of catch-up on our trip to Kansas City! Things were so hectic between our two trips that I didn't have a chance to tell you about our fun adventures. On Friday, July 17, Greg and I headed out for Kansas City, Missouri. We of course had to stop in Hannibal, Missouri--home of Mark Twain. We didn't stay there long, but we got a picture in front of Samuel Clemens' boyhood home. I absolutely love Hannibal.

Our next stop was the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site in Lexington, Missouri. Mom, Dad, and I first discovered this site back in 2004 when we were visiting the area, and it was here that I first learned about a man named Sterling Price. Little did I know that he would become the obsession of my senior year of college. Sterling Price was heavily involved in the 1838 Mormon persecutions in Missouri, and his later life as a Confederate general is absolutely facinating. His own commander-in-chief Jefferson Davis even hated him. He is quite the interesting (and evil) man!

The battlefield is really neat--you can even still see some trenches that were dug by Union troops. This picture was taken in front of the haunted Anderson House--right smack in the middle of the battlefield. The home was used as a hospital for both the Union and Confederate Armies. Unfortunately Sterling Price and his Confederates were victorious at this early Civil War battle.

Our next stop was the Harry S. Truman National Historic Site in Independence, Missouri. His house there is so beautiful! We found it funny that the NPS visitor center is located five blocks from the actual house. They must lose a lot of visitors--because we have a hard enough time getting people from the Lincoln Home visitor center down a half block to the home! The house is so cool, and we enjoyed our tour--except for the fact that our ranger guide kept dropping jabs at George Bush, which was not cool. Rangers are not supposed to discuss their political opinions with visitors. But anyway, it was really neat to see Harry Truman's house. He was one of the few good Democratic Presidents :-) That was quite the bold and brave thing he did in dropping the atomic bombs on Japan. Of course that was a controversial move, but many lives were saved by putting an abrupt end to the war.

Greg and I had lunch at a fun little place that Mom, Dad, and I discovered back in 2004 called Dave's Deli. I had some awesome sweet potato fries covered in cinnamon and sugar! Then we went to Clinton's Soda Fountain--the place where Harry Truman got his first job. It is a cool little place, and Greg and I had some divine blackberry cobbler ice cream. They had a map on the wall where people are supposed to stick a pin indicating where in the country they are from. There is an unusually high concentration of pins in Utah :-)

Next it was off to our totally awesome hotel: the Sheraton Kansas City Sports Complex. Our room was really nice, and the best part was that we got to stay there for free (courtesy of my Citi travel rewards card)! The hotel is very close to both Arrowhead Stadium (home of the KC Chiefs) and Kauffman Stadium (home of the KC Royals). Our destination was Kauffman Stadium where I went to my first Royals game. Greg's favorite team is the Royals, and he is always a good sport to take me to Cardinals games--so it was fun to finally go to a Royals game. Our seats were freaking awesome! We were on the second row right by first base. When there is a sign right in front of your seats telling you to watch for bats and balls leaving the field, you know you're close to the action.

Before the actual game, they had a Hall of Fame game featuring some of the Kansas City greats including George Brett. The game was really fun to watch, and all of the players had a good time joking around with each other. At one point, a player from Cuba was up to bat, and one of the others on the field (they all had microphones) said, "Let's sing the Cuban national anthem: 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat." :-) It was really fun to watch.

Then the big game started. It was an absolutely perfect evening for baseball. It was about 75 degrees, sunny, and beautiful outside. The Royals were playing the Tampa Bay Rays.

We were totally close to the action! Unfortunately the Royals lost, but it was really close (8-7). We got to see some great plays including a three-run homer by Mike Jacobs.

An added bonus was Fireworks Friday. They had a great fireworks display at the stadium.

On Saturday, July 18, Greg and I drove over to Kansas to see his old stomping grounds. We even got to stop at another Civil War-related site: the Battle of Blackjack Battlefield and Nature Park. John Brown and some of his anti-slavery followers fought with some pro-slavery Kansans here on June 2, 1856. This was part of the "Bleeding Kansas" ordeal which really got things rolling toward the Civil War.

That afternoon we met up with some of Greg's friends from high school and went back to Kansas City to see the WWI museum. Unfortunately we were a little late to tour the museum, but we enjoyed walking around the astonishing monument they have there. And we at least had time to hit the gift shop before the museum closed. We'll have to go back another time.

There was also a really nice view of Kansas City from the WWI monument observation area. We then went down to Union Station (the big building in the middle of this picture) and explored until it was time for Greg and me to head to his 10 year high school reunion. The reunion was a lot of fun, and Greg had a good time catching up with some of his high school buddies. We drove home that night and had time for just a few hours of sleep before I went back to work the next day. What a fun mini road trip we had!

Coveralls for Cannonballs

A new adventure has begun at the Lincoln Home! I have officially become one of the "presenters." Each day at 2:00 in the Visitor Center, we have a special Bicentennial program done by one of the rangers. I volunteered to do a program about Illinois in the Civil War (I researched this topic while I was at BYU) if they ever needed a substitute, and my boss Mike loved the idea. I ended up even finding who from the Lincolns' neighborhood served in the Civil War--something that no one has researched before! A couple of the regular presenter rangers were gone this week, so my program, "Trading Coveralls for Cannonballs: Illinois in the Civil War," debuted on Monday afternoon. It was a big hit! Even the Superintendent came to the program and said he enjoyed it, so that made me feel good (and relieved). I did the program again today, and they are thinking to put me on the official calendar of events for August--so I would give the presentation every Monday afternoon. As I have done more research on the topic, I have found some really remarkable stories about different soldiers in the Civil War.

This is how I end the program:

Those Illinois farmers who traded their coveralls for cannonballs dedicated themselves wholly to the betterment of their country. Their toil fortified Illinois’s cornfields, and their bravery consecrated America’s battlefields.

In museums, movies, books, and reenactments, Civil War soldiers are remembered for participating in one of the most defining moments in American history. Though we can never truly understand the extent of their sacrifices, we can be inspired by their courage.

Working on this project has been a lot of fun. I am happy, however, to have a break from the Lincoln Home for a couple of days :-) Tomorrow Greg and I are heading to Kansas City to go to a Royals game and then attend Greg's 10 year high school reunion on Saturday. We are both really looking forward to a mini road trip!

Too Many Marys

Oh dear, my life at the Lincoln Home increases in absurdity every day :-) Today I was inundated with Abraham and Mary Todd Lincolns--literally. There is something called the Mary Lincoln Coterie, which is basically a bunch of ladies who think they look like Mary Todd Lincoln and travel around the country together. They have an annual pilgrimage to Springfield during July to remember Mary's death on July 16, 1882. This year, one of their bunch decided to come do a program at the Lincoln Home. It was called "Lincoln Letters" and was a reader's theater featuring letters between Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln during different stages of their lives. I did not schedule this program but was given the task of coordinating it. Coordinating it was quite a feat, as today's particular Mary Lincoln was very high maintenance. And then pulling off the program today was an even more miraculous doing. Because the program took place at 10:00 this morning--when we're not very busy at the park--there weren't very many visitors who attended the program. Most of the people in the audience were Abraham or Mary Lincolns. My boss Laura was not there today, so I had to put out all of the unanticipated "fires." Let's just say that five minutes before the program started, I was running around trying to find a knife and fork for Mary to use when she cut a piece of real cake during one of the scenes. My job during the program was to dim the lights in between each of the "scenes," but Abe and Mary kept saying things that were not on their script, so that was quite a challenge. Anyway, the program went well, and we finally got Mary, Abe, and all of their props cleared out of the theater. By the way, today's Mary and Abe looked nothing like the real Mary and Abe! Abraham Lincoln was tall--not husky. Today's Abe seriously looked just like Hagrid from the Harry Potter movies. And the real Mary Lincoln was known to be "plump" later in life, but today's Mary was much too buxom. Needless to say, by 12:00, when I had finally cleared all of the Marys and Abes from the site, I was pooped--and then I had to give tours all afternoon. Today's Mary Lincoln is coming back tomorrow to do a different program, so I'm trying to gear up for that (in other words I need to get lots of sleep tonight and have lots of caffeine for breakfast--just kidding, sort of).

Then after the Mary Lincoln ordeals of the morning, Ranger Jim and I were standing outside the Visitor Center when a crazy man wandered up to us. He was clearly drunk and was carrying a brown box around with him. He also had a cigarette in one hand. He said, "Y'all 're tryin' ta kill everyone! I knews it was y'all. Anybody got a light?" Luckily Ranger Jim had a radio with him so we could call Law Enforcement Ranger David. The drunk crazy man then started asking visitors for a light--and telling them how "They all's tryin' to kill y'all." Ranger David confronted the man who then started freaking out. David called for backup from the Springfield PD, and finally they got the guy calmed down. I'm not sure what happened after that, but I imagine that they wrote him a ticket and sent him on his merry way.

A couple of other funny things have happened during the last few days. On Sunday I had a family on a tour, and one of the girls was wearing a Nauvoo necklace. After the tour we started talking about Nauvoo, and it turns out that this family was from Provo. We talked for a while and discovered that the dad--who looked really familiar to me--was in one of my education classes at UVSC clear back in 2003! Then yesterday I had a lady on my tour who looked just like me--it was really weird and kind of freaky. She said that her friend had visited the Lincoln Home a few weeks ago and said that their tour guide, Tiffany, looked just like her. So they thought they would come see for themselves--and it was really true--except that she had red hair and freckles. They say we all have a twin somewhere . . .

An e-mail from Abe Lincoln

The other day I got an e-mail from Abraham Lincoln telling me that his good friend Teddy Roosevelt was on a trip to South Dakota. It's not every day you get an e-mail like that! Okay, so the e-mail wasn't from THE Abe Lincoln--but it might as well have been because Fritz Klein, the Lincoln Home's favorite Lincoln impersonator, looks exactly like him. In fact, it's kind of creepy to see how much he looks like him. Remember our Teddy Roosevelt impersonator, Gib Young? About three weeks ago I got approval from the superintendent to have him come to the Lincoln Home in August (getting the superintendent's approval was no small miracle). I contacted Gib to let him know, but then I never heard from him again. It was really crazy--I tried calling him, left messages, e-mailed him, but he was incommunicado. Finally I e-mailed Abraham Lincoln (Fritz) to see if he knew where TR (Gib) was--the two of them often do programs together at Mount Rushmore. Luckily Abraham Lincoln knew that Teddy was indeed in South Dakota on a Teddy Roosevelt tour. I think the real Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt would have found e-mail very convenient.

Anyway, it has been another busy week at work, so I haven't had a chance to write about our fun Fourth of July weekend! Last Friday evening, Greg and I had a fun hot dog roast using our cool fire pit. Then on Saturday we went to Springfield for the Fourth of July festivities, but it was RAINY and COLD! It was the weirdest July 4th weather ever. Later in the week it got hot again, and on Wednesday there was even a tornado about 12 miles north of Athens. Crazy weather. But even though it was unseasonably chilly and wet on the Fourth of July, we still had a fun day. There was so much going on at the Lincoln Home, and I'm grateful I didn't have to work that day. Greg and I stopped by to see all of the baby kitties at the APL pet adoption the Lincoln Home was hosting. There were some really cute kitties, but our hands are plenty full with our three animal children. We then walked downtown and saw Generals Grant, Lee, and Custer wandering down 6th Street--now that's quite a trio! We didn't stay around for fireworks, but we heard some outside our house (probably over at the Mayor's). It was a fun and festive Fourth of July.

The other day at work I had to put on my really mean ranger face for the first time. I was manning the visitor center, and there were two ridiculous kids in there. One of them was 14 and the other was 10--they were brothers. One of them started screaming, hitting, and kicking the other, and then a fight between them broke out. Their mom was just standing there totally oblivious to the situation while all of the other visitors were looking very alarmed. So I had to step out from behind the desk, yell at the kids, break them up and send them outside. I then called Ranger David (Law Enforcement), and he took care of the situation. It was pretty wild. Then last night I had a very ornery old man hanging around the visitor center. He had been talking and talking to anyone who would listen for about an hour--when finally he wandered over to the front desk and started telling me how George Bush wasted 80 billion dollars on the war in Iraq--money that should have been spent on the National Parks. I was thinking, "You want to talk about a President wasting money? I could go on all night about someone named Obama! Try three trillion dollars." But I held my tongue. I just said, "Well actually, George Bush is a huge proponent of the National Park system, and he directed a lot of money our way while he was President." That made the guy mad, so he left and I was happy.

I received my diploma in the mail the other day, so I am now officially a master of historical administration :-) I went to the eye doctor today, which is always a scary experience for me, but everything checked out well and I ordered some new glasses. In less than two weeks Greg and I get to go on our fun summer trip to Arizona and Utah!!!!!!!

A Week of Celebration

Wow--what a week it has been! On Monday I officially turned 25, and even though I had to work (and got a parking ticket for parking 10 feet away from a fire hydrant instead of 15 feet), it was still a great day. Greg and I went to dinner at a really fun place called the Chesapeake House Seafood Restaurant. It is located in a cool, historic house right by a golf course, and the food there was delicious. I had some raspberry encrusted salmon with crab stuffed shrimp. Then we went home and had some birthday ice cream. I especially enjoyed Eliza's renditions of "Happy Birthday" that she sang on the phone!

The rest of the week has been crazy-busy at work, but I am grateful that I don't have to work today or tomorrow. Things are going to be pure madness at the Lincoln Home for the next two days. Today is the official kick-off for the Springfield Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration commemorating not only the Fourth of July, but Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday (they did celebrate that back in February, but the Fourth is a good excuse for more parties). This evening Abraham and Mary Lincoln will be leaving the Lincoln Home at 5:00 p.m., then they will take a carriage down to the Old State Capitol where they, along with the mayor and governor, will announce the beginning of a giant party. The park is going to stay open until 11:00 p.m. tonight! They'll be showing a movie on a giant screen in the neighborhood, and as I said, I am grateful to have a couple of days off :-) Greg and I think we'll go downtown and check things out tomorrow though.

Something really strange happened the other day at the Lincoln Home. I was giving the 4:40 p.m. tour of the house, and as I was in the front parlor talking about how Abraham Lincoln accepted the nomination to run for President there in 1860, a giant cold chill went up my spine. Then, when the group was over in the sitting room, I could have sworn I saw someone climbing up the stairs (but we were the only group in the house at the time). And then, when we finished up in the kitchen, I told the group that they could exit out the back door. A gentleman went to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. I went over to the door and found that it had been locked--from the inside! There's an old deadbolt on the door that we never use. It's located on the inside of the door, so there's no way that the last ranger in the house could have accidentally locked it after they left. And if someone in our group had pushed it closed, I would have noticed. It was really strange. Hmmmmmm. The rangers have told me that abnormal activity at the home seems to pick up around holidays.

Speaking of holidays, tomorrow we get to celebrate the Fourth of July! I think it's no coincidence that the Civil War battles at Gettysburg and Vicksburg both came to an end on the 3rd and 4th of July in 1863. That was the major turning point of the Civil War--even though it would drag on for for another year and a half. On the morning of July 4, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued an official statement which read, in part: "[The President] especially desires that on this day, He whose will, not ours, should ever be done, be everywhere remembered and reverenced with profoundest gratification." I hope that we as Americans never forget the divinity of our history and the importance of our future. The colonists could not have won the Revolutionary War without God's help, and in so many of the other crucial moments in our history, God's hand is clearly evident. Unfortunately it seems that the moral fabric of our country is coming unraveled these days, and the principles upon which our country was founded are being blatantly ignored in the highest echelons of our government. But, as our country--the great republican experiment--has already survived so many calamities, and has come through victorious when our democratic society has been tested, I am confident that the United States of America can overcome the current threats to our freedoms and values--as long as enough Americans will remember the wonderful heritage we have. As Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg:

"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."