Nauvoo

The first thing we did in Nauvoo besides shower and sleep was to go on a wagon tour. It was a great way to start our visit cause it gives you an overview of what to do there. But I would recommend taking your map with you and as the lovely senior missionaries tell you about the places you are passing that you star you top choices. It also will help you figure out where things are.

Stacy Mouton and I getting ready for the ride. It was SO cold!!! Okay for those of you used to the freezing temperatures you might not have that it was super cold but to us who had left the 70 degree weather for 32 degrees it is COLD!!! And to have the wind blowing on the wagon ride.. burr!! I'm so glad they had blankets for use to snuggle up in.

Here is our group of wagon riders. The senior missionaries were so nice to get up an hour earlier for so we could go on the wagon ride before we had to be at the temple. Thank you again!

The temple on the hill. So pretty.

This was down by the Mississippi River (which by the way was extra super cold down there, burrrrr). I took this cause I thought this might have been what it looked like when the Saints arrived.

 The monument by the river as they were leaving Nauvoo.

The great four legged missionaries that also got up an hour early for us. Ned and Mike. Ned apparently is not a morrning horse because he wouldn't let me pet him or take his picture. :) Sorry Ned for the early rise I know how you feel! But I appreciate your sacrifice for us.

 

This is the Trail of Hope. This is the road the Saints walked down as they left their homes and most of their belongings behind in the beautiful city of Nauvoo. As the Senior missionaries sang in one of their songs about it, "They went willingly because they had to."

The view of their beautiful temple they were leaving behind.

Along the trail are signs with accounts from journals about leaving Nauvoo. Here are a few of them.

I took this picture because I wondered if this is how it looked when the saints arrived to Nauvoo. It was a swamp. But they turned it into a beautiful place.

This is the end of the Trail of Hope looking back at Nauvoo.

In the evenings the senior missionaries put on a musical about Old Nauvoo in the Assembly Hall. I really enjoyed their little production. And I took a ton of pictures because I could.

And this was the best part. This lady was great! She made me laugh a lot.

Here is Joseph Smith's Red Brick Store. Behind it you can see the River. Joseph smith wrote in his journal that he enjoyed sitting at his desk and being able to look out the window and see the river.

The Community of Christ has a gift shop in the bottom now. For the 1840s the Red Brick store was a big store.

Upstairs they have a big meeting room. This is where the Relief Society was founded March 17, 1842. We visited on March 15 so they had it set up for the reinactment. Pretty cool. They don't usually have it like this.

Then we went to tour the Homestead. This is the home that Joseph and Emma lived in when they first came to Nauvoo. The Log cabin part of the house on the right was the original house that they bought when they came and where they lived. The white part was added by their son Joseph Smith the third when he had a family and needed more space.

This is the back of the Homestead. You can see the kitchen/dining room (the white part) that Joseph added to the home and the summer kitchen. The summer kitchen is a reconstruction but the rest is the original house. It was really neat to see the place that Joseph and Emma lived. It is very small especially for how often they had others staying with them.

This is the Mansion house that Joseph and Emma lived in after the Homestead. What is left is only house part but it was actually much bigger with I believe it was 10 extra rooms that they used as a hotel. One of the really cool things about this house is that in Joseph and Emma's bedroom they had a closet with a false wall. It actually was a door to a ladder that went up into the attic so Joseph and the family if needed could hide. It made me realize how real mob attacks were for the them. They said that as far as they know they never had to use the secret room.

 This was in the Heber C. Kimball Home. Stacy wanted to play that piano so much! This was the first home to be restored in Nauvoo and what started historic Nauvoo. The great grandson or something like that of Heber bought the house and restored it to live in but so many people wanted to tour it that he had the idea to fix up other homes in Nauvoo as well.

 One of the pictures in the house. I quite enjoy my reflection in this picture. These were drawings of the area made by an artist. They were very detailed. Sorry can't remember the specifics anymore.

Here is a one that the same artist did of what was left of the Nauvoo temple.

 

This is Lucy Mack Smith's china that she got I believe when she was married. It was donated to be displayed in her home and only one plate in the set is missing. I think that is amazing.

 

There was a lot more we saw in Nauvoo but I am going to call this good for now. I'm not even sure how many of you are even still reading at this point but if you are thanks for making it to the end. I may post more later but since it took me nearly two weeks to get all this up I'm not making any promises. But if there is something specific that I didn't post that you want to see post it in the comments and maybe I'll do it just for you. :)

 

And if that wasn't enough pictures of Nauvoo for you click here and there is more with less commentary.