skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The City Beaufitul: Nauvoo Trip day 3 and 4 and 5
The singles' ward field trip continues its story in Nauvoo. Our group went to the temple that morning and then had a few more hours to wander around old Nauvoo. We caught a couple more of the historical sites and then decided to take a horse/wagon ride through the rest of the town. We went back to the hotel for dinner and then came back to Old Nauvoo for the show "Rendezvous". It was pretty awesome. The senior missionaries put on a silly musical in a small theater. I LOVED it. The men would forget their lines or sing the wrong lyrics--it was very charming. We had another late night with the girls and talked about how we can accesorize more because apparently, that is the reason we're all still single. (this was an actual comment made to one of us--a little ridiculous) Sunday morning, we met for church in a grove of trees with benches. The atmosphere was nice but the bugs and woodpeckers were not. I ended up with a number of bites and am convinced I slept with a spider one night. We walked back up the hill for a group shot at the temple and then packed up camp. We walked the trail of hope on the way out of town and this was another favorite for me. The trail of hope is the trail the Saints walked as they left Nauvoo. They've posted signs with journal entries every few feet along the trail until the Mississippi River. There were some very moving and faith-promoting entries. We jumped on the bus and were in for a long drive to Iowa. We ended up stopping at a place called Mt. Pisgah--never heard of it. It was a Mormon settlement for a number of years between Nauvoo and Winter Quarters. A non-member named Bob is the owner of the land and has committed himself to learning about and preserving the land. He even showed us how to find where old structures were using metal wires--it was very cool. He could point out where every gravesite, cabin, window, door, etc...had been all over his land. It was very impressive. There were no restaurants where we were and on an earlier suggestion from Bob, he pointed us to the Methodist church in town. They were very gracious and offered to feed us that night. It was by far the best meal of the whole trip. We joined their pastor in their sanctuary and sung hymns. It was a very lovely Sunday evening. We then drove to Omaha and attemped to call it a night. As Molly and I were heading back to our room, we were greeted by the tour director and asked if we had seen two girls who were on our trip. This started a 4 hour exhaustive search that stretched into the wee hours of the early morning. At last they were found--they were in the hotel all along: accidentally given a master key and asleep in a room number that just happened to be empty and not assigned to our group. What a crazy night. However, I did not cry that I didn't get to enjoy the lovely accommodations in Omaha at the Super 8: was very glad to check out of that joint :) Monday morning I was a little past the point and really ready to get home. We had two more stops in Council Bluffs and Winter Quarters and then finally back to the airport to head home. I had an abosolutely fantastic time on this trip and was so glad to be a part of it. A big shout out to Molly without whom this trip would not have been half of what it was and another shout out to Bus #2 for keepin' it real. Until our field trip to Jerusalem.... :)
Nauvoo Wagon Ride
Nauvoo Temple
Gravestone of Emma, Joseph and Hyrum
Mississippi River (view from the Smith home)
The singles' ward field trip continues its story in Nauvoo. Our group went to the temple that morning and then had a few more hours to wander around old Nauvoo. We caught a couple more of the historical sites and then decided to take a horse/wagon ride through the rest of the town. We went back to the hotel for dinner and then came back to Old Nauvoo for the show "Rendezvous". It was pretty awesome. The senior missionaries put on a silly musical in a small theater. I LOVED it. The men would forget their lines or sing the wrong lyrics--it was very charming. We had another late night with the girls and talked about how we can accesorize more because apparently, that is the reason we're all still single. (this was an actual comment made to one of us--a little ridiculous) Sunday morning, we met for church in a grove of trees with benches. The atmosphere was nice but the bugs and woodpeckers were not. I ended up with a number of bites and am convinced I slept with a spider one night. We walked back up the hill for a group shot at the temple and then packed up camp. We walked the trail of hope on the way out of town and this was another favorite for me. The trail of hope is the trail the Saints walked as they left Nauvoo. They've posted signs with journal entries every few feet along the trail until the Mississippi River. There were some very moving and faith-promoting entries. We jumped on the bus and were in for a long drive to Iowa. We ended up stopping at a place called Mt. Pisgah--never heard of it. It was a Mormon settlement for a number of years between Nauvoo and Winter Quarters. A non-member named Bob is the owner of the land and has committed himself to learning about and preserving the land. He even showed us how to find where old structures were using metal wires--it was very cool. He could point out where every gravesite, cabin, window, door, etc...had been all over his land. It was very impressive. There were no restaurants where we were and on an earlier suggestion from Bob, he pointed us to the Methodist church in town. They were very gracious and offered to feed us that night. It was by far the best meal of the whole trip. We joined their pastor in their sanctuary and sung hymns. It was a very lovely Sunday evening. We then drove to Omaha and attemped to call it a night. As Molly and I were heading back to our room, we were greeted by the tour director and asked if we had seen two girls who were on our trip. This started a 4 hour exhaustive search that stretched into the wee hours of the early morning. At last they were found--they were in the hotel all along: accidentally given a master key and asleep in a room number that just happened to be empty and not assigned to our group. What a crazy night. However, I did not cry that I didn't get to enjoy the lovely accommodations in Omaha at the Super 8: was very glad to check out of that joint :) Monday morning I was a little past the point and really ready to get home. We had two more stops in Council Bluffs and Winter Quarters and then finally back to the airport to head home. I had an abosolutely fantastic time on this trip and was so glad to be a part of it. A big shout out to Molly without whom this trip would not have been half of what it was and another shout out to Bus #2 for keepin' it real. Until our field trip to Jerusalem.... :)
Nauvoo Wagon Ride
Nauvoo Temple
Gravestone of Emma, Joseph and Hyrum
Mississippi River (view from the Smith home) 
Rendezvous!
Rendezvous cast
sunset through the Illinois cornfields
the gang
Molly, Lizzie and me
quote from Trail of Hope
Trail of Hope (temple in the background)
Mt. Pisgah
Bob and Mt. Pisgah
Mt. Pisgah
Mt. Pisgah
John Deere girls!
the sweetest little ladies and token gentlmen at the Afton, Iowa Methodist Church
getting a little loopy on the long bus rides
Council Bluffs-statue of Brigham Young, Heber C Kimball and Willard Richards. They were sustained as the First Presidency 3 years after the death of Joseph Smith
Winter Quarters Temple-Lizzie, me and Molly
Winter Quarters Temple
No comments:
Post a Comment