Kentucky Day 2: Abraham Lincoln Birthplace

Day 2 began in Kansas City, Missouri! It was another early wake up call – but not quite as early as the day before – but we hit the road at 5:00 AM. We had to resist the strong temptation to stop at the church history sites that were oh so close to us. We saw another beautiful sunrise and enjoyed the wooded and river filled state of Missouri.

We crossed through four states on our drive this day – Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and finally into beautiful Kentucky. We also crossed three major rivers – the Missouri, Mississippi, and the Ohio. Overall, it was an absolutely beautiful scenic drive.

One thing that made the drive a little less fun is Lydia has begun screaming. It isn’t crying – just high pitched screaming. It’s hard to hear any time, but in a small enclosed space it was particularly difficult. Our little girl was such a champ this whole trip, but with her new seizure med we have noticed this new side effect and it is a hard one.

This trip may have won the award for most “deviations” from our plan. I always have a plan for what we do every day – it’s not rigid by time at all but I have a flow for what we are going to do. But this trip we had to do quite a bit of last minute shuffling. So we switched some things around and once we got into Kentucky we drove over to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park.

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park

We had to hustle this stop. It is not how we would have liked to do it – but we were fighting the time change and having to do this stop at the very end of our travel day. We had one hour to do two different sites but we did it!

Knob Creek Farm

This park has two units about 15 minutes apart from one another. The first stop we did was to Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home at Knob Creek. This stop is beautiful and it is where Abraham Lincoln lived from ages 2 to 7.

Abraham Lincoln wrote in his 1860 biography that his “earliest recollection…is of the Knob Creek place.” And from what I could see, it’s a beautiful place for a first memory.

The family had to move here when Abraham was 2 because of an unstable land title at the Sinking Springs Farm. Life had its daily struggles here but they shaped his life. Abraham and his sister, Sarah, walked two miles to school. This is also where Abraham first encountered slavery. Some of the neighboring farms had slaves and it was always something the Lincoln family opposed. He wrote that his family even moved their church membership to a Separatist Baptist congregation because they disapproved of slavery. He also wrote that slavery was part of the reason for the family’s later move to Indiana.

We ran in and explored the visitors center here and then went to see the home outside.

While the kids were walking to the home, the ranger asked if the kids wanted to help take down the flag and fold it for the day. It was sweet to have them help with that – especially at this special place of one of our dear presidents.

The great thing about this site is that you get to go in and walk through the cabin on site. This was a peaceful site that we really enjoyed.

Lincoln Memorial

The other unit is known as the birthplace unit where the first Lincoln Memorial is located. We walked the “Pathway of a President” which is a stunning trail from the Visitors Center to the Memorial Building.

The Memorial Building is incredible. The building surrounds the birthplace home of Abraham Lincoln. The home is not really his, but is a “symbolic cabin” of what it would have looked like. He only lived here until he was 2 and you are not allowed inside the building, but it feels impactful nonetheless when you are there.

The Memorial is a wonderful way to honor Abraham Lincoln. It is beautiful and the setting of the Sinking Spring Farm is stunning.

We went and looked in the Visitors Center and my favorite thing there was definitely the Lincoln family Bible. I love this man and have tremendous respect for him as a person and what he did for our country.

Mark and “the bigs” (Jacob, Sarah, and Ben) went and walked down to the Sinking Spring. There were a couple small hikes we would have loved to do, but this park was different and the site as a whole is closed down – not just the visitors centers. It is not my favorite but what can you do?

We went and grabbed some food for dinner and crashed at the hotel. Our time in Kentucky was just beginning!