Welcome to Hannibal, Missouri

Boyhood home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens - the famous Mark Twain!  Well I was excited anyway. As a young girl (not so long ago), one of my favorite books was Tom Sawyer.  It was one of my first Romance novels, Tom And Becky, lost in a cave, it was dark, Indian Joe was after them…well anyway I loved it.  So while perusing maps for this trip and seeing that Hannibal was on the way to Nauvoo, we were of course stopping.  It will not be at the top of  “vacation spots we want to return to’’ but it had its moments.  The town is pretty run down, and since it wasn’t tourist season, alot of the tourist traps were closed, but I had done my research and after convincing Jessica that this tour would not be televised, we set off! First stop the Museum to get our tour of the town tickets.  The Museum was the best part (and really the only stop that cared that we had tickets)  It had lots of  Tom and Huck memorabilia, and a self guided tour complete with   a Styrofoam grave yard that told you how to get rid of warts… a fake river…there was a real one outside… a really cool stage coach, that showed old western clips on screen inside (Arlon enjoyed the old westerns)…

and Jessica even found a good looking man or two, to sidle up to. (Dreams of being a debutant)One of the best parts of the museum was all the original Norman Rockwell prints.  During tourist season they have a booth by the fence that sells straw hats and will take your picture painting the fence…Jessica was so sad it was off season…NOT! To give her strength to continue our tour…we stopped in at the local ice cream parlor…Had Huckleberry ice cream of course.  and a picture of Arlon’s hero Barney,  (Jessica and I had more fun with that than Arlon).  Then we saw it…the lighthouse on the hill.   THE CHALLENGE…who could make it to the top first…Arlon said he would opt out so not to embarrass us. I took off like greased lightning…it was alot of steps, the altitude gave me breathing issues, I forgot my depends, the beauty overwhelmed me and I had to keep stopping to take it all in…needless to say Jessica won! and mocked me just a little in doing so!  Not a very gracious winner. and she cheated on the way down. where she patiently waited for me.  So I made her pose in the butterfly garden…which was still dead because it was winter. That will teach her to gloat! I think she liked being a gang member more than a butterfly…but whats a mom to do.

my favorite description in the travel book was the one for Lulu Belles dining emporium…in the day a working brothel, delicious lunches and dinners, and if your LUCKY, breakfast.  Now…just lunch.  so after strolling along the Mississippi river, we bid Hannibal a fond farewell and headed off to Nauvoo!

Lions and Tigers and Bears…OH My!

First the disclaimer…I am not a zoo person.  Wandering around a zoo, looking at caged animals, or not looking at caged animals, depending on how hot or cold or the feeding schedule or myriads of other reasons the animals hide from the huddled masses, is not as high on my list of “how I spent my summer vacation”.  That being said…the St. Louis Zoo is FREE…and you never turn down free.  So off we go to the zoo.  We had just a little trouble, Maggie (our wonderful GPS) took us on a side trip, she could not find the Zoo.  She found a lovely park, a cemetery, and lots of side streets but no zoo,(I’m sure it was not user error), but when an alternative site was typed in she led us there with no problemo.  Bernerd was REALLY excited…Jessica on the other hand was just humoring us at this point! Luckily Arlon consented to posing for me.  This is his “I am so fascinated by all this” pose

Jessica…still humoring me, and not to convincingly.  Even the shark wanted to bite her head off.

Hmmmm so these are Elephants…interesting. Keep in mind…its free!

Hmmm… so this is a monkey, nope its an orangutan…got ya!

Great minds think alike!

Yep their in there!!!

This is the one that Jessica actually enjoyed…I just think she liked saying it!The hippo exhibit was the only one that really made me a little sad… they had two (hippos not exhibits)and they were HUGE… They swam in a tight circle (because that's all the room they had) the entire time we watched them.  They just seemed really caged to me. Bernerd was glad he was on the outside looking in though…they were really big!

She's got the whole Zebra in her hand…come on sing along!

Jessica practicing her kissing skills! 

It is a nice zoo though.  I bet its beautiful in the summer, lots of trees and grass and the bulbs were starting to come up all over, I would probably visit again, did I mention…its FREE!

Arch, Arch and away…

Today we ride up the arch… but first we go down into the belly of the beast!  I think it could have been a bomb shelter…narrow cement walls and steep stairs…I thought we were going UP (way too much thinking)!  They put us in front of #6, a skinny door, to wait until the “hatch” opens.  behind the door…its a egg shaped pod.  Visions of Mork and Mindy, and alien planets come to mind.  Jessica cried just a little…

But, who could resist the fun Arlon was having, seeing a metal wonder, a mechanical marvel, a slow moving vehicle of death, a tribute to other “Tall, Powerful Men!” So we got in the egg and moved up the Arch, listening to the ratcheting of the gears, as it constantly re-aligned itself to traverse the really, really high structure.  Once at the top we got out to look out narrow windows, and get a true birds eye view of St. Louis.  I really worried about this part, heights and I don’t always get along.  But the windows were small, and the walls were really thick, and we were not hanging over empty space but just looking out, so it was “kinda fun”. 

even if we were 630 feet in the air…auggggggh!

After descending back to the bottom, Arlon now need to see how they made it.  They show a 20 min film, on the building of the arch.  The film actually gave me more anxiety than the ride.  Watching all those men walking the beams (this was before the invention of safety harnesses)  and hearing how they had actually factored in the loss of around 13 men (they had no deaths building it) really made you marvel at “WHO THINKS UP THESE THINGS”!  Must be a man thing.

Funny side note…While we were waiting for the film to start, Jessica attracted the attention of a local boy scout troop…one of which stared at her the entire time we sat and waited…awkward!  She did a few poses hopping to embarrass him into looking away, no such luck .  I think he probably still dreams of her today.

Going back outside, I had to cross the street on the other side of the park to even attempt to get Arlon, Jessica and the arch in the frame…This is one Amazing structure!
Leaving the Arch it was time for sustenance (food) again (you will find eating a familiar theme through out this entire trip.)  Even though we has agreed no chain restaurants… it was Jessica’s turn to pick the watering hole.  Since we had ventured down to Union Station, and it happened to have a food court, and one of Jess’s favorite places to eat was there, and since she was…pretty good…(if you call sleeping being good) while we watched the “Making of the Arch film,  We ate at Panda, (I just happen to love it to so we let her think it was her idea)  Yum! 

While wandering through the station shops, we stopped in a gift shop.  There was the cutest display of sock monkeys, all colors and sizes (and not all monkeys).  Now by this time Jessica was a little tired of smiling for all the pictures, I think the only pictures that should be taken, should have someone you know in them…otherwise just buy a postcard, the pictures are professional then.  So following in the footsteps of Mike and Lindsey’s trip where they let their Nutcracker man be their traveling companion (this was before they had children to take hundreds of pictures of)…Jessica talked me into a getting a sock monkey to replace her in the pictures…Meet Bernerd!  Not BernArd, but BernErd…why…only Jessica knows but it was her monkey. So for awhile he got to pose for the many pictures yet to come.

Such a happy camper too!