Monday, May 05, 2008

Vacation - Part 3

Wednesday

My last vacation post had us going through Denver around midnight. It was sad to be leaving the beauty of the mountains behind us, but time and money said it was time to head back towards home.

We thought we might just drive all day Wednesday, on through Wednesday night, then arrive in Grand Rapids, Michigan to deliver the birthday presents to the grandson we hadn't been able to meet up with on the way out. Driving all night though would have put us there way too early in the morning so we began looking at the map to find somewhere to stop for the night.

We chose Hannibal, Missouri, which is about an hour north of St. Louis. We arrived there around 5pm Wednesday evening. Hannibal was the boyhood home of Mark Twain and we thought it would be interesting to have a look around.

We found a nice motel and relaxed for a little bit, then we set off on a walk to town which was only a block or two away.


We walked around for an hour or so and at one point we found a place to sit and gaze at the Mississippi River. It was then that we knew we had to spend the next day exploring this beautiful and historic town. Home would have to wait just a little bit longer.

Thursday

Thursday we explored the area. We learned that Mark Twain based the characters from his Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn stories from places and people in Hannibal.







In the early afternoon we took a riverboat ride on the Mississippi..


After that we did some more walking and exploring and found this lighthouse. Yes, I hauled my fat ass up those stairs. (Laugh.)



I don't know how many of you are familiar with the Tom Sawyer book, but Tom spent some time in a cave.. the same cave where "Injun Joe" was hiding out. This was actually a cave that a young Mark Twain and friends explored. Even though my leg muscles were not very happy with me for the walking we'd already done that day, we decided to go see the cave. (I figured my muscles had days to get better, but who knew when we'd be back this way!)




The cave was about three miles outside of town. We stopped at Lover's Leap on the way back to our motel room..


We ate a very nice dinner in town and then spent the rest of the night in our room watching TV, talking over the things we had seen and then drifting off to sleep.

Hannibal is such a beautiful and friendly place. We hope to go back someday!

Note: The next (and final) vacation post will be pictures of the grandkids!!! I hope you'll come back.

8 comments:

Akelamalu said...

That was a really interesting post Barb and great photos too!

Jeni said...

THanks for the "tour" of one of the places of my youth, in a sense, since I was a huge fan of Mark Twain -loved Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn -and from reading those books, seeing these pictures you took, just took me back in my mind to remembering reading those books. Great post!

Jen said...

I loved this post. It brought the stories even more alive for me. One day I wanna be able to just go and travel and see what the next day brings. There is just so much out there to see. I haven't even begun to see what this great nation has to offer :)

Nikki Neurotic said...

I love Tom Sawyer-that's really cool that the town is set up like that! I might have to take a trip there someday.

bundle-o-contradictions said...

Oh, that all looks like so much fun!!

Unknown said...

Bravo for all the walking you managed. I could never of done the cave, too claustrophobic for it.
Sounds like a great adventure especially the riverboat.

katherine. said...

looks like you had a wonderful vacation in a beautiful place...next year...California?

smile

Anonymous said...

omg Barb, u look GREAT girl!!!!!

been so busy working that i haven't had chance to drop by, ope everything is going good. take care

xoxox
Tina