Chicago & Land of Lincoln

Almost all ACTS Education Program tours doing Chicago - Land of Lincoln Program will include:
 

The Lincoln Home National Park Service
The Lincoln Tomb
The Lincoln Presidential Museum
Shedd Aquarium
The Museum of Science and Industry
The Willis Tower Observation Deck
Boat Tour of Chicago
Millenium Park
Wrigley Field Tour

The climate of Chicago is classified as humid continental, with all four seasons distinctly represented.  Springs tend to be wet and cool.  The summers are normally hot, and often humid.  Fall is a pleasant time of the year with mild temperatures and usually drier weather.  Winters can be very cold with snow and ice.  Chicago's weather is influenced during all four seasons by nearby Lake Michigan.
 

In Springfield, the summers are long, warm, and humid; the winters are short, freezing, and windy; and it is partly cloudy year round. The best time of year to visit is from early June to late September.

Much of Illinois’s land is flat.  The southern two-thirds of the state is rolling farmland, called America's Corn Belt a wide and fertile swath of land.  This deep black soil has unusual richness, and its quality for agriculture is among the finest in the world. 
 

Chicago sits along the southwestern tip of Lake Michigan, on a low divide between the drainage areas of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.  There was only one large portage between an all-water route between Lake Michigan and the Gulf of Mexico via the Chicago, Des Plaines, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers.  There is now a canal that connects these waterways.

• Taking in the view over 4 states and Chicago's sprawl from the Willis Tower, the second-tallest building in the United States.
• Exploring the famous Chicago lakefront museums.
• Seeing the home where Abraham Lincoln lived in Springfield before becoming one of the most well-known American presidents.
• Paying tribute at Abraham Lincoln's tomb.

• Abraham Lincoln's Farewell Address given on February 11, 1861 when he left Springfield, Illinois to head to Washington, D.C.:
  
  Friends,
  No one who has never been placed in a like position, can understand my feelings at this hour, nor the oppressive sadness I feel at this parting. For more than a quarter of a century I have lived among you, and during all that time I have received nothing but kindness at your hands. Here I have lived from my youth until now I am an old man. Here the most sacred ties of earth were assumed; here all my children were born; and here one of them lies buried. To you, dear friends, I owe all that I have, all that I am. All the strange, chequered past seems to crowd now upon my mind. To-day I leave you; I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon General Washington. Unless the great God who assisted him, shall be with and aid me, I shall not fail, I shall succeed. Let us all pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake us now. To him I commend you all -- permit me to ask that with equal security and faith, you all will invoke His wisdom and guidance for me. With these few words I must leave you -- for how long I know not. Friends, one and all, I must now bid you an affectionate farewell.
• Chicago, 1914 Carl Sanburg.  A poem.

• The Chicago-style hot dog:  an all-beef hot dog - normally loaded with toppings including pickle relish, yellow mustard, pickled peppers, tomato wedges, and a dill pickle spear on a poppy seed bun.  No ketchup.
   
• Chicago-style deep dish pizza.

Chicago - Windy!
Springfield - Lincoln.

• When Abraham Lincoln died, a train carried his body from Washington, D.C. back to Springfield, Illinois.  Along the way it made 12 stops in major cities and state capitals.  It never went more than 20 miles per hour.  It traveled over 1600 miles.
• Although Abraham Lincoln read the Bible daily, he never belonged to an organized church.
• The name Chicago comes from the Algonquin word “Shikaakwa,” which translates to “onion field.”
• On Saint Patrick's Day, Chicago dyes the Chicago River bright green.  Suprisingly an orange colored powder is used to create the green hue of the Chicago River every March.

• Chicago
• Springfield, Illinois