King Free Since 1776

Hi! I put this image at the top because I don't want the video thumbnail to be the default picture when I share the link to this post.

I suppose the most interesting thing about this week was that yesterday, June 14, I attended Salt Lake City's (first) No Kings Day protest.

Last month, I learned about No Kings Day to happen on June 14. June 14 is Donald Trump's birthday, and he planned a big military parade, ostensibly to celebrate the military's 250th, but how convenient for him that it also happens to be his birthday. June 14 is also Flag Day, and the organizers of No Kings Day want us to celebrate America and our flag—but not Trump. He tries to act like a king—trying to eliminate checks and balances, disregarding Supreme Court rulings, trying to do whatever he wants, pardoning criminals who support him and going after anyone who dares criticize him. 

MAGA Republicans' support of Donald Trump is 100 percent baffling:

• They say they support police, yet they attacked police on January 6 and support the man who pardoned the attackers.
• They say they want states' rights, yet they support the man who wants to prohibit California from passing its own car laws.
• They say they love God, yet they support someone who very obviously does not practice Christianity.
  
  
• They say they love America and the American flag, yet they fly the Confederate battle flag—the side that literally fought against America!
• They say they support veterans, yet they support a man who is not a veteran, makes fun of veterans, and now wants to cut off assistance for veterans.
• They say they don't like taxes, yet they support the man who wants to implement lots of tariffs.
• They say they support traditional family values, yet they support a man who has been married several times (and had affairs).
• They say they love the Constitution, yet they support the man who says "I don't know" when asked if he needs to defend the Constitution and who has flouted it on more than one occasion 
• Remember when conservatives didn't like swearing and vulgarity? Yet now we have vulgar bumper stickers, the vulgar Gutfeld! show, and "Let's Go Brandon."

I had never attended a Flag Day celebration before (my cousin has a June 14 birthday, but those were birthday celebrations), so I thought this would be a good way to celebrate Flag Day. 

On Tuesday, I was excited to make my poster. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, since I'm not an artistic person. I wanted it to be very patriotic to show that we oppose Trump because we love America. 

Then Saturday morning, I kicked off the day by eating Trump-colored cereal. 

My mom wanted to go with, and she also invited a lady from her water aerobics. So I drove two old ladies to the University of Utah campus. It was fun to be back and reminisce on the one semester I spent on campus there (fall 2021). 

We got there an hour early, so we were able to pick a nice spot in the shade. It was a hot day, but we were nice and cool. I wore my flag socks, my flag shoes, my shorts with little flags printed on them, and my Statue of Liberty t-shirt. 

A random woman gave us flag pins because we were dressed in red, white and blue.

We had to strain to hear the speakers, but we still heard a bulk of what they said. One was a Black author, and I was going to write what she said, but I realized that I don't remember it all that well, and I don't want to misrepresent her. One woman spoke about her immigrant ancestors (I think she was talking about Mormon pioneers) and the Title of Liberty from the Book of Mormon, since the Book of Mormon speaks against kings. And I forget what the other speakers said, but I liked what they said.

It was fun to see the various signs. I saw several that said "No Kings Since 1776," but mine was the only one I saw that said "King Free." There were signs that said "You know it's bad when straight white guys are protesting," "I hope this is the worst birthday ever," and "Schoolhouse Rock taught me No More Kings." 

It was a perfectly peaceful day. There were people there who were obviously Latter-day Saints. And you know how alt-right protests have American flags and Confederate flags? This protest had American flags and Pride flags. (Speaking of Pride flags, my mom told me today that one of the speakers in their ward unfurled a Pride flag during his sacrament meeting talk!🏳️‍🌈)

It was a completely peaceful protest (unlike, sadly, Salt Lake's evening protest), and it was good to be surrounded by like-minded people.

My mom posted a picture of me on her Facebook, and one antagonistic "friend" of hers commented with laughing emojis. Then one of my aunts "liked" that comment. She liked a comment that was mocking us?! Kind of makes me not want to see her again. I also posted a picture of myself, and I was surprised to see a Trumper "like" it, but then later she unliked it.

***

That was perhaps the most important aspect of my week. But I will talk about other parts of my week, so if you're only interested in No Kings Day, you don't have to read the rest.

Last Sunday evening, I went on a neighborhood walk, which included eating some mulberries hanging over the sidewalk. When I got home, there was a peacock in our yard! This peacock was in our yard last August, and apparently it's been hanging out on another street in our neighborhood since then.

On Monday evening, I went to Hogle Zoo for the first time in fourteen years. The Utah Historical Society is part of the Department of Cultural & Community Engagement, and CCE had a work retreat at the zoo. So I was able to go for free. (They did this two years ago as well, but at that time I was working at the Church History Library and going to group therapy every Monday, so I didn't care to go.) It seems like we went to the zoo a lot when I was a kid, usually with my cousins. But now I'm mostly indifferent to the zoo. It doesn't seem that special to see animals if they're not in the wild. But there were a few things that interested or amused me. 

I liked this display of insects and arachnids, which looks like it's been there since the '80s. I liked the caption that said, "How do you say TARANTULA? The correct pronunciation is TUH-RANCH-U-LUH, NOT "TRY"-ANCH-U-LUH, as it is often pronounced in this area." Is that really a regional thing? I took a lot of linguistics classes, and I don't remember this word ever coming up. (When I was in third grade, we were learning about prefixes, and the guest teacher asked for examples of words with "tri." Someone said "tri-antula," which of course doesn't have anything to do with "three.")

I've had too many close encounters with rattlesnakes, so it was comforting to see one safely behind glass. It kept yawning, so I saw its scary fangs.

And I was happy to see a kinkajou, only because it's mentioned in a Free Design song. 

(The last time I was at the zoo, I took a friend on a date, and that was the last time I saw her [besides a chance encounter four years later], because I learned shortly thereafter that she thought I was "really, really weird," which I probably was. I am so relieved that I'm not dating girls anymore!)

Also this week, it was time to pick the cherries from my sister's tree. I picked them Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, filling up ten one-gallon bags (though I only took home nine, because one was for my grandma's friend). 

But picking is the easy part. The real work is the pitting, which takes hours and hours. Luckily, my mom helped pit, so that was less for me. We have some pitting tools, but they don't always get the pits out, so you have to check the fruits, which makes it a slower process. 

I was off work on Friday because I went to the Mormon History Association conference last week. It was also Friday the 13th, so I wanted to watch spooky Fourth of July shows while I pitted. So I watched Jaws, which is currently streaming for free on Tubi. All the red cherry juice seemed appropriate. I had heard it was a Fourth of July movie, but only the first hour-ish was about the holiday. Then the next day I watched the Fourth of July episodes of Stranger Things while pitting, but they didn't make sense to me because they're the only episodes I've ever seen. 

We finished yesterday. Phew! My mom opted to can many of the cherries, since we usually freeze them but are running out of freezer space.

I made cherry crisp and cherry salsa. For the crisp topping, I added Peeps-flavored protein powder that I bought two years ago. I still haven't gone through it because it is ghastly to drink. But I didn't notice it in the topping, so that might need to be the way to use the rest of it.

And my mom made cherry pies. 

Between the zoo and the cherries, I only went running twice this week. But the wildflowers did not disappoint! 

sticky geraniums

Nootka rose

A bumblebee . . .

. . . flying towards me!

And today I taught Sunday School. I asked the class for ways they make the Sabbath holy, being careful that we are not prescriptive for what others should do. One person said she doesn't do laundry on Sundays, while one hilarious class member said she always does laundry on Sunday and had laundry in the dryer at the moment. I likewise had my laundry in the dryer at that moment. And I also had the class take a five-minute nature walk, an idea that was in the children's section of the manual. I thought a walk would change it up a little bit.

A full week

I had a full week!

On Monday, I went to North Salt Lake's Pride night. It wasn't anything special: They have food trucks and vendors every Monday in the summer, and this time they also added a DJ and a few booths of LGBTQ+ organizations. I didn't feel a need to engage with any of the booths, but I asked the NSL folks if they received any pushback for hosting Pride events (I noticed that the marketing two years ago was bolder, and they had Pride flags two years ago but not since then). The woman said as far as she knew, there was no pushback. So that was good to hear! 

With it being June, I once again began looking for goathead/puncturevine plants to eradicate. There are a few spots in the neighborhood that I have adopted to keep clear of goatheads. I do think I have made a substantial difference for these abhorrent plants.

My mom's garden has rhubarb, and she got some recipes from Pinterest for rhubarb cookies and rhubarb custard. I don't trust whoever made these recipes, because they just had rhubarb thrown in/on them. That wasn't great, and as the days went by, the rhubarb dried out and got tough. I don't recommend these recipes; rhubarb needs to soften up in some way.

The custard was good. It just wasn't good as rhubarb custard.

Then that evening I ran to the radio towers on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. In late May, there's a spot that is gorgeous and fragrant with lots of Palmer's penstemon flowers. 

This is a picture from last year

I hoped I might see the bloom this year, since it was still early June. Unfortunately I missed the blooms, because I was on vacation during the end of May. But that's not the worst part. I have seen this spot posted on a lot of Facebook hiking posts. I was dismayed to see that a lot of the plants had been trampled, presumably from people taking pictures. Ugh, why can't you stay on the trail for your pics?!

I am so sad that there's no Summer Baking Championship this year to fill my Monday nights.

I went on additional runs Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and the wildflowers were spectacular.

sego lilies

tufted evening primrose

silky lupine

mulesears with Wasatch penstemon

I'm not sure what these are!

mulesears

On Wednesday, I hoped to go to bed earlier, but once I was done exercising, Reggie came and sat on me for more than forty minutes. 

On Thursday, we employees of the Utah Historical Society got to tour the new building north of the capitol, which will house the Museum of Utah when it opens next May. They have installed a stained-glass ceiling with Utah iconography.

This is an active construction site (we had to wear vests and hard hats), and I was amused to see a protective plate with "Hole" written on it. That isn't amusing on its own, but one day earlier, the Nancy Bluesky account had posted this strip from 1955, which I love (and I want to save it in case I give another PowerPoint in which I tell authors not to use big words just for the sake of big words).

On Friday morning, I noticed the friendly neighbor cat crossing the street. All of a sudden, the cat had vanished, and I recognized that the only place it could have gone was in the storm drain in the gutter! So I went and looked in the storm drain, and I didn't see it. I took a picture of the drain as a reference point, and next thing I knew, it had popped out of the storm drain! You can see that I took a picture of the cat here, but I didn't realize it was in the picture until I looked at it today! 

(Also, I rescued an injured neighbor cat from this drain about twenty years ago, but the grate has been replaced since then. Cats are just the most wonderful little creatures.)

On Friday and Saturday, I attended the Mormon History Association conference in Ogden. One of the perks of working for a history organization is that they pay for me to go to academic conferences like these. It was good to meet historians whose work I have long admired, and it was fun to see colleagues from various aspects of my career: BYU Studies, Church History Department, Wayfare magazine, and last year's Affirmation conference.

I won't tell you about all the sessions I attended, because it won't be interesting to most of my readers, and frankly, much of it wouldn't be interesting to me. But here are a few highlights:

• My BYU boss indirectly asked me to attend the session he was presenting at, because he was talking about Latter-day Saints in prison, which is a book project I helped out with. As he read his paper, I recognized that I had written much of the material. He acknowledged me by name in his session, so two people I know told me it was nice for him to give me a shout-out.
• A woman named Adrienne sat by me during the Saturday morning opening session. When I told her what I do professionally, she asked if I'm a runner. She had talked to my Utah Historical Quarterly boss the day before, and my boss told her that she has always worked with runners. (She might have said quiet runners, I don't remember.)
• When I went to lunch, Adrienne happened to be there and invited me to sit by her and an older man who used to work with sugar beets. I asked if you could eat sugar beets like you do regular vegetables; he said they are too salty and act as a laxative.
• The Saturday morning session was about pioneer monuments, by a woman who does not typically work in Mormon history. She talked about handcarts in historical memory, and she asked if anyone could help her with the chronology. After the session, I offered to send her my Pioneer Day article, since I do talk about that a little.
• One of the folks with Wayfare asked me to sing in a choir for the closing Sunday session. Because it's Sunday, it's a devotional session. We sang "Amazing Grace" and "It Is Well with My Soul," which are simple songs, but these were really challenging arrangements. They're some of those songs where the different parts have different rhythms. I usually sing tenor, but I had to do bass for these, because the tenor just went too high. We only got to practice three times before performing, and I practiced a little at home. We got better over the course of the practices, but I still didn't quite get it, and I think we messed it up a little. But it's done!
  
  
  
• This devotional took place in a 1930 building in Ogden. We met in the gym, and there were balls on the floor of the gym. I wore my rainbow tie, and someone told me it matched the volleyball on the floor.
  
  
  After the sessions yesterday (Saturday), I decided I wanted to try an Ogden trail, since I've never been running in Weber County. I ended up going on the Indian Trail, which was fairly steep, and it was hot, especially at the beginning. I came across some big rock outcrops, and I guessed it was Cambrian-era Tintic Quartzite, and my Rockd app confirmed that! (For those who are newer to my blog, back in 2013, I had a geology field studies class in which we hiked through Little Cottonwood Canyon and made a geologic map, which was one of the most memorable classes I ever took. Ogden Canyon evidently has the same or similar geology.)

  

  This was an outcrop of Tintic Quartzite.

  
  

  

  And I believe this giant layer of tan rock is also Tintic Quartzite

  
  

  

  I don't know whether this was Maxfield Limestine or Ophir Formation

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It's nice to have eventful weeks. But also I hope to have some less eventful times.

Wisconsindiana

Whew, this post is going to include a very busy week and a half of vacation, so buckle up! 

On Tuesday, May 20, I boarded a flight with my sister, Susanne, and my niece, Allie, to meet my parents in Wisconsin, because they had already driven out there as part of this road trip. My primary point of reference for Wisconsin is that it's the home state of a jerk we know, so I hoped to form some new associations.

My parents picked us up at the Madison airport, and then we went to Wisconsin Dells. My parents bought a timeshare in the '00s, so we stayed several days at a hotel/condo that was part of their timeshare. Wisconsin Dells is a tourist trap with lots of water parks. 

That first night we went to a quirky restaurant called Buffalo Phil's that delivered the food via a Mister Rogers–esque train.

On Wednesday, May 21, my family was excited to go to a Paul Bunyan–themed restaurant for breakfast, and they even had us all wear matching red buffalo-check shirts. It seemed like making a big deal over a mediocre restaurant with a very tacky gift shop. 

We also went to the water park attached to our hotel. They had two big waterslides, and I think I went down each six times. Ever the rule follower, I felt embarrassed when the lifeguards called me out for breaking rules twice (using the lazy river without a tube and going on the kiddie slide).

On Thursday, May 22, we went on rides to see the Wisconsin Dells, the river that's the namesake of the tourist town. First we went on a duck ride, and I was expecting a boat that looked like a giant rubber duckie. (I swear I've seen pictures of such boats existing!) Instead, we were on a WWII-era amphibious vehicle. It was cool to be on a vehicle that could drive on land like a truck, then suddenly be a boat; I have never been on an amphibious vehicle before. And it was also cool that it was from 1944! The tour itself of the Lower Dells was good but not fantastic. 

We also went on a longer ride on a tourist boat on the Upper Dells. It was a pleasant ride that took us to two stops: first a very small hike in a place called Witches Gulch, 

and then on a different loop trail where they had a dog jump onto a rock pillar. Apparently there is a very famous photograph from the late nineteenth century where the photographer's son is jumping onto this pillar, thereby proving that he could photograph motion. Today they have the trained dog jump so people can re-create the picture.

After the boat tour, we explored the tourist town's Main Street. The Wisconsin Dells are cool, but I am surprised that such a tourist trap developed around them. I guess I'm spoiled living in the West, because so many of our natural features are so much cooler.

On Friday, May 23, we went to a lake called Devil's Lake, and my cousin Cannon, who lives in Wisconsin, came and met us there with his family. Apparently this lake gets very busy in the summer, which surprises me, because it's a fairly small lake. But it wasn't too busy when we were there. It was also too cold to do anything in or on the lake itself. However, my dad and I hiked up the nearby hill with my cousin, his wife, and two of their kids. This region has a lot of glacial deposits from the Ice Age.

On Saturday, May 24, we finally left the hotel in Wisconsin and drove to the Upper Peninsula of Wisconsin. We went to a mineral museum belonging to Michigan Technological University. The minerals were cool, and it was a lot to take in. I minored in geology, but I didn't take the mineralogy class, because it had a lot of math and science prereqs, and I have a humanities brain.

A rock formed from a lightning strike

Picture sandstone from Kanab, Utah

Then we spent two nights in Hancock, Michigan, at a charming rental in a building that was a 1910 schoolbuilding. It was converted into apartments in 2019.

On Sunday, May 25, my family opted to break the Sabbath, and I was along for the ride. This region of the country had a major copper-mining industry, so we toured the Delaware Mine. We went down a hundred feet into the earth to the first level of the mine. But when it was actually used for mining, there were eight more levels! Today the other levels are filled with water.

Above ground, there were remnants of various mining buildings from the late nineteenth century.

There was even a site where Indigenous peoples had mined copper thousands of years ago. 

The rest of the day, we drove around the peninsula on the UP, and we made various stops to see Lake Superior. I put my fingers in the lake, and it was very cold. But it might be fun to visit in August.

On Monday, May 26, Memorial Day, we drove across the Upper Peninsula to our next destination. We even drove through a town called Christmas, but we didn't stop. The UP has many pasty shops. (Pasty rhymes with nasty, not tasty, even though they are more tasty than nasty.) A pasty is a handheld pot pie, and Cornish miners would have them for lunch. When we stopped in one town, I was happy to get pasties for us. (I was, however, disappointed that this shop's pasties did not have the iconic empanada shape.)

The font for "Miners" on this sign looks like something from my elementary school years in the 1990s!

A gift shop even sold chocolate shaped like pasties!

We arrived in Sault Ste. Marie. "Sault" in this case is pronounced "Soo," even though that's not how it's said in French. But it was established in the seventeenth century, and maybe it was pronounced closer to "Soo" back then? I think it's funny that both Sault and Sioux are pronounced Soo.

We toured a museum on a boat called the Valley Camp, which was built in 1917 and was used as a ship until the 1960s. This museum did not follow best practices for exhibits, and I'm not especially interested in machinery. But it was cool to be on the old boat and see all the twentieth-century history. 

They even had an aquarium of native fish!

Then we got on a boat to tour the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. We went through the locks between these lakes. 

You can see how far the water went down in about ten minutes in the lock.

Ugh, why do modern Gilligan's Island toys have to be Funko POP!s?

Then that evening, we used our passports to cross the border into Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. We ate at a restaurant, and I wanted to try Tim Hortons, which I suppose is the Canadian equivalent of Dunkin'. They had a seasonal chocolate marshmallow donut, like s'mores without the graham. 

It was a very brief trip into Canada, and I'm not sure the bridge toll and passport check were quite worth it. But it did make it an international vacation!

On Tuesday, May 27, my dad's birthday, we got on an expensive boat to take a trip to Mackinac Island in Lake Huron. Despite the spelling, it's pronounced Mackinaw. This island has a state park and a town where some people live, but it's mostly a bustling tourist spot. Automobiles have been banned on the island since 1898. People get around via horse-drawn carriage or bicycle, and there are numerous bike rental shops. As we arrived on the island, I thought that nothing sounded better than riding a bike around a carless island. While my family looked at stores, I rented a bicycle. Then I rode the perimeter of the island, which was eight easy miles. It was lovely to be on the shores of Lake Huron and pass all the summer homes. 

The bike shop gave me a map, and it also showed spots to see in the interior of the island. Once I finished the perimeter, I decided to go inland. I gave up following the map and just biked wherever I felt like, but I still hit the important spots. Parts were hilly, but I'm used to biking hills. The most annoying part was sharing the road with horse-drawn carriages. It was basically a perfect day; I didn't get too hot in my hoodie.

The view from the island's highest point

Memorial Day weekend kicks off the Fourth of July season for me, so it's also the season of ice cream, lemonade, s'mores, and apple pie. Fudge is a very popular treat on Mackinac Island, so I bought fudge in the flavors of s'mores and apple pie.

And lilacs are also apparently a big thing on Mackinac, so I got lilac-flavored ice cream and lilac lemonade.

Hey, look! A Chappell Roan song in real life!

Then we got back on the boat to return to the mainland. Then we drove across the bridge to the Lower Peninsula, and we stayed the night in Gaylord, Michigan. 

Wednesday, May 28, we drove most of the day down Michigan and into Indiana, dropping off Susanne at the airport along the way, since she needed to get home. My cousin Krishelle lives in Indiana, and we met their family at the softball game of one of their daughters. We spent the next two nights at Krishelle's house.

Thursday, May 29, was the reason we went to Indiana, rather than sticking to Michigan and Wisconsin. I needed to make a pilgrimage to Santa Claus, Indiana, the home of Holiday World, an amusement park.

Holiday World is exactly what it sounds like. And so, you know, it is exactly the kind of place that is tailor made for me.

There are four holiday sections in the park: Christmas,

4th of July, 

Thanksgiving,

and Halloween.

There was also a waterpark section (Splashin' Safari) and a children's section, but I wasn't interested in those nonholiday areas.

I wanted to start the activities in Thanksgiving, and first we walked through Christmas and 4th of July to get there. In Thanksgiving, the speakers played instrumental folk covers of classic rock songs. I rode a rollercoaster called the Voyage, which I think was the first rollercoaster I have been on since I went to Disneyland in 2013. Then my niece and I rode the tame Turkey Whirl.

All four of us rode Gobbler Getaway, in which you ride cars and try to shoot blue lights that indicate where turkeys are hiding. There were various animatronics, and it was an autumnal 1785 setting.

Then we had lunch at Plymouth Rock Cafe, which serves Thanksgiving food. The cashier was evidently new, and she seriously undercharged me, so I had to go back not once but twice to make sure I was paying for everything. There was also another customer who had a discrepancy.

Then I rode the Mayflower, which is just like the Tidal Wave at Lagoon. The Thanksgiving section really minimized the Pilgrim connection, which is fine with me, but the Mayflower was an exception. (I didn't ride the Indigenous-themed ride, the Thunderbird, because I thought it was in Splashin' Safari for some reason.)

Then I rode Good Gravy!, which is a newer ride. The cars are inspired by a gravy boat, and the ride goes both forward and backward. This was my favorite ride in the whole park: it was less intense but still had some thrills, and it had a charming, homey, culinary theme. 

Then we headed into Halloween, where the speakers played 1960s monster songs. I rode the intense coasters the Raven and the Legend. Despite the names, the rides weren't really themed (and neither was the Voyage). 

And Allie and I rode the HallowSwings and Scarecrow Scrambler. 

In the Halloween section, we also observed a circus-style show. There were acrobatic acts, motorcycles inside a round metal cage, and a smokin' hot guy on a water-propelled hoverboard.

It was all very impressive. It did seem like it would have been more appropriate for the 4th of July section.

We then proceeded to the 4th of July section, where the speakers played old-timey, Dixieland-esque music. The rides were patriotic or themed around American history. Three of us went on the Lewis & Clark Trail, which was little Jeeps on a fixed track.

And Allie and I rode the Firecracker.

Then I made my way to Christmas, which only had kiddie rides but lots of food and a big gift shop. The speakers played the kinds of Christmas songs you would hear on the radio. This part of the park relies more on atmosphere than on attractions.

I got an ice cream cone with Christmas cookie and Holiday World (the park's colors) flavors.

I was really impressed with this amusement park. They had stations with free sunscreen and free fountain drinks all throughout the park! And the park rules explicitly forbid Confederate flags and swastikas. I thought the prices were reasonable, especially because it was a clean park. It was better than Lagoon (though to be fair, I haven't been to Lagoon since 2012). And it might not be as great as Disneyland, but for me it's better, because I like holidays more than I like Disney. It was so quirkily charming. I had to laugh to myself a few times, because I couldn't believe they could have Thanksgiving decorations up all year and say "Happy Halloween!" when a ride was done. It seemed so niche, a niche that could not possibly be more up my alley. The day we were there was not a busy day, so all the ride lines were short.

It would have been nice to stay longer in Holiday World, but there were other things we wanted to see in Santa Claus. But I got multiple souvenirs.

Good Gravy! had the best branding of all the rides. The eagle is named George and is one of the park's four mascots.

Then we went to the Santa Claus Museum, which wasn't a great museum, but it was free and charming in its own way. They let children fill out letters to Santa, and then they get letters in return. They put some of the letters on display. 

And there was also a giant Santa Claus statue. 

We also visited Santa's Candy Castle, which was highly recommended. On the inside, it was mostly like any other fancy candy store you'd find in a tourist trip, except it was playing Christmas music in May.

There was also a grocery store called Holiday Foods. I love going to random grocery stores, so I especially had to go to one called Holiday Foods. I was not disappointed: I was able to buy the lemonade chips I had been looking for all through the trip, and I got eggnog socks. 

Finally we left Santa Claus, and we stopped at a historic site where Abraham Lincoln spent part of his child. 

This is the site of his boyhood cabin

On Friday, May 30, Krishelle's youngest children tried to give me their stuffed animals before we left. It was surprising, adorable, and endearing. Luckily, we convinced them that I would always remember the toys, so I didn't have to take them and feel like I was stealing from children. My parents drove me and Allie to the St. Louis airport, so we drove through Illinois and a little bit of Missouri to finish off the trip.

It was a lovely vacation. Mackinac Island and Holiday World were my favorite parts. And I'm also glad to be back home.