Hannibal

We spent all of Friday in Hannibal. What a great lesson in history, fiction, and earth science.

We started our day by climbing the 244 steps to the Widow Douglas (reference to story) Lighthouse that overlooks the town and the Mississippi River. Luckily, there was a nice cool breeze.

Then we went downtown and saw Mark Twain's boyhood home and several structures about Tom Sawyer and other characters from the books.

We ate lunch at an old bordello and the boys were grossed out by the old fashioned underwear on the walls. HA!

We decided we were up for a nice cruise down the Mississippi on an old steam boat. It was fantastic. Isaak was a bit apprehensive at first, but soon fell right into his comfort zone. Celie and Ellis napped for most of it. Even Brad fell asleep for a while. It was great fun and very interesting.

Next we went to the Paddlewheel Candy Store. You would have thought the boys were in heaven. Lets just say that sometimes more choices is not always the best as it took a LONG time for them to choose what candy they would like to take home with them. But still, a fun experience.

We journeyed to the Mark Twain Caves next. Granny, Celie and I did not go. I am fairly claustrophobic and have experienced a cave as a young child (I swear I am traumatized, ha). We figured Celie wouldn't get anything out of it, so we shopped instead. The boys had a grand time! They saw Jesse James hideout as well as his signature on the cave wall. They saw bats and many cool rock formations. After they emerged from the cave we went rock collecting. Kind of like gold panning really. But the boys each found many cool gemstones to keep.

We wrapped up our day by visiting Lovers Leap and treating ourselves to Sonic for the drive home. It was alot of fun! The boys are ready to finish reading the book so they can remember all the things they saw!