City of Joseph

For Labor Day weekend this year, we went to Chicago to visit Andrew's cousin Kevin and his wife Naomi.  It's only about a five hour drive from us! 

This major cutie did pretty well in the car - as long as one of us sat in the back and entertained her.  And shared our ice cream....

We arrived at their house on Thursday evening before Labor Day and had just enough time to get settled in, visit for a bit, then hit the sack!  The next morning, we were off on a day trip to Nauvoo!  Kevin and Naomi (and daughters!) didn't come since Kevin had to work, but we braved it on our own and drove the 5 hours more to go! 

It took longer than it should have because we first stopped in Carthage, IL to visit the place where the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed.  

This is the room in the Carthage jail they were staying in when the mob attacked.  There's a very special spirit at this place and both Andrew and I thought that visiting it was one of the best moments in our trip. 

You can see a bullet hole in the door to the room...



Eve did well and we had a great experience at Carthage...



After our time there, we drove the 30 mins more to Nauvoo.  We didn't arrive until 3pm so we only had three hours to see as much as we could before all of the buildings closed!  We made the most of that time!

Our first stop was the Cultural Hall where the early Saints held plays, dances, etc.  Although I've been to Nauvoo before, I'd never been to the upper levels of this building, so it was neat to do that!  The main floor is set up like a theater, the 2nd floor had a beautiful old fashioned quilt display and the 3rd floor was a large, open ballroom.  Really cool!



Look at Eve's cute little hat she borrowed from Naomi to keep off the sun!  She looked like a doll!

After the Cultural Hall, we visited the bakery where Eve crumbled and tried to devour several gingerbread cookies.  Yum!

At that point, we started visiting the different homes of the members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.  We saw Brigham Young's, Heber C. Kimball's, Wilford Woodruff's, and John Taylor's homes.  I'd never really thought about it in detail, but as we toured each home, we learned that the men and their families had only lived in their homes for a few months before they were driven out of Nauvoo and began the journey across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley.  Before that, they'd been living in small log homes or even tents!  They worked and worked to build these beautiful homes and never even got to fully enjoy them.  It added a whole new meaning to their sacrifice that was very touching. 

 

We also went to the blacksmith's shop and got our "prairie diamonds"! 

Then we went down the Trail of Hope to the point where the Saints crossed the Mississippi River as they left Nauvoo.



The view of the Nauvoo Temple from the exodus point.  How difficult it must have been to leave it behind!



At this point, it was after 6 and we realized that the Joseph Smith sites (his home, the Red Brick Store, etc.) which are not owned by our Church had already closed for the evening.  We drove past them, walked around the garden with Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum's graves, and then headed back to get some close up pictures of the Temple.



These are the statues of Joseph and Hyrum on their way to Carthage Jail that are in front of the Temple. 



We loved our visit to Nauvoo and couldn't have asked for a better day!  Even with the heat (it was 100 degrees!) we are grateful we had the chance to go!

We left Nauvoo around 7pm to head back to Kevin and Naomi's!  We still had 2 1/2 more days of vacation!