"The capital of Illinois" Springfield by Dabs

If you look at the capital cities across the United States, some of them make sense as they are the cities with the largest population and hold the most importance in the state. Other capitals, like Springfield, leave people raising their eyebrows in wonder as there seems to be no plausible reason for the city's importance. In Springfield's case, they had the backing of a young politician named Abraham Lincoln who would go on the become the nation's 16th President and some would argue, the greatest President our country has ever seen. And in 1837 when Springfield was established as the capital, Chicago barely existed, the population estimate in 1830 was a mere 100 people.

I grew up in Illinois and my 1st visit to Springfield was the obligatory school field trip when I was in 5th or 6th grade to see the Capital building and where Abraham Lincoln spend many of his years.

My 2nd visit was on Valentine's Day in 2009, you might be thinking it's an odd location to spend Valentine's Day but we had been talking for years about driving to Champaign Urbana to get a Garcia's pizza, one of the only locations of the franchise left. Now you're probably wondering why anyone would drive 2 1/2 hours for a pizza on Valentine's Day, especially considering all the pizza options in Chicago. Indeed, the young man who took our order for a few pizzas to take back with us, asked that very question.

Well, the answer is nostalgia, my husband and I had our 1st date right around Valentine's at the Garcia's in Bloomington Indiana, long gone now and probably now occupied by a Starbucks.

I couldn't see driving all that way down to Champaign Urbana JUST for pizza so we combined it with a trip to see what one of our friends called the 'best museum ever", the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. And it just happened to be the year when they were celebrating Lincoln's 200th birthday.