Updates on our Travels and Lincoln Birthplace

 We had a very travel-heavy year (it's been amazing), and I've been neglecting the blog to update all of you on the amazing places we've seen. A year ago we traveled to Florida in our little pop-up camper and stopped at some beautiful National Park sites (along with beaches, of course). And the summer of 2018 was our epic, three week, road trip where we visited 13 National Park sites all the way from South Dakota to Utah. Whew! It was busy and wonderful and amazing to experience so much of our beautiful country. We're so fortunate to be teachers (in lots of different ways). So now I'm going to work backwards and talk about all of the places we visited. 

Last week, our schools were on spring break, so we packed up and drove to Destin, Florida, stopping at all the National Park sites we could find on the way. We left a very cold Ohio behind and found nice weather down south. We started the drive early, and our first stop was the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park in Hodgenville, Kentucky.  This was a great stop for a road trip; there was plenty of space to stretch our legs, and it was absolutely gorgeous. The memorial was beautiful (and looked very similar to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.), and the kids enjoyed climbing and posing on the steps. Once you get to the top of the memorial, the entrance around the back leads you to a climate-controlled area where the cabin that they at one time believed was Lincoln's birthplace is housed. However, most scholars believe that this is not the actual cabin he was born in (that one was probably dismantled to build something else), but it is probably very similar to the cabin he was born in. In addition, the space had a great hiking trail that we enjoyed. The kids of course completed their junior ranger booklets (it's their favorite), and we were back on our way. It was such a great educational stop! And as you can see, Ezra was very proud of his five-dollar bill postcard he bought!

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