Hannibal

On our way home from Nauvoo we stopped in Hannibal, Missouri, Mark Twain's childhood hometown and setting for some of his books.  I'm a fan of Mark Twain and have wanted to visit Hannibal for a long, long time.  So I was excited when we found out we were moving near St. Louis and would be able to visit.  Our first stop: the cave!  The cave is featured prominently in Tom Sawyer and had taken on a larger than life quality in my mind.  Walt Disney was also a fan of Mark Twain and to this day there is a Mark Twain Steamboat ride at Disneyland, along with Tom Sawyer's island which also has caves on it, in honor of the cave in Tom Sawyer.

This cave was discovered about 200 years ago and people have been going in it for about that long.

One famous visitor was Jesse James, who came here to hideout.  There is a signature of his on the wall that has been authenticated as actually his.  It was hard to get good pictures in the cave, but here are a few.

Our tour guide told us part of the story from Tom Sawyer of Tom and Becky getting lost in the cave and having a frightening encounter with Injun Joe (the villain of Tom Sawyer).  Sadly, this story scared Matthew and Anna a lot.  I didn't realize til after and I tried to tell them it was a fictional story.  A week or so later Anna still won't go into a room in our house by herself 'cause she says she is scared and thinking about the scary cave.  So I guess I underestimated how frightening that would be.  Hopefully she will feel better soon.  I made a copy of the Frozen soundtrack for her to listen to at night and that helped yesterday.

The cross on the ceiling below which Injun Joe buried his money.

After the tour.  See how my kids look scarred for life?

Then we went to the Mark Twain museum and homes

I liked this picture of Mark Twain

Old copies of Life in the Mississippi and Prince and the Pauper

One interesting thing I learned at the museum, that I should have guessed at, was that the character of Tom Sawyer was based on Mark Twain himself.  I always assumed he was based on some kid Mark Twain knew as a kid.  That blew my mind.

In Huck Finn's house (or the boy who inspired Huck Finn)

And in Samuel Clemens boyhood home (Mark Twain's real name)

Tom Sawyer/Mark Twain climbing out the window

Becky Thatcher's house (the girl who inspired Becky Thatcher).  She lived across the street from the Clemenses.  Next door to Becky's house was the office of Mark Twain's father who was a judge in the town.  So Mark Twain's father actually inspired Judge Thatcher.

In Becky's house

Posing as Tom and Becky

Mark Twain has so many great quotes. I like this one a lot.

Grant had his own store

I told Scott before we left I had to paint the fence.  :)

We all painted the fence

 By the Tom and Huck statue

We climbed up this little hill to a lighthouse overlooking the Mississippi River.  Scott didn't hike up 'cause he recently broke his foot and has been having knee problems.  And he watched John in the car while the rest of us walked up.  There were 216 steps (according to Matthew who counted) and Grant (almost three) walked up all of them on his own.  He asked to be carried on the way down.

At the top.  Anna was disappointed when we got to the top.  She said, "We walked up all those stairs and all that was there was one locked lighthouse!"  She didn't care much for the view, I guess.

Here we are at another part of the museum that highlighted some of his books.

Lots of pictures.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Roughing It

Dressing up western style

Innocents Abroad (I think)

Huckleberry Finn

 Tom Sawyer

If you pressed a button on each brush it showed something that a kid gave to Tom for the privilege of painting the fence.  Also at the Tom Sawyer display was a little cave to walk through, which Anna wouldn't go in 'cause she was remembering the real cave.   Sorry Anna!

The kids loved looking at the Steamboat display

It talked about the meaning of Mark Twain, which I'd heard before.  It's a Mississippi River term. "Mark twain" means "mark number two." It meant the second mark on the line that measured depth - each mark was one fathom or six feet - so two was twelve feet - a safe depth of the river for a steamboat.  Mark Twain was a steamboat pilot for a little while.

And some other pictures.

The museum had some real Norman Rockwell paintings of Tom Sawyer.  I like this one especially.  So it was fun to visit Hannibal, and I hope my kids will recover soon from the scarring trip to the cave.  I enjoyed it a lot.  We got a recommendation from a local for a restaurant called Labinnah (Hannibal backwards), but we didn't get a chance to go.  So maybe if we go again.