Liberty, Hannibal, and Nauvoo

Our modern day wagon for cross country travel.

1840's wagon for cross country travel. We could relate to our pioneer ancestors predicament. What can we take? What do we leave behind?

Our journey has begun and we are off to a great start! We have spent the last couple of days exploring sites that are important to our church history. We also had a great visit with Neil's aunt and uncle in Columbia, Missouri and made a quick stop to see Mark Twain's birthplace in Hannibal, MO. Today we have spent a very fun day in Nauvoo, Illinois. The beautiful city that the early Latter-day Saints had to abandon a couple of years after Joseph Smith's martyrdom. We feel so happy to be able to learn more of our church history as we travel to Washington DC where we will learn our nation's history. Without this free nation, our church wouldn't even exist. It's a bit ironic, though, that in a country that was built on religious freedom the early members of the church were persecuted and driven from their homes and eventually from the United States to settle in a desert valley with a great lake of salt! All is well now though. The kids have had a fun day learning about life in the 1840's. Tomorrow we will go to Carthage to visit the jail where Joseph Smith was killed. I'm sure it will be a somber experience.

The kids will be helping with this blog. It will be a record of our trip, but also a way to keep in touch with friends and family. We hope you enjoy it.

Nauvoo

Hi all!
We just spent a day in City Beautiful- Nauvoo. It was fantastic! We got to visit several old shops and a few homes. My favorite stop was probably the printing press. It was full of beautiful antiques. I was facinated in all of the labor-intensive jobs involved in producing a single page of type that we've pretty much eliminated now with all of our technology. When we finished touring, we went souvenier shopping (very, very briefly) and got ready for dinner. We ate at the Hotel Nauvoo buffet. It was incredibly good and really expensive. We finished the day with the performance of Rendezvous in the cultural hall. It was very fun. Cute little elderly people singing, dancing, and acting like young people have a certain charm. I thought it was a wonderful show that gave us a peek into the lives of the people of Nauvoo with lots of humor thrown in! :)