Day Trip to Vincennes

What are all the fun destinations 1 hour, 2 hours or 3 hours away from your house?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and hoping to to on some fun adventures with my kids this year.  Summer isn't that far away and I want to make the most of it.

I made my plans my parents to meet up half way between their house and mine yesterday.  One hour drive for each of us to bring us a few leftover things from Leo's birthday party weekend.  This is a city we rarely spend any time in.  It's a pass through city for us on our trips to visit family.  I started checking around and found an Indiana Military Museum in Vincennes, Indiana.  It would be open while we were in town and I knew Fletcher would go nuts to see a whole military museum.  I invited my parents and we all agreed to go after we grabbed some breakfast.

You can read all about the Indiana Military Museum here: http://indymilitary.com/

If you're local, it's a really neat stop.  We already have plans to go back.  It's amazing and wild to see the changes in military uniforms, gear, supplies, support from home and memorabilia they've collected.  A volunteer told us that many of the things they have on display are donated from families of veterans.  The museum is also set up in Chronological order as you walk through the display cases.  It was really interesting.

We started outside because we had never seen so many planes, tanks, helicopters, weapons and military equipment in one location.  We let Fletcher lead the way.  He was really interested in checking everything out and looking to see where the doors were on each vehicle and making sure they were locked.  There are three sections to tour - the outside lawn and two giant indoor museum buildings.

Fletcher was so interested in the vehicles - where they stored their weapons - the compasses, the knives in the cases, the bikes, the way the camo changed from war to war.  It was fun to see him get so excited about something.

The Annex was open on the day we visited.  The trenches were fascinating.  It's hard to imagine living, fighting and working in trenches like these.  The entire Annex is set up in scenes with mannequins.  It was so interesting.

One last tour around the giant submarines and equipment.

We also stopped for a quick visit to the George Rogers Clark National Historic Park along the Wabash River.  It's about 5 minutes away from the Indiana Military Museum and definitely worth seeing.  The grounds are gorgeous - perfect for a picnic and there is lots to learn.  We hope to go back and get to tour inside the Clark Memorial so we can learn more about it.

You can read more about it here: https://www.nps.gov/gero/index.htm

 

We all enjoyed our day exploring Vincennes!

What's a road trip that is on your radar near your home?

I've got several state parks, splash parks, zoo, friends and family on my radar!