Day 15--Katy Trail, and Hannibal

We started our morning with another good, home-cooked meal. (You really appreciated that when you have been on the road for two weeks.) Then it was a tour of the chicken hatchery. Erin really likes all kinds of animals--she wanted to touch some of the baby chicks, but their mamas were not going to allow it. We also saw same eggs with chicks ready to hatch--we looked at them with a "candle light"--which allows you to see inside the shell. A couple were moving around in it.
Then it was time for a bike ride along the Katy Trail. This is a trail where Lewis and Clark went along the river. It was a very enjoyable 8 mile ride--lots of green trees and mosquitos! (We were fine as long as we kept moving--we were too fast for the mosquitos!) Thank you Sandy and Bruce for the hospitality!
Then it was time to travel to Hannibal, home of Mark Twain. We arrived in late afternoon, and did a little exploring of the town. We went on the Mark Twain Riverboat dinner cruise. It was fun to eat,

 and enjoy the scenery, while going up and down the Mississippi River. Tomorrow is more Tom Sawyer things.

Tom Sawyer's "Jackson Island" along the Mississippi

Ready to ride!

Erin and the chickens

Day 14--St. Louis and the Jones' Farm

Today was an interesting day. It started out with a bit of stress and tension, but ended with fun and relaxation. While traveling on our trip, a rock decided to hit the windshield of our rental car. Instead of just a little ding, it started to "spider" across. So Dan took the car to a place to get it fixed in the morning. Unfortunately, they couldn't find one to fit--which took several hours to figure out. Meanwhile, Erin and Wendy were back at the hotel, waiting.
Finally, we were starting our day. We went to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery for a tour. This is the original brewery. We first went to see some Clydesdales. Then into various parts to see different parts of the process. (Of course, we had to walk from place to place, outside, in the rain!) It was an okay tour. (Dan and Wendy had been to their Brewery in Ft. Collins, and felt that the tour there, was much better.) Dan did get to taste some free samples, which he needed after his morning.
Then it was on to the Jones' Farm. This is an old neighbor of Wendy's, and she hadn't seen her and her sister in about 25 years. (Have to love Facebook, for connecting people together.) They own a chicken hatchery. The kids ran around and played with the dogs, the rope swing, and just ran around in all the open space.We enjoyed a home-cooked meal, played board games, had a bonfire--complete with s'mores! It was a very good way to end our day.

Anheuser-Busch

Enjoying the Bonfire

Day 13--St. Louis, Missouri

Today we experienced the City Museum in St. Louis. It is basically a huge jungle gym made out of recycled wire, stairs, statues, etc. from around the city. It is kind of hard to explain. We immediately went to the roof -top to play, since it was about to rain, again. The roof-top is up 11 stories! (If it rains, they shut down the roof.)  Dan and the kids decided to climb up the inside of a dome type structure. It was really high up! Then it started to rain, so we went inside to explore. In order to get down to the ground floor, we took a slide! (It actually was very twisty, and you didn’t go very fast.) The kids then played for a long time, while Dan and Wendy did the easier pace (using real stairs, instead of climbing in small spaces). It was a neat experience. Unfortunately due to the continuing rain, we didn’t get to go to any of the outside structures. You need to go online and see more about what this is all about.

Tonight we went to the Arch. We watched a movie about how they built it, which was incredible to watch. (The workers didn’t use any safety harnesses—crazy!) It was a good view of the city, and luckily it wasn’t raining anymore, so we could see pretty far. We went at sunset, so it was nice to see the city lights coming on below us.

Kids climbing up the top, the slide directly below them

Climbing up the dome!

Up-Close, climbing up

Erin-A Human Top

Inside the Arch, looking down

Day 12--Springfield, Illinois

Today we were in Lincoln Land, Springfield, Illinois. We went to the Lincoln Presidential Museum. It was very well done. They had great exhibits and movies about Lincoln. Today was 157 years ago that Lincoln gave his “A House Divided” speech. So a public reading of the speech was presented with different people each reading a paragraph—Dan and Erin even participated! We also visited Lincoln’s tomb, which has the president, his wife, Mary Todd, and 3 of their 4 children. Then it was time to travel down to St. Louis. Along the way, Dan saw a bunch of old cars, so we stopped. There were over 600 old cars for sale. We enjoyed walking around them. (The kids were picking out what car they wanted.) It rained quite a bit along the way. We have seen more rain on this trip, then several years in California!)

The Lincoln "Family"?

Reading part of Lincoln's speech

Day 11--traveling again

Another travel day....and it was raining off and on all day again....We started by stopping off at North Park University. This is a small private college which has affiliation with the Covenant church (which is where we go). It was a cute little campus outside of Chicago. Then along our way to Springfield, Illinois, we stopped in Pontiac to see the Route 66 Museum. It actually wasn't very impressive, but a good halfway point. When we arrived in Springfield, we went straight to Lincoln's home. It was amazing how many of Lincoln's original pieces of furniture it contained. It was a neat experience. Tomorrow is more Lincoln.

North Park University

Lincoln's House

Day 10--Chicago Day 2

Another great day in Chicago. First we went to Millennium Park and went to the "bean". It was amazing to see the city in the reflection. Then it was on to Chicago's Institute of Art. We spent a couple of hours here, and still didn't see very much of it. We enjoyed the "Impressionist" area and the Thorne Room. The Throne Room, contained miniature rooms--think doll house size, that had different periods of time/eras. (It is kind of hard to explain--do online and see if you can see what I'm talking about.) Next, we went over to the Shedd Aquarium. They had a nice collection of different types of fish. Our last hurrah was going to the "Skydeck" in the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower). We went up 103 floors, and then stepped out on a clear, glass ledge--where you can look straight down! Dan lasted about 2 seconds, Wendy did okay, and the kids loved it! After we took the train back to our hotel (which, by the way, we love the public transportation in Chicago), Dan and Wendy went for a walk around Northwestern University--it was really peaceful as we walked along the "wooded" paths. Good-bye Chicago--we really enjoyed you (more than we thought we would).

The Bean

Institute of Art

103rd Floor of Sears Tower

Day 9--Chicago

We enjoyed a fun day in the windy city. We started by taking the architecture boat tour. It was really interesting, and we learned a lot. Next, it was time to go to Navy Pier. We then went on the Ferris wheel. Next, we  headed to the John Hancock building. We went up to the observation deck, which is on the 94th floor. You could see everywhere. It was awesome! The kids did the "tilt". It is where the window panels tilt 30 degrees out, so you are facing downwards. They thought it was cool. On the way to the train, we stopped in at the Museum of Modern Art. They didn't have very much to look at, since they were doing a bit of construction.
Finally, we ended the day at Wrigley Field for a Cubs game. We had great seats! It was so fun to see the old stadium. There was quite a bit of action in the game--2 different home runs (one by the Cubs, the other one by the Reds), a call at home plate, which was reversed--it gave the Cubs another run! Then the rain started! We waited it out for a while. We were seated about 30 rows from the field, which lucky for us, we were one of the first rows with an overhang to keep us dry. They put the Stanley Cup Finals up on the big screen for us to enjoy during the delay. Then they made the announcement that lightning was in the area, and everyone had to go to the concourse. At this point, we decided to leave. (we had waited over half an hour) It was an enjoyable game, even though we had to leave early.

Navy Pier

The view from the John Hancock

Wrigley Field