We are pondering a trip toward Illinois later this summer. Many of you know that we like to take trips. Car trips. Not on interstates. Stopping when we see something that we want to check out.

We have gone west most often although there have been trips to the east. As a family, we have never headed north past southern Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota which I say is in the west anyway.

North would get us a couple of new states. Iowa and Illinois. It would also get us a couple of more presidential museums/libraries. There is Herbert Hoover's in Iowa, some small town. There is also Abraham Lincoln's in Springfield, Illinois, along with where he lived, where he had an office.

Then on to Chicago. I checked a book out of the library about Chicago, and it seems that there are many things to see and do. A big city would be a new destination for us. Navy Pier, Wrigley Field, Magnificent Mile, Lake Michigan, University of Chicago, Sears Tower, John Hancock Observation Deck, some ethnic neighborhoods to explore.

In the meantime, above is a picture from the Grand Canyon.