Day 1295: Abe Lincoln

I've been mentioning in blog posts for days that you don't need to travel far from home to find some really spectacular sights, and for me, Abraham Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois is one of those sights! Over the past few months, we've had more than one discussion about Springfield and the Lincoln Tomb, so when we realized we could swing an extra day on our trip, it wasn't hard to come up with where we would go! 

Springfield, Illinois is actually a wonderful city, and I enjoyed our time there thoroughly. We pulled in Sunday evening and stayed at a local house nearby the tomb so we could get an early start the next day, which was a great idea. Even on a Monday morning, there was a whole crowd of visitors at the National Park Service Visitor Center for the home. Tickets to tour the house, which is the only home Lincoln ever owned, are free thanks to his son Robert, who sold the house to the Park Service for a dollar with the promise that no one would ever be charged to see it. 

Much of the home is original, with the main floor featuring the original doors and banister, among select furniture throughout the house that the Lincoln's added over time. If you look closely at one of the below pictures, you can see Lincoln's original desk in the corner! They also have a great visitor center and various other historic buildings bought out in the area, all a part of the National Historic Site that celebrates Lincoln's path to the Washington D.C.

Nearby, you can also visit the Lincoln Museum and National Library, both of which we were unable to see due to time restraints, as well as the Lincoln Tomb, where Abraham Lincoln himself is buried along with much of his family. The tomb is beautiful, and while pretty much the only thing to do there is pay your respects, it's still an extremely important location for all of us. I'm a fan of Abraham Lincoln myself; he's my favorite president, so visiting seemed extra special to me. Here I was, standing only feet from someone I look up to, and that, if nothing else, was worth the stop in Springfield. 

Although, I guess touring Lincoln's house with Lincoln himself was pretty great too. This man works as an Abe Lincoln impersonator and just happened to be touring the house the same time we were. What a spectacular way to end our trip! 

Have a magical day!

Day 1190: What Would Walt Think?

Aside from the well-known rumor that Walt Disney is frozen underneath Pirates of the Caribbean (spoiler alert - he's not), one of the most frequent questions I get is "what do you think Walt Disney would think of that?" 

It's really a harmless question, and often enough, actually a pretty good one. Obviously, the Epcot we see today is drastically different from the one Walt is said to have mapped out on the ceiling of his hospital room, and Disney movies like Frozen are a far cry from The Jungle Book, but at the same time, I really try to avoid answering this question for one very good reason: 

We live in a different world from Walt Disney. 

I'm sure, in fact I know, there are people alive that could probably give you an idea of what Walt would have thought of something modern. After all, there are still a handful of legends alive that knew him well, and they'd be your best bet for an accurate answer. But truth be told, we aren't those people, and we never knew Walt personally, so trying to figure out what he would have thought of Tangled is sort of trying to figure out what Abraham Lincoln would have thought of Hawaii. Likewise, attempting to reason what his opinion on Mission SPACE might be is like wondering what he would think of iPhones, and while I'm sure there are elements of the Disney parks and films that he would cock his head at, I'm not sure he'd know what to do with half of what we have now. Other than sit in astonishment, at least. 

I think you get the point though, about how our reality is a far cry from the one Walt was familiar with, although in the end if you really want to know what I believe he would think about a lot of this, it's as follows: he'd be proud. We may not be fans of everything at Epcot that's replaced classic attractions, or of the latest release from Walt Disney Pictures, but I do know that Walt would have loved to see the company continuing to move forward this long after Disney. And that's what we should always remember - that things will continue to keep moving forward, because that's what it was all originally about anyway. 

Have a magical day! 

Day 108: Lincoln

Today I spent a good amount of time watching the new movie, Lincoln. It isn't exactly a short movie, and I have to say right away I don't recommend watching it when you're tired (I fell asleep...not because the movie was bad, but because I was stupid and was watching it while laying in bed). It is a great movie though, and it really shows a different side to one of our nation's greatest Presidents.

If you know Disney, you'd know right away that Walt's favorite president was, in fact, Lincoln. When he was young, he would go around his school dressed in a top hat and recite the Gettysburg Address for younger students each and every year, and when the World's Fair came around in 1964-65, and Illinois approached him with the idea of creating an attraction, Lincoln certainly came into play.

Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln premiered at the World's Fair, and Lincoln himself was the first fully functional audio-animatronic human figure, in which he talked and gestured to the audience. Throughout the years, different forms of the attraction have been showcased at Disneyland. While originally there were some technical difficulties, they were all eventually worked out, so Lincoln no longer fall into spasms in the middle of the show.

I have to say that the current show at Disneyland really reminded me a lot of another show that's currently open in another Disney Park. I'm not sure about you, but Two Brothers and Golden Dream seem to be from somewhere in Epcot...just saying.

Either way, I really enjoyed the show, and I loved the movie as well (or at least what I saw of it. I plan on rewatching it this weekend). Lincoln is probably my favorite president as well, and whether that's because of Disney or not, I have no idea. I've always had a strange fascination with the Civil War, so that probably plays a part too (although the reason I find interest in the Civil War is because of Disney...this all connects back somehow). I've kind of gotten my brother involved too, as last year he created a scrapbook for his Social Studies class as if it was really from the Civil War. We told a similar story to that told in both Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and The American Adventure, with two brothers, and I personally helped out by writing out his letters with a quill pen. He wrote the words on the letters, I just transcribed them.

And so, I highly suggest you see the film Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg, and, as always, John Williams did the music, so that's a plus as well. It's very well made and reminds us all that Lincoln was more than just a president...he was a father, a husband and most importantly, one of us.

Here's today's Disney History: 1954: Actor, comedian and musician Rick Moranis, the voice of Tuke in Disney's animated 2003 Brother Bear, is born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Disney fans will also know him as Wayne Szalinski in the comedy feature, Honey, I shrunk the Kids and the 3-D park attraction film, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.

Have a magical day!

Day 43: Ratatouille

Apparently I know how to spell Ratatouille. I had to go check on Google of course, just to make sure, but I typed it in and it came up correct. I count that as a success for today!

Anyway, last night I had musical practice until 7 and I ended up going home after that with a headache...which meant that I wasn't going to be practicing any of my instruments any time soon. That would probably only make things worse. So instead I decided to watch a movie...and I spent a good amount of time deciding on which movie to watch. After sitting on my bedroom floor next to my movies for a good twenty minutes, debating between a Disney movie and Indiana Jones, I decided to go find Ratatouille and watch that, since I've been meaning to do so for quite a while.

I realized last night while watching that I feel old. Like not really old, but it's strange to think that Ratatouille came out after Cars, and Ratatouille feels old! It feels like some of my favorite movies came out so long ago, which I guess is kind of true because high school has gone much faster than I'd like. I do think it's awesome though how Pixar now does a movie every year, and I don't know about you, but I'm super excited for Monster's University.

But Ratatouille is one of my favorite Pixar movies...if I really can distinguish my favorite. Maybe it's the food, or how awesome Remy and Linguini are, or the fact that it's in France. No matter what though, it's a pretty awesome movie...if you like watching it and ending up feeling terribly hungry.

As I was checking the spelling on the title, I decided to look into some trivia from the movie, which I do from time to time because I love movies and find it enjoyable to bring our random facts about things every once and a while. It's like how I know the "backstory" of the Carbon Freezing Scene in "The Empire Strike's Back" by heart, but that's for a different blog post!

For instance, did you know that in order to create a realistic compost pile, the animators photographed and researched how real produce rots? There were fifteen different types of produce left to rot and then photographed, including apples, berries, bananas, mushrooms and broccoli. Or the fact that the shop with the window of dead rats actually exists? And that to save time and money, the human characters were designed and animated without toes?

Yeah, there are some pretty interesting things in the making of this movie! And there's plenty more out there that I'm sure you can find if you are really interested!

Here's today's Disney History: 1809: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. President, is born in a one-room log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. Lincoln is the subject of such Disney attractions as Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and Walt Disney World's The Hall of Presidents. Walt Disney was always fascinated with the life of Lincoln. As a young boy, Walt recited Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to his elementary class...dressed as Abe!

Have a magical day!