Hannibal, the birthplace of Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain.
Hannibal is a little town on the Mississippi River on the way to Nauvoo. They completely capitalize on Twain's fame as there is not much else in the downtown area other than things related to Clemens' creations. Madison and Brooke just read Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, along with a couple of other life of Mark Twain-type books so they were really excited to see some of the sites come to life.
We drove about three hours from Jamesport and arrived in Hannibal at 3:30 on Monday . . . right on schedule because the last riverboat was at 4:00. The Mark Twain Riverboat cruise is an hour-long ride up and down the Mighty Mississippi with a fun captain relating interesting facts and far-fetched tales.
The Mark Twain Museum
We took a "Clopper Tour" which was run by this cute older gentleman and his horse Pete. Right as we got off the boat, he was waiting and asked if we'd like to go on a tour. He took us around town and told us tales and legends and facts. He was darling and it was a fun little tour.
Pete
Steering the boat and blowing the fog horn in the Mark Twain Museum.
Whitewashing Tom Sawyer's fence.
We had dinner at the Mark Twain Diner (was that what it was called? not sure) that had really good homemade root beer. That's about all that it had that was really good. This is small-town after all. After the riverboat, the horse, the walking tour of the houses and museum, and dinner at the local haunt, we were off to cross the Mississippi, say good bye to Missouri and stay the night in Quincy, Illinois.
The whole point of this vacation - to go to Nauvoo with cousins - is getting closer!
