Nauvoo the Beautiful

 Because John didn't have the surgery, as we'd anticipated, we had a little extra time. We looked and found that driving to Nauvoo would only add about six more hours to the trip home. John and I have always wanted to go there. I was so excited! We drove through Iowa and arrived in the early evening. We hadn't done any research, since it was an impromptu visit, so when we arrived, we didn't really know where to go. We saw old buildings but no signs about which places we could tour, etc. We had dinner at the Old Nauvoo Inn, and it didn't even feel like a Mormon crowd (with the exception of a few BYU shirts.) Somehow everything felt a bit off. It wasn't until later that we got down to the "old city," and found the church sites. That felt right. We were there in time for a cute musical show and a pageant. The night we were there, they did the British pageant, which was originally put on at the Preston Temple dedication. It was the best pageant I've seen - very talented actors and good script. (And we saw fireflies there, as well.)

Carriage ride outside the Old Nauvoo Inn.

Waiting for the "Sunset by the Mississippi" show.

 The next morning, we went back and toured some of the buildings. (I wish we'd had more time, but the time we took already made for some intense driving days afterward.) One highlight was going to the records building and finding where our ancestors lived and owned land in the area.

At the end of Parley Street, where they crossed the Mississippi.

The nice senior missionary gave each of the kids a brick after.

Next we headed to Carthage. I told John that I hadn't anticipated the location of such a tragedy to feel so peaceful. It was beautiful - because their sacrifice sanctified it.

The original door with bullet holes.

The window from which Joseph fell.

 That evening we went to Liberty Jail.

 After that, we had a hard time finding a hotel, and had to go into Topeka before we could settle down for the night. It was quite late. That's all I want to say about that night. We received a tender mercy the next morning, though. It was Sunday, and there were two church buildings about the same distance away, so John just picked one. It turned out that one of the buildings had been flooded and they were all meeting at the one we chose. We would have missed church, if John hadn't been inspired. (And it's hard enough to feel like it's Sunday on an all-driving day.)

We happened to bring the audio book Farmer Boy, and listened to it on the way to Nauvoo, which was perfect, because it explained a lot of what life was like at the time. And then, we happened to have a CD with songs about Joseph and the Nauvoo period in the glove compartment, so we listened to that multiple times on our Sunday drive, which reinforced a lot of what we'd felt and seen in Nauvoo.

 Nauvoo was a beautiful addition to our trip!

I was very proud of the kids. We were together in the car for a lot of hours during this trip, and they got along beautifully. They get silly and loud sometimes, which can make us a bit crazy, but at least it's happy noise!