Quick Trip

A few weeks ago, Tom was asked to represent Bosch at the "Roundtable" Recruiting Night at Indiana University. As we did last year, I went with him to make a weekend of the trip. While Tom was busy at recruiting events, I took Ainsley to Wonderlab our favorite children's museum. We used to have a pass there when Ainsley was one years old. I was curious to see whether or not she remember it. She said she didn't but she did seem familiar with all of the displays and activities. She would automatically know how to work them, so it seems like she remembered it. When Tom was done with his events, we went out to dinner at some of our favorite old restaurants.

After we spent a few days in Bloomington, we drove down to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. It is the biggest cave in the entire world with over 400 miles of mapped cave but there are still parts that are unexplored. We had always wanted to got there while we lived in Indiana but never did. We took this opportunity to finally go there. When we got there, we did two different tours inside the cave. The first tour was called, "The New Entrance" tour. It took us on a winding, narrow, and steep climb. There were lots of steep stairways which made us a little nervous with the kids, but they both did great. Ainsley was so brave and Sam was quiet and slept most of the time. I was originally worried he would cry and it would echo and annoy everyone in the cave with us. Our favorite part was the Frozen Niagra Falls at the end of our first tour. It had the giant stalagmites and stalagtites. It was beautiful. The second tour we went on was in the original cave entrance. This section of the cave was huge open rooms. I was amazed at how wide the passages were. Over the years this part of the cave was used for different purposes such as a church, social hall, hospital, and gun powder making operation. It was really interesting.


After we went to the cave, we went to Springfield, IL to visit all of the Lincoln sites. First we went to the Lincoln home. It was the only home that Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln ever owned. It was the home that they lived in when he was elected president. We went on a tour through the home and then walked along the historical district. After touring the home, we drove a few blocks to the cemetery to see the Lincoln Family tomb. We saw the graves of Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary Todd, and three of their four sons.

This was Lincoln's private desk where he wrote many of his letters and speeches.

Ainsley would pretend that these posts were podiums and she would "give speeches." It was pretty funny. Our favorite speech went like this, "The Lincoln Store. Lincoln's store was not a store, The End."

Our last stop on our trip, was a historical village called "New Salem." It is a reproduction of the village that Abraham Lincoln lived in for six years before he moved to Springfield. He came to New Salem with no career, tried several different things like store owner, surveyor, and postman, before being elected to Congress.