Illinios

Illinois:

Last Wednesday was Lincoln’s Birthday. He is hailed as the most important president in this nation’s history. While I was not able to write about him last week, I was thinking about him.

Lincoln started his political career in Illinois. As many of you know, I recently moved from there.

My husband and were looking for places to live in Bloomington, Illinois. One of the places we looked at was supposedly a place that Abraham Lincoln had stayed. According our would be landlord, he had once rented one of the apartments to a “psychic” who would do Lincoln tours and pretend to see Lincoln and other ghosts in the building. The landlord himself didn’t actually believe in psychics or ghosts, but was happy to rent the place to someone who could make money out of the place.

When I was a child, my mother took me to Springfield, Illinois, where we toured one of the houses that Lincoln lived in.

Documentary:

The Smithsonian has a great documentary about Lincoln called “Mystery Files: Abraham Lincoln”. It explains that his martyrdom insured that many people forgot any of Lincoln’s flaws, such as his problems with depression and anxiety.

Living in Central IL:

I lived several years in Illinois. Peoria is supposed to be one of the best places in Illinois to do outdoor activities. Peoria is hilly because it is in the Illinois River Valley. There are many parks with great walking paths that go through forests. This contrasts greatly with surrounding areas that are flat cornfields.

Other great places to visit if you like being outdoors is Starved Rock; a place where two Native American Tribes battled, and one got starved out on the rocks. Aside from the gruesome history of this place the locating park is quite beautiful, with sand stone hills, the Illinois River, and forest.

Another great place to go is in Southern Illinios. It is called Shawnee National Forest.

Food:

One of the first times I went to Illinois I had deep dish pizza. On Wednesday I had the same thing. This time however, I washed it down with 312 Goose Island wheat beer which is brewed in Chicago.  

Work Cited: 

 Stroan,  Roger. "Mystery Files: Abraham Lincoln". Released: 2010.