Advertisement
Geo: 41.9942, -88.2922
Today brought an end to my mini-vacation. It started with a good breakfast at the Drury Inn. The selections included: waffles, scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs with peppers for making a spicy wrap, sausage, biscuits and gravy, breakfast potatoes, oatmeal, pastries and cereal. I really enjoyed this hotel and will use this chain again if it is in an area I am traveling to.
It was already 77 degrees and humid when I left the hotel at 7:30 so I was glad my trip was at an end. Saturday and Sunday were comfortable for walking and being in the sun. Monday and Tuesday were not. I encountered a small amount of traffic heading in to St. Louis, but that cleared out as I got closer to the city. I crossed back over the Mississippi and headed to my stop for the day, Springfield. I think the last time I visited Springfield was in 8th grade. This time, I was stopping to visit my aunt and uncle.
Their house was easy to find and I enjoyed my tour (I was the only one on it) and the neighborhood was very nice. My aunt and I drove to the city center to visit the
capitol. The Illinois State Capitol building is open to the public and they have free guided tours as well. You visit the House and Senate, learn a little of the history of the building (it is the tallest domed capitol in the country!) and also learn about the paintings and statues throughout the building. It was pretty quiet as the congress is not in session, but you can walk in even when they are and watch the pass laws or not pass laws as it usually the case! There was a couple on our tour all the way from Spain. I thought it odd that they chose to visit Springfield, but they were following Route 66 for their vacation. My aunt was able to practice her Spanish for a bit and then we headed out into the warm morning. We walked around to the old capitol building and then back to the car. It was pretty warm so not a good day for a lot of wandering! We picked up my uncle from work and had lunch at a really nice cafe that had grilled cheese. I got my fancy grilled cheese sandwich after all! It had chicken, red onions, honey mustard and lots of cheese. Delicious! It was nice to be able to break up my driving with a visiting stop and I really enjoyed it.
The rest of the way home was on the very boring I-55. It's flat and full of corn fields and that's about it. It makes the trip seem longer when there isn't anything to look at. I didn't really hit much traffic, even though it was close to rush hour as I got back into the suburbs. All the traffic was heading the other way on I-355 so that was good for me. I got home and was greeted excitedly by Isabelle and my dad. We had dinner, I unpacked, got the laundry started and now I'm ready to rest.
Overall, I really enjoyed my trip. It was fairly relaxing and two of the hotels I would stay in again in the future if I found myself on the same route. I learned a lot of historical stuff and saw some beautiful scenery. There are a few more stamps in my National Park passport and two states crossed off my list. A very successful trip! Pictures will be up soon and I am off to plan my next adventure!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.2s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 46; dbt: 0.1245s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mom
non-member comment
Seems like Congress here in Illinois is never in session.