mwgerard August 26, 2008

Thursday was a bit of a road trip day. We drove north of Greenup about 16 miles to Coles County to visit the Lincoln Log Cabin historical site. The home was built by Lincoln’s parents, but after he had moved away from home. There is reason to believe that Lincoln visited them while they lived there. Now it is a living museum with livestock and gardens and people dressed up who pretend its 1840. They’re not too freaky. But its a really neat place.





Then we drove up to Charleston, home of Eastern Illinois University.  It was move-in day for the freshman so we went across town to the old downtown.  
We ran into a young couple who had just pulled up in the u-haul from Augusta, GA.  He had just gotten a job as a music teacher at the college.  And as we chatted on the sidewalk, the landlords came down to meet them and it turns out they also run a small black box theatre.  


Across the street was a beautiful old theatre that had managed to hold on and plays first run movies.




Next, we made a left and went 10 mines to the east to Mattoon and wandered around trying to find the big ice cream cone-shaped ice cream place.

We ate our ice cream in the park across the street and I caught this guy cooling his feet in the fountain. Turns out he had just got off of 12 hours of working on concrete.
But we couldn’t stay out too long.  That night at the fair was the Junior Miss Queen Pagaent!  The theme was Fairytale Dream and my mom’s cousin did a great job hosting it.  I think my favorite part is always the question and answer. 





On our way out, I took a few pictures of the fair at night.


(Steve took this one)