Nauvoo

As you can see, we made it back safe and sound from our trip. We left Monday morning and flew to Kansas City. Chloe wanted to head straight to the hotel, so we did that, but really how much can you do IN the hotel? We finally convinced her we needed to head out and see stuff. The Liberty Jail was just a couple miles from our hotel. We toured that and then went back to the hotel for a swim.

Tuesday morning we drove a few miles south to Independence. We went to the visitor's center there. They had several choices of tours we could choose. We just picked the one about the local history, and then browsed a few of the displays.

Then we drove up to Far West and fought the wind. They had a couple senior missionary couples out doing some work on the property, so we talked to them a bit, but that's about all to do there. Then we headed over to Adam-ondi-Ahman. The missionaries at Far West told us if we could track down one of the missionaries at Adam-ondi-Ahman they could tell us some interesting stories. We did see one out on a tractor, but we didn't feel like running out and hailing him down. We just hiked around the different trails they had, and saw some of the ruins.

Next we were scheduled for a 4 hour drive across Missouri to Nauvoo, but as we were driving the thought crossed my mind that we might be close to where some of Brandon's ancestors lived. He got out the map and realized it was only about 20 miles out of our way. We decided that was worth it, so we drove to Albany, Missouri. I found the library and went inside. In their basement they had a genealogy room full of stuff. The lady on staff there just let me in and told me to go through whatever I wanted. Oh how I wish I had had more time! I didn't want to hold our trip up, so I only went through a couple files, but I found the wedding announcement in a newspaper for Brandon's great-grandparents. I also found a letter that one of his grandpa's cousins had written to this library. I made several other copies and then we hit the road. I wanted to visit a cemetery, but I didn't want to make that the focus of our trip; however, Chloe was excited to do that, so I thanked her immensely and we headed over to Lone Star. The cemetery was easy enough to spot -- I think it's the only thing in the "town" besides a couple houses. I took a ton of pictures there, but I was most excited to find Brandon's great-great-great grandparents -- two sets.

THEN on to Nauvoo. Because of my detour we got there pretty late. It was dark, the kids were asleep and we just let ourselves into the hotel (it was very much a self-serve operation). The next morning we got up early to get going, but Chloe was sick. I think it was due to all the crud she was eating -- fast food and soda were her items of choice. But whatever it was, she was miserable and stayed inside the whole day. I took Sophie out and went for a carriage ride through the "woods." It was really nice and we heard some good stories. Then we hiked back to the hotel, just in time because Chloe was missing us, but Sophie fell down and skinned her knee. That was sad.

Later that day Brandon needed a break from the hotel, so he took Sophie out for a stroll. There was a store downstairs from our hotel room, so we went and browsed through that for awhile, went back there for Sophie to get a postcard to mail to her friends, and then went back again to order some lunch. When Chloe saw the turnover Sophie got that gave her a little incentive to eat a decent lunch so she could have one too. It took her all afternoon to eat a sandwich, but she did it so I ran down to buy her a turnover before the store closed. She never did feel well enough to eat the turnover.

That night we had tickets to the "Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo" play put on by the senior missionaries. It was really cute. They reserved the first two rows just for kids. Brandon and I sat in the third row. The girls made a new friend. This girl just came over and started talking to them, then she went and sat right between Chloe and Sophie and played with Chloe's hair. Oh yes, I should mention Chloe didn't like the idea of staying in the room herself, so she did get dressed to venture out with us. She miraculously made it! I think getting out of the room was better medicine for her than the Motrin I had to go buy.

So, Thursday morning we were up and ready to go again. Chloe was not being motivated again, but this time we knew she could make it out. She finally admitted (which I had thought all along) that she thought a vacation meant lying in the hotel room and swimming all day. Nope, we came to see stuff! And once she got out -- in the daylight! she realized there was a lot of fun stuff to do. She still wasn't 100%, but good enough to enjoy the sites. Since we were now a day behind schedule we had a lot of making up to do. We did what we could, but there were some things we just didn't have time for. Since we learned there aren't a lot of options for dining in Nauvoo we headed over to Carthage for lunch. They had several choices! After lunch we went to the Carthage Jail and toured the site where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred. None of the places we went were very busy, so they just let us hang out and take all the pictures we wanted. That was one good thing about going this time of year.

We went back to Nauvoo and saw a couple more places, but I had promised Sophie we'd go get some T-shirts so we had to get moving before the place closed. We would have had to leave anyways, because a rain storm came. And this was a real storm, not like we get in Utah. We just parked at our hotel and ran over to the shirt store, but we were soaked by the time we got there. We bought our shirts and then wanted to stop and get some fudge just a couple doors down. Again, we were soaked in that short run. I have to say it was kind of fun, though. We all had a good time getting wet, and then went back to the room and changed into dry clothes. We waited a bit for the rain to die down before we headed out for dinner -- at the Hotel Nauvoo.

By the time we finished dinner the rain had stopped, and since there was nothing else to do we drove down to the sites and walked around all the places that the Community of Christ Church owns. They charge to go in their buildings, and we are cheap (not that they were open anyway) so we just took pictures. Everything was so nice and green after the rain storm, well, I guess it was before too, but the rain made it even more so.

Friday was our last day there. We hung around a little longer than planned to try to squeeze in a couple last things we wanted to see. We took the walk down Parley Street and read all the placards. Right at the end of it was the oxen ride that we wanted to do, and we got there just as it was opening up. Perfect timing. Then we left for Hannibal.

Hannibal was windy -- and hot! We stopped at a park to each lunch and ran into some people we had seen in Nauvoo. It was hard to have a picnic in the wind, but the girls weren't interested in food as much as they were the playground. We just played there until it was time for our riverboat cruise. I found it relaxing. We got seats in the shade so it was nice to just sit and listen, but I know Sophie thought it was a little boring. I don't know what she was expecting. We tried to do some other things in Hannibal, but that town was busy. We just got in our air conditioned car and drove to St. Louis.

We spent the night in St. Louis, then Saturday morning we drove to the Gateway Arch. It was a good thing we had our GPS because part of the interstate was closed, they had a ton of one-way streets, and it was very busy as well. There was Cardinals vs. Cubs game going on not far from the arch -- and all those people were on the same streets we needed to be. I'll spare you the details, but at one point Chloe and I nearly lost our lives. A guy ran a red light at a street we were trying to cross, but by some miracle I had paused and saw him heading at us. It was awfully windy there too. I think Brandon and I would have chickened out and skipped the ride to the top of the arch, but we have two little girls who really wanted to go and our love for them overpowered our fear. They warned us there was "movement" at the top of the arch (really, figuring how much everything was moving at the bottom of the arch), but once we were up there -- inside -- we really didn't feel anything. I'm glad we made it, and now I can cross that off my list. We hung out at the Museum of Westward Expansion while waiting for our turn on the tram. Then afterwards we just stopped for lunch, gassed up the car and headed to the airport.

That's our trip I know you've been dying to hear all about. And now you can view all the pictures that go along. FYI: there are about 120 of them, so view at your own risk (or when you have the time).