Next, we visited my sister, brother-in-law, and niece in Jacksonville, Ill. For the next few days, they took us on some whirlwind tours of Springfield and the area, where we saw all kinds of Abraham Lincoln stuff. The Lincoln Museum is really, really cool. There is a fun place for the kids to play, where they can dress up in costumes, play with old-timey toys, and play in an old-fashioned kitchen with a pretend fireplace and butter churn and things like that. This play area was a good thing, because WCK wasn't too fond of all of the wax figures and loud noises that dominated all of the other exhibits. She and her cousin were able to play in the play area while the adults visited the exhibits in shifts.
They were very good exhibits. I was shocked and pretty choked up when Lincoln died at the end.
Then we went to the gift shop. WCK had a lot of money saved up from her birthday, so I told her she could use that to pick out souvenirs on our trip. I was worried she'd pick out dumb things that I'd have to abide by, but she did an excellent job managing her money. She was very careful and would look at everything in each shop, and then she'd either decide she didn't want anything or would pick out just one thing. This is what she picked out at the Lincoln Museum:
That's right. It's Abe Lincoln's head on a stick. When you pull the lever on the bottom, he moves his mouth.
I love this toy. I think this is the greatest toy ever, but I would have felt absurd picking it out on my own. I was so happy I could use WCK's whims as an excuse. "She's paying for this with her own money," I told the old ladies in the cash-register line, who looked a little disapproving when WCK was attacking me with the head and growling, "ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS GONNA EAT YOUR NOSE!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Secretly, though, I loved the fact that Abraham Lincoln was going to eat my nose. I loved that Abe Lincoln on a stick was with us for the rest of our travels. My brother-in-law got some video footage of Abe lip syncing to Hannah Montana in the car
After several days of Lincoln sites, we headed to St. Louis for a couple more days. We went to The Magic House, a very cool and very crowded children's museum. We went to the top of the Arch, walked all around downtown, visited the Science Center and Union Station, and toured the Anheuser-Busch brewery. I'm sure taking our child on a brewery tour makes us terrible parents. What would Abraham Lincoln say? I'd ask him, but he's eating my nose.
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