Hannibal Adventures

Yesterday Greg and I drove over to Hannibal, Missouri for the day, and we had a great time! Everything in Hannibal is always an adventure, being the birthplace of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Hannibal is Mark Twain's (Sam Clemens') birthplace and is often called "America's Hometown." It truly doesn't get more Americana than Hannibal. To start off the day we went on a fun riverboat cruise on the appropriately named "Mark Twain" Riverboat. Here is a picture of Hannibal's riverfront, which is currently closed due to flooding--you can see the floodgates on the road there. They had to move the riverboat landing upstream a little bit because of the flooding, but luckily the river is receding almost two feet per day.

It was kind of a cloudy day, but it still felt really good out on the water. There was a nice river breeze blowing, and it even got a little cool--unusual for Missouri in June. I love the Mississippi River! It is so big and powerful. I first saw the Mississippi when Mom, Dad, and I drove from St. Louis to Nauvoo in 2001, and I haven't been able to get enough of it since. 2001 was the first time I visited Hannibal too. Since then Mom and I have visited Hannibal several times--one of my favorites was when we stayed at Reagan's Queen Anne Bed & Breakfast. Most recently the whole family had a fun little visit to Hannibal on our way back to Utah (via the St. Louis airport) from Nauvoo in 2008. So it was a lot of fun to be back yesterday!

After the riverboat ride, we had a fun lunch at the River View Cafe. The best part about lunch there is that you do have a really nice view of the river. The food was tasty too. After lunch we went around to a few of the antique shops downtown, and then we tried something new and went on the Haunted Hannibal ghost tour! We didn't see any ghosts, but we did hear some fun/crazy stories as we toured the town. Here is Samuel Clemens' dad's grave at the Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Also in the Mount Olivet Cemetery is the real Injun Joe's grave. You may remember him from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The real Injun Joe was known as a very nice person though, unlike his character in the book. Our ghost tour took us through town and to several small cemeteries. It was a lot of fun and not too scary.

Greg and I were so inspired by our ghost tour that we stopped at one other little cemetery we had seen on our way out to the River View Cafe. It was called the . . . River View Cemetery, and it too had a really nice view of the river. At the River View Cemetery we found Robert E. Lee's grave :-) He was born a little late to be the real Robert E. Lee--I mean, he was obviously real, but not THE Robert E. Lee. So, we had a great day in Hannibal and made it home just in time to see the NBA draft. I was sad that Jimmer Fredette didn't go to the Utah Jazz, but happy for him that he was drafted in the top 10.

The trip to Hannibal was just the beginning of a week of birthday celebrations! :-) Actually, we would have gone next week, closer to my b-day, but Greg has a conference he needs to be at all next week, and his boss' wife is also having a baby, so he'll be pretty busy. At least it makes the birthday celebrations last longer.

In other news, for those of you who receive the Ensign magazine (an LDS publication), if you flip to the "Latter-day Saint Voices" section, you'll see a little article that I wrote. You can also see it online by clicking here and scrolling down to the "Two Cities and a Tender Mercy" article. I still haven't seen the actual magazine article, and unfortunately the illustration is not included online, but I hear that the magazine includes a drawing of someone who is supposed to be me--only they have long hair :-) I wrote the article and sent it to the Ensign five years ago, so it's nice to finally see it in print!