Nauvoo 2011 Part 2

While PeePaw was in town we took another trip to Nauvoo.  On our way we stopped at Lambert's Cafe.  Honestly, I think I have been there 2 or 3 times now and it is alright.  The rolls are really good, but everything else is just OK, in my opinion.  Maybe it just isn't my style.  But here is the deal, there is not much else on that lonely stretch of road!  And the kids enjoyed playing on the wooden train out front.  It was a ridiculous wait and it was unnaturally hot, but we survived.

We stayed at the Hart House in Nauvoo.  It is right across the street fromt he Temp;e.  It was pretty amazing.

This is the view from the front porch. You can see the walk way at the bottom of the picture that leads to the front porch.

I actually had to crouch down to get the picture above.  This is the picture if I stood-up.

This is a picture of the house.  I almost had to go to the Temple grounds to get the picture!

This was a bench at the corner.  One one side of the house was the Temple Parking lot and the other side was a park like grass lot.  This bench was in front of the park.  So we sat and watched the Temple happenings a bit.

The Mississippi River from the porch.

In the hot, hot heat at the Temple

This was the view from the Master Bedroom.  The Temple acted as a night light!

We took a Wagon Ride.  It was SO hot, that for the first time in the history of all things Nauvoo attractions, they started the Wagon Rides an hour earlier than usual since they were having to close down because of the heat, sometimes before noon.  So we had the 7:30am ride.

We then took an oxen wagon ride as well.  

Gram and Papa were able to get us a special Backstage tour.  We got to see everything up close!  We even got to see the Temple Panels!

They were showing us how the "Sun Stones" came off so the panels can be cleaned.

The kids favorite part of the tour was meeting Cowboy, the stage crew mascot.  He was a very accommodating dog!

Of course we made the customary trip to Pioneer Pastimes.

PeePaw being silly with the kids.

The Brass Band stopped by and had a short parade with the kids at Pioneer Pastimes.  Anna didn't want to be in it, but all the sudden the parade marched right through the cabin she was playing in and she was swept up in the parade!

We saw the pageant.  Here is the Temple panels in action!

And the current Temple in the background after the pageant temple fell.  I didn't think to get a picture until it was almost too late.  

One of the cool things about the whole experience was they keep all the lights off the Temple during the Pageant until the very end.  Then you hear a great quote from President Hinckley from the Nauvoo Temple Deidcation, and they slowly return the light to the Temple.  I found this video on YouTube that shows what I am talking about; it is shaky, but the only one I could find.  It is from the pageant in 2010.  Which, by the way, may have been my favorite cast of the 3 or 4 years I have seen it.  

Anyway, we were able to watch the Temple lights come on from the porch.  it was really neat.

This is a picture I took from the Browning Home and Gunsmith shop. The morning after we took this tour, I woke-up and as I opened my eyes I saw the picture hanging on the wall... it was a painting from the exact vantage point I had been standing at the day before.

We took a little trip across the Mississippi to Iowa (my birth state.)  We read about the Mormons on that side of the river at several different markers and displays and I snapped this picture.  Granted the River is wider at this point now than when the Pioneers left nauvoo because of the dam.  But this is what they saw, sans the water tower, of course.

We took the kids to the Frontier Country Fair.  They pulled a handcart

Potato Sack Race

Played tons of games, made crafts and learned how to saw wood.

We also toured several places.  Eli got a horseshoe this time.  He got it because his birthday is in April, just like Jesus Christ.  Usually they ask who has a birthday in July, but not this time!