My friends, Abe Lincoln and me

Yes, I did go to Springfield, Illinois on vacation. There are many historic sites there. There are some good restaurants. Oh, okay, it's really just a convenient meeting point for my Southern friends and me. There was some confusion though. My friend's dad said,"I never heard of anyone going to Springfield for fun."

We did have fun though. I really just wanted a weekend with these ladies. Having moved several times as an adult and now married with step-kiddos, making and maintaining adult friendships isn't easy. When Peter Klaven says, "I gotta get some f*ing friends" in 'I Love You, Man', I understood. I thought about the many transitional times in my life where I have thought the same thing. When I connect with old friends, I remember what it feels like to be around people that know so much of your story.

While waiting from them to arrive, I happily munched on my warm chocolate chip cookie from the front desk, drank the ice water with the floating fresh fruit and felt the happy glow of vacation. It was a brief one, just the weekend, but I was so ready to hang out with my gal pals. My husband asked me how long it would take to break out the wine once we were together.

Not long as it turns out. "We wouldn't want to disappoint Mike, " my friend said. We scooted our chairs around the little hotel table and looked on happily as Susan kept pulling more snacks and more wine out of her big cooler. We talked the way you do when you a) haven't seen each other in awhile and b) have been friends a long time so there are a lot of shortcuts.

This is a pretty organized group (I think I might be the laziest one of us) so soon we were off to catch the Frank Lloyd Wright tour before they closed.

Our tour guide was this charming person with a southern drawl and probably the best tour guide I've had. One of my friends, who shall remain nameless, developed a little crush on him. Oh yeah, and the architecture was fabulous too.

In between wining and dining, relaxing at the hotel and binging on Showtime's Masters's of Sex, we found time for the Abe Lincoln Presidential Museum.

I love that the bystanders almost look like part of the display. Can you pick out the museum statues from the museum visitors?

We walked the streets musing over the Abe-themed town. I was disappointed when our lunch place had sold out of the Abe's Ale. But he was around every other corner.

Abe's Springfield house

"It is one of the blessings of friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

After all the running around we did, the thing I really remember is hovering around the little table in the hotel room. When I was talking to my husband about his recent boys road trip he said the best part was sitting in a dingy little pizza parlor trading stories with his buddies. I drove away feeling relieved that I have friends that know me. And I know them. They know my family. I know their family. They saw me through, oh, some bad decisions...and likewise. Where will the trip be next year, I thought, as I sped away from  Springfield.