Home Again Safe & Sound

And exhausted!!! Phew! What a long, and energy zapping conference! But oh the fun I had! Living History people are great! Practically everyone at these conferences arrives dedicated to have a crazy fun time...and that's exactly what we did! Man, what a great 4 days!

I began Wednesday by waking up 7 minutes after I had planned on leaving my apartment (oooopps), but still managed to get ready & out the door in a manner of 13 minutes - only making me about 10 minutes late to meet the rest of the crew. We loaded up, & got on our way for a 6 1/2 hour road trip to The Middle Of Nowhere!

Ah yes, Illinois. Land of Lincoln, Land of Corn, Land of No Cell Reception! The trip there was fun. I rode with a co-worker & we managed to talk for the entirety of the 6 1/2 hours we were trapped in her car. (Hard to believe I know.) Once we were there (which was about 2pm), we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. Which ended up being: walking around the grounds of the hotel/resort, a trip to the hot tub (such a hard life), dinner in the nearest town (about 1/2 hour away), and then down to the bar to mingle with the other early arrival conference attendee's.

Then it was up bright & early Thursday morning for a trip 1 1/2 north to Springfield, IL to visit the new Lincoln Presidential Museum & Library and tour the Lincoln Home. The Museum has only been open for 6 months so it the first visit for most of us in the group. I loved it! It was awesome! I thought it was extremely well researched, well organized, & well presented. A few people in the group thought it was a little too "Disney"ish, & I reckon it may have been. But it worked. I thought it was extremely effective at presenting the story of Lincoln's life in a way that went beyond the legend of the man we all learn about in Elementary School & never hear of again throughout our education. I loved it! If you ever get the chance to go, do it! It's well worth the trip!

Lincoln's Home was great as well, although I'd been there once before about 3 or 4 years ago.

The conference itself was great! I learned a lot that will be helpful to me in my job & I even managed to mingle with the other attendee's a bit more than when I went to the Spring Conference & had a bout with shyness. I came away with some great networking - which is really what these conferences are all about to begin with.

I did most of the driving yesterday on the trip home, which made for a long & tiring day. But I made up for it by sleeping in until 10am this morning. :-)

More to blog about later. I have some other news that is fun & exciting. Pictures from the conference to post. And of course, this weeks edition of Sunday Quote Blogging!