Last week, the family drove a couple of hours for a little daytrip to the Naper Historic Settlement. I already explained why we had free tickets to these places, and it was kind of a good thing in this case- the settlement is under construction right now and they tried to suggest we come back after October 2011. I had known about the construction in advance and that a bunch of stuff was closed, so we forged ahead.
We started at the Martin Mitchell Mansion and the kids got really into the tour, led by a very knowledgeable guide dressed in period costume. They tell the story of the house as a story of a family, and even make you do a little sleuthing “what was this item used for…” etc.
After the tour, they took us to a little chapel, and the pre-emption house, which is basically a museum. On the whole, we spent a couple of hours there and had a really nice time. There is a whole village there, but due to the construction the paths were inaccessible. It worked out fine, because we were starving by that time and we headed to find some food. Basically, we ate at the first place we found and had a very nice lunch, and on our way back, we spent some time on Naperville’s art walk on the river.  The kids loved this dandelion fountain:
Dandelion Fountain
And then, even though neither of them knew who Dick Tracy was, they both posed with him for a super-sweet picture:
Dick Tracy statue
All in all, a lovely day.