Indiana, Illinois and Abe Lincoln

I wish I could share with you personally, how wonderful our trip has been so far.  I have enjoyed the natural beauty, the towns and the people of the Midwest.

To date, we have traveled from Michigan, Indiana and now we are in Springfield, Illinois.  

We spent our morning in the darling town of Noblesville, which is some 20+ miles north of Indianapolis.  The historic downtown is absolutely thriving and we had a great time shopping and eating 😉

We stopped by this nursery, called ‘The Mustard Seed’.  The owner and I had a great time talking about plants and surprisingly, I was able to help him identify a plant he had that he had no idea what it was.  My mother bought a very unique bird house.

Town of Noblesville

Each of the historic buildings had a plaque on the outside, telling the history of the building.  All of the buildings dated from the 1800’s.

Did I mention that they had great shopping?

I love this idea….

The Noblesville courthouse.

The food has been amazing and I will really have to hit the gym as soon as I get home 😉

The beginning of Route 66 is in Illinois.  I am used to seeing the west side of Route 66 🙂

Believe it or not….Abraham Lincoln is not buried in Washington DC.  He is buried in this cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.  The tomb is huge.

I realize that it looks like my mother and I are ‘picking’ Lincoln’s nose.  But, we are actually rubbing it for good luck.  At least that was what we were told to do.  So many people rub it that his nose is much shinier then the rest of his face.

I have been enjoying the beauty of all of the flowering trees.

Lincoln is buried beneath this large tombstone.

We later visited the Lincoln Museum and Presidential Library in downtown Springfield, IL

The museum had wonderful displays.  There were quite a few school children visiting this day.

My mother decided to ‘talk’ to John Wilkes Booth.  The historical characters were quite realistic looking even though they were not living.

The first family

This is the neighborhood where Lincoln and his wife raised his family.

Abraham Lincoln’s house.

Even though I was fortunate enough to visit Washington DC last fall and learn about Abraham Lincoln, I was pleasantly surprised to find out much more that I did not know about Lincoln.

So far, we have not experienced any rain.  We have had sunny or cloudy days with some wind from time to time.  

Our next stop is Hannibal, Missouri where Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) grew up.

‘Talk’ to you soon!

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."