Peoria Riverfront Museum

By the time we left the Caterpillar Visitor's Center, it was around 3 PM.  We hadn't had a meal since nine o'clock that morning, although there had been snacks on the bus to help keep body and soul together.  We voted on whether to go to Golden Corral or Red Lobster.  Golden Corral won, but not by much.  So we went to Red Lobster for our meal the second day, after visiting this Riverfront Museum.

  You can enter the museum from the river side, coming from the parking garage, or the street side, which is where our bus driver let us off so he could go gamble at the casino.

Folks, this place was great!  I could have spent eight hours here:  The museum contains Abraham Lincoln items, tells the whole history of Illinois, and has one Imax-like movie (amazing!), two other movie theaters showing various films of interest, and a planetarium.  I probably didn't see half of that, but I sure enjoyed what I saw.   

Here's most of our group getting ready to check the place out.

looking toward the depot, Lincoln and Perry Como (I'm still laughing about someone pairing these two up)

A portable desk used by Lincoln

Where the Emancipation Proclamation was drafted

I wasn't caught in the act, but I broke a rule with the above picture.  There are signs all over the place about not using the flash when you take pictures, but at this point I hadn't seen the signs.  So I desecrated this desk by using my flash.

 Posing beside Lincoln makes me look fat.

Mary Todd's rocking chair

Lots of other items of interest, too...

John Deere's plow, the item that started an entire business!

Let me suggest you take a good look at the museum's website (click HERE) to see all they have to offer:  There's a theater showing movies made in Illinois over the years, an Imax-type theater that makes you feel you are part of the documentary you're watching, and a planetarium.  You could stay in the place all day long, and have something to do.  

My two souvenir cups, one from Caterpillar and one from the Riverfront Museum.

I'm sorry I took so long getting back to this, but I've been in a funk with this business of having December weather halfway through April.  It happens.  It's Missouri.  But I don't handle it as well as I did in my younger days.  Things seem to be looking up now.