indiana: lincoln city and santa claus

One day while I was in Bloomington, I decided to go on a day trip with my dad and sister. As I was sleeping at my sisters house, dad came over in the morning for a pancake breakfast. Yum.
All three of us got in the car, with my sister driving and me riding shotgun. (Both of us have problems with car sickness.)
We followed state highways to the southwest of Bloomington. These highways are quite rural, not big, and took us through several smaller towns.
Our first 'stop' was more of a drive by. Sometime earlier in the spring or summer, my sister and her husband had found out that the stadium where the Rockford Peaches played in the film 'A League of Their Own' still functioning. It is the home stadium of the Huntingburg Bombers. My sister and her husband attended one of the Bomber games. 

We didn't stop the car, because the stadium was closed, (the season was over; I'd love to come and see one of the games sometime,) but I could see aspects that hadn't changed since the filming took place. There is a painting of a quote from the movie 'There's no crying in baseball.' And a painting of one of the Peaches. AWESOME.
My sister continued driving. Eventually she took us to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, located in Lincoln City. My sister's husband has been working at the memorial all summer, and was willing to give the three of us a tour during his morning off. Hana and Dad layered on suncream and mozzie repellent, I skipped both. Amazingly, I was not eaten alive, though I do remember swatting away plenty of bugs. I guess bugs are an inevitable part of a heavily wooded area. 

We started in the visitor center, which has free postcards (!!!!!!) as well as displays of information pertinent to the time. There are several carvings on the front of the building, from different times in Lincolns life. At the end of a field in front of the center is the tallest flagpole in the state, with the Stars and Stripes flying proudly.
Since Layne had been working there all summer, he knew everything. Lincoln moved with his family to the area in October 1816, a couple months before Indiana became the 19th state. Lincoln was 7 at the time. When the family moved there, they had to create their own trail, cutting down trees and plants. It's a heavily wooded area. When they started a farm they had to clear all the land first, which is back breaking work.
The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial doesn't have anything authentic (in terms of buildings) from that time. What they do have is a wealth of information on what life was like during that time. The memorial is active, in that you can see how things worked. I learned how to make rope. I saw Layne feed a cow. They keep an extensive garden. There is what remains of an old well, no longer used.

There is also a small graveyard. There is a nice, relatively new gravestone allegedly marking where Lincoln's mother is buried. At the foot of the stone are a whole bunch of pennies. The only problem is that no one knows for sure where nancy hanks Lincoln is buried. They do know how she died though: from milk disease. It happens when cows graze on a specific plant. The poison from the plant gets into their milk, and anyone who drinks the milk gets vey very sick. (The cows die too, but they pass their milk into humans before they show symptoms of the disease.) It wasn't until much later that people figured out what it was that made the cows sick.
As we finished walking around the area, maybe had to get ready to work. On this particular day, he was scheduled to work in Lincoln State Park, across the road from the memorial. We agreed that he would go to work, and we would go to lunch. Afterward we would find him at the state park for another tour.
We drove down the road to a place called Pizzaland. Everything on the menu is typical southern Indiana food. They even had bottles of Ski, a carbonated drink you can find only in southern Indiana.
We found Layne at the state park, he directed my sister where to drive. He showed us the big theatre that isn't used anymore. He told us it used to host several performances a year, but the only even in the past year was a high school graduation. It was simple, and pretty. Hana and I ran down the stairs and climbed on the stage, just because we could.

Layne also showed us a specific tree. It looks just like many other trees, but it is unique in one particular way: it grew from seeds that were first taken into space on one of the shuttle missions.
Layne showed us where the likely sight of a mill was. He also showed us the grave of Lincoln's sister Sarah.
On our way back out of the park, (after dropping Layne off in his office,) we stopped at a memorial of some kind. I was able to set up my camera and take a few photos with Dad, Hana, and me. We don't get family photos very often.
After exiting the park, we drove back in the general direction of Bloomington. We had one more town to explore: Santa Claus. Yes, there is a town in Indiana called Santa Claus. I've always wanted to visit, mostly so I can say I've been to Santa Claus.
As you might imagine, nearly the entire town is all about Christmas. The street signs are red! There is a candy store, which we visited. Of course. I didn't see a menu anywhere, but my sister knew we should order something called a frozen hot chocolate. It sounds like a chocolate shake, but it's actually better. It really tastes exactly like a hot chocolate, but frozen. I found postcards there too :)

We also stepped into the post office of Santa Claus. Very very cute. If you write s letter to Santa Claus, and don't put another address on the envelope, there is a very good chance your letter will end up in Santa Claus, Indiana.
Approximately 100m from the post office is a statue of Santa Claus. At the base of the statue is a sign encouraging people to take a #santaselfie . So I did, of course :)
Behind the post office, in the other direction is the museum. The museum has displays of some of the items that used to be available at the amusement park down the road, back when it was called Santaland. (Now it's called Holiday World, which doesn't sound nearly as awesome.) I bet they'd sell heaps of these items if they put them back into souvenir stores now, even if Santaland no longer exists. 

There is also a display of some of the 'best' letters to Santa over the past decades. Some are funny, some are sad, some are sweet. When you read through them you keep wanting to show them to whoeva is with you. Awesome.
That was our last stop before driving back to Bloomington.