Continuing on our quest to visit as many U.S. Presidential sites as possible, after a quick (drive-through) tour of Fort Knox
for our resident Lieutenant Colonel, we started off bright and early
with a visit to the birthplace of President Abraham Lincoln...
Though the cabin inside is a replica, Abraham Lincoln is said to have been born on this hill, here on Sinking Spring Farm near the current town of Hodgenville, KY...
There are 56 steps to the top ~ one step to represent each year of Abraham Lincoln's life...
I
visited here with my family as a child, and I credit that visit as the
reason that I've always known that Abraham Lincoln was NOT from Illinois!
The sinking spring for which the farm was named (and where the family members more than likely gathered their water)...
From Sinking Spring Farm, we continued on to Knob Creek Farm, where President Lincoln recalled his earliest moments, to take a look around...
We grabbed a late lunch at Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn in Owensboro, KY...
before crossing the Ohio River and into Indiana...
We thought it'd be a pretty quick visit to the Lincoln Boyhood Site
in what is now Lincoln City, IN, but this turned out to be our favorite
park of the day and we literally closed it down...literally...
We
decided to go ahead and hike the (not strenuous at all) 1-mile loop
that included the gravesite of Lincoln's mother, a working farm site,
the bronzed foundation of the Lincoln family cabin and the Trail of Twelve Stones...
They were making maple syrup at the farm site...
The place where Lincoln's family home once stood...
They evidently discovered it, excavated the site and bronzed the existing foundation...
The loop concluded with the Trail of Twelve Stones which included stones, bricks, logs, etc. from important buildings and sites of Lincoln's life...
concluding with a memorial to his mother made from leftover material from Lincoln's gravesite in Springfield, IL...
The littles completed the Junior Ranger program, and by the time we got back to the visitor's center, it was about time for it to close. The park ranger asked if we would help her take down and fold the flag...
Well, we couldn't exactly say no!
Well, we could use a little bit of practice on the folding, but it was a BIG flag!
Though we left Indiana a few hours behind schedule, it was well worth it. We continued on to Louisville, KY and stopped at a couple of sites related to our 12th President, Zachary Taylor, including one of his homes (currently a private residence)...
and his gravesite...
before grabbing a superquick dinner and hightailing it on home.
Again,
I'm quite thankful that all 3 of our littles fall asleep easily in the
car, so Hubby and I enjoyed a very quiet ride home (and ended up being
the only two in our family lacking a good solid night's sleep)!
It was definitely a whirlwind of a weekend, and Hubby and I were (understandably) quite tired on Monday, but we had a blast.
I'm really looking forward to our Road Trip this summer!
