Stamps Like Champs: Europe Finale & Memorial Day Weekend

Yeah, it's been a while again. I never did finish (or start really...) the last blog of the Europe trip. So, here's the last part of that followed by our surprise trip over Memorial Day weekend.

Our last day in Prague was a paid Viking tour to Terezin. The reason I was never motivated to write this blog was because this was the most depressing day of the entire trip. Terezin is a hybrid concentration camp/ghetto from World War II. This was an all day tour since Terezin is about an hour away from Prague. We started in a museum where our tour guide pointed out different exhibits to give us an introduction to Terezin and its history. Then we walked past the cemetery into the concentration camp. This is where the heaviest part of the day was. The Holocaust has always intrigued me, even though it is a very depressing time in our history. In high school I wrote a research paper all about it. I thought I learned a lot from doing that research paper and it is a topic that has always weighed heavy on my emotions since that paper. Seeing a concentration camp in real life magnifies those emotions significantly. I can't explain my feelings very well while walking through Terezin, but I realized several times that I was holding my breath throughout the tour. This is something I tend to do when I'm scared. I'm not exaggerating - seeing it and hearing the stories were terrifying. I can't imagine the thoughts going through someone's head while there during the war. Sorry to kick off the blog on a depressing note, but what do I always say about depressing stops in our travels? We learn about it so we don't repeat it.

Over 10,000 children were at Terezin. Terezin was made to look like it was a happy-go-lucky area to outsiders, so children were allowed to draw. A lot of the drawings on display were of life at Terezin. Most of the children that were at Terezin died at other camps such as Dachau and Auschwitz. Terezin was not an extermination camp.

Cemetery

The chilling words "Work sets you free."

Bunks - further into the war, this would hold hundreds of people.

Showers - again, Terezin was not an extermination camp so this isn't a gas chamber.

We ended the tour at a brewpub to help drown away our depression after the tour.

On to something more fun!

On Friday, May 24, while driving home from work, I was talking to Steve on the phone (we have bluetooth in our car, so stop judging). I have been pretty stressed lately...very stressed actually. I was dying to get into a park. I didn't care where it was, I just wanted to go somewhere. While on the phone with Steve, I asked which park we could go to within driving distance. Sadly (or gladly really), we've completed all the parks that are within driving distance from us. Jokingly, I ask Steve if we can fly somewhere just for the day and fly home the same night. Steve completely shocked me and reminded me that we have a ton of Southwest points and companion pass, so we could see if there was somewhere reasonable we could go. Three hours later, we were all booked and packed to go to Louisville, KY! This is the first time we've ever done a spur-of-the-moment trip and it turned out to be a really fun weekend!

We started at Four Roses Distillery where we had some pretty delicious bourbon (of course I loved the most expensive bottle...). After that, we hit our first park which is Camp Nelson National Monument. Camp Nelson is where free African-Americans went to enlist for the Civil War. This is a recently added site under the National Park Service and it was our last park in Kentucky. It was super hot and we didn't have any water yet since we were making sure we went to the park before it closed. So we only hiked out to one of the forts and then decided to move on. Forts aren't my favorite anyway as you all know.

Camp Nelson

A site for one of the forts

Pretty house at Camp Nelson

The next morning, we went to George Rogers Clark National Historical Park. George Rogers Clark is the older brother to William Clark (as in Lewis & Clark). The reason George has his own site is because he led the expedition that defeated the British in Vincennes, Indiana. He actually managed to do this after marching his men through freezing waters in February and was outnumbered. What made it fascinating is that he used a lot of sneaky tactics to make the British think he had more men than he actually did. He did things like having them fire often and screaming and making a lot of noise. The write ups in the memorial outlined everything he did which was an interesting read!

Our last park of the trip was to Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Illinois. This was such a cool park! The few blocks around Lincoln's home is park property so they have set it up like you are stepping back in time to Lincoln's neighborhood from the 1850's. We had a great ranger give the tour of the house.

Our last day was spent back in Louisville. We ended the trip by going to the Louisville Slugger Museum, a brewery, and a tour at Evan Williams. Sorry for the lack of pictures - our camera chip was full during the tour at Lincoln's house. I hadn't transferred the Europe pictures off it yet! Oops!