We went back up to Hannibal to go inside the Mark Twain cave. The story of Tom Sawyer is supposed to be based on Mark Twain's boyhood adventures, and this is the cave that he played in as a kid and used in his book. There are actually two different caves, but my kids couldn't get out the door soon enough for us to make the tour for both caves, so we just went in the one that is most famous.
We had to wait for Alan to meet us there after work, so we used the time to pan for fossils and gem stones.
They had a screen that they dumped the dirt in and then sluiced it in the water to see what was left in their screens.
When Alan got there, we took him up to the candle shop. I showed him a carved candle that I wanted and the kids dipped dinosaur candles.
They had a good time doing that. I just hope they can make it home without melting in the hot car.
We took some more pictures as Becky and Tom.
Then we went over and took a tour of the cave.
It was cool inside, so we wore jackets for the first and only time on our trip.
The rock is called Louisiana limestone, and it is only found in a 15 mile stretch between Hannibal and Louisiana, Missouri - apparently no where else in the world.
They had us stop at different areas to tell us stories about the cave. One was that some doctor chose the cave to try and preserve the body of his dead daughter in some kind of temperature controlled container. Apparently kids playing in the cave found the body and used it to scare each other. Once the parents found out, the town made the doctor remove the body and bury it.
This formation is called frozen waterfall.
The cave kind of reminded me of our hike through the narrows a few years ago in Zion national park, only this time it was underground.
After the cave we went to hike up to the lighthouse.
It was a fun day. There is a lot of neat stuff to do around here. I just wish it was cooler. The cave temperature felt really nice!
We had to wait for Alan to meet us there after work, so we used the time to pan for fossils and gem stones.
They had a screen that they dumped the dirt in and then sluiced it in the water to see what was left in their screens.
When Alan got there, we took him up to the candle shop. I showed him a carved candle that I wanted and the kids dipped dinosaur candles.
They had a good time doing that. I just hope they can make it home without melting in the hot car.
We took some more pictures as Becky and Tom.
Then we went over and took a tour of the cave.
It was cool inside, so we wore jackets for the first and only time on our trip.
The rock is called Louisiana limestone, and it is only found in a 15 mile stretch between Hannibal and Louisiana, Missouri - apparently no where else in the world.
They had us stop at different areas to tell us stories about the cave. One was that some doctor chose the cave to try and preserve the body of his dead daughter in some kind of temperature controlled container. Apparently kids playing in the cave found the body and used it to scare each other. Once the parents found out, the town made the doctor remove the body and bury it.
This formation is called frozen waterfall.
The cave kind of reminded me of our hike through the narrows a few years ago in Zion national park, only this time it was underground.
After the cave we went to hike up to the lighthouse.
It was a fun day. There is a lot of neat stuff to do around here. I just wish it was cooler. The cave temperature felt really nice!
2 comments:
Again, I'm going to have to take my family back to see these sights someday. It sounds like your kids had a great time on these weekend trips! The dead girl story was nasty though, yuck!!!
You guys find the coolest things to do with your kids!!
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