Spring Break 2009 Trip Day 2 Nauvoo

Here goes my first attempt at blogging. YEAH for me.-Jen

The 2nd day came after little sleep because of coughing kids throughout the night. But we did get to have chocolate chip waffles for breakfast down in the hotel lobby. So that made up for the lost sleep.
With the kids bellies full and ready to go, we headed out for the great unknown. And unknown is definitely the word. We got lost and headed in the wrong direction (including a stretch going the wrong way on a toll road with no warning or way to exit, Vern biting the head off of some poor toll booth worker, and much muttering about the sacrilege about having to pay to use a "freeway", I-70) but finally got back heading the right way and were off to see what Missouri had in store for us.

Here in the distance you can barely see Kansas City.

Even thought it was cloudy, Vern and I couldn't believe that the view around us was so nice. Of course I didn't know what to expect, but I was happy to see that it wasn't all that flat and had lots of rolling hills.

Here a diesel went through the guard rail and into the creek below. Another semi was pulled over about a half mile up the hill without a driver. We wondered if he hadn't run this truck off the road.

After finally getting through Missouri and without any mob trouble (we removed the "CTR" bumper sticker in Kansas ;-)), we got to go through Iowa for about 5 whole minutes. This is Keokuk, IA.

And then we got to the Mississippi River. WOW!! That thing is HUGE!! I couldn't believe the size and the width of it. Though I thought that it would be a lot deeper, it wasn't. I thought that I could see the Loch Ness Monster at one point and Rachel swore she could see a shark. But it was only branches of trees that had fallen.

And then we were finally there. NAUVOO! I was so excited, the kids were excited and I think Vern was excited to not be driving any more.

Here is our hotel.

Spencer had gotten out of the truck first and was off exploring while Dad was checking us in. He came running back telling me that he had seen a big statue of Joseph Smith. So we got our shoes on and headed out to see this statue. I really like this one.

This is a view from our room in the hotel. Isn't it awesome?! Our room is on the 3rd floor and takes up the entire north end of the building. Three beds and great views.

This is Zion's Mercantile (ZCMI). It's where we checked in to our room and then had dinner with half a million, give or take, senior missionaries.

After we got done eating, there was a little bit of light left and a little bit of time before we needed to get the kids ready for bed so we headed over to the temple to look around.

This statue is across the street from the temple. It is a statue of the moment that Joseph and Hyrum paused to look at Nauvoo and the unfinished temple on their last journey together, to Carthage, where we are headed in the morning.

The final pose for the night in front of the temple. The Angel Moroni was in the view window of the camera when the picture was taken. Camera's fault.

This is the stairway heading up to the third floor of the hotel and our room.

Here is the sun going down over the Mississippi River as seen from our hotel room.

With the kids bathed and ready for bed, it was time to say good night. Even though, if you ask me, they look a little too awake to be going to bed. But it didn't take them long to zonk out and leave Mom and Dad with some quiet time. Oh, the quiet. So there is day 2 of our journey.