Saturday, July 26, 2008

Sojourn in a Far Away Land - Hannibal

There are quite a few cultural differences that I have noticed here. For one thing, nobody fences their yards. It is just endless grass with no divisions. Another thing I have learned is that there are not any potlucks here...they are called "carry ins." For the most part, you do not see anybody outside in their yards during the day. They seem to come out at dusk when it has cooled off a bit. The problem is that the mosquitos are large enough to carry off a small baby. I have never seen such large mosquitos, except in cartoons. It actually hurts when they bite you. We have been enchanted by the lightning bugs, though. I have never actually seen one before, so it is fun to see them in the dusky light.



We drove up to Hannibal, Missouri to see what we could see.

We took the scenic route along the Mississippi river, which was very pretty.
You can see the muddy field that is still drying out from the flooding along side the river.

We wanted to go on a river boat ride, but we decided to wait until Alan could go with us instead. (are you happy, Margaret? Benjamin is not looking at the camera because the sun is in his eyes)
They had a picture spot where you could be Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher.
We did take a trolley ride tour of the town. It was very educational
and interesting. We saw the house that the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown was born in, and the caves that inspired Mark Twain. We heard about Lover's Leap and indian scalpings and many other fun stories.

We saw some Mormon missionaries walking down the street as we rode on the trolley. They didn't look very happy. I imagine they were not enjoying the heat and humidity either.
Mark Twain, of course, is the most famous past resident of Hannibal. We haven't gone to see his house or anything yet.
We did learn about turtle island, where they gathered turtles to make turtle soup.
This is definitely a pretty area. But there are also a lot of bugs and unbearable weather.

4 comments:

carizolli said...

I can't believe how flat it is! It's weird not seeing at least a hill in the distance! It is pretty though.

LeaAnne said...

ah My girl..
Looks like you are doing your best to see and do all the fun thing you can! yahoo!!
Lisa way to be super mom!! I love the pictures! Seems like the camera is doing a great job!! HEY..see if you can get a picture of a lightning bug..I have never seen one either..(I so sure that will be easy..lol)
miss ya!

So, did you want to whitewash anything with all the Tom Sawyer stuff going around?? lol

Jennifer Lyn Newell Standridge said...

Lisa, I love that you are blogging about this move/trip. It is good to see all these great places. Hope you can make it through the bugs though. They are yucky. Love and miss ya Jennifer

Margaret said...

Ha Ha! So funny! But still 1 picture out of 200 awesome ones, doesn't make me feel much better.

COme train my kids to do what yours do, ok?

Glad to hear you are coming back soon! I've missed you.

I'm catching up on your blog. I'm behind on everything lately. Got to get back to my primary report for your mom!☺