2nd full day in Nauvoo

Trip Odometer: 2566

today's mileage: 55

We started out our day by attending church with Sharon and Lynn.  I always like to watch the kids' faces as we visit other wards and partake of the sacrament.  They're spoiled by our homemade bread back at home.  I heard Jacob lean down and whisper to Miriam, "You don't want to choose a big piece today". 

After church we spent some time with Sharon and Lynn at the house and then Lynn took us to the blacksmith shop and gave us a tour.  Miriam thought it was "pretty much awesome" to receive a horseshoe she watched her grandpa make.  He also showed us how wagon wheels were made.

We then followed Sharon and Lynn out to Carthage where they are currently serving as tour guides.

Sharon was our tour guide.  Sharon did a great job again!  I thought it would be a very sad place to be, especially as we sat in the room where they were killed, but there is a very special peaceful feeling there.  I've heard before that they sealed their testimony with their blood and to be there it truly felt like it was a necessary thing to happen and part of Heavenly Father's plan.

They are standing in front of the actual door through which Hyrum Smith was shot and killed.

Joseph fell through this window after being shot several times

We went back to historic Nauvoo and visited: the brick yard, Lucy Mack Smith home, the boot shop.  Then, with the sites closing for the night, we walked the Trail of Hope down Parley Street to the Mississippi.  We'd had a big thunderstorm on our way back from Carthage so the pathway was a bit soggy.  This is the route the Saints took as they left the city in the winter of 1846 to escape persecutions and the threat of mob violence on their way to what would become Salt Lake City.  Almost 12,000 latter-day saints left the city they'd worked so hard to build over the next few months.

Here are the children standing in the Mississippi,

where some of their ancestors crossed over 150 years ago.  

Because the sites close early on Sunday and there are no shows, we were able to spend the evening with Sharon and Lynn.  The girls spent another night outside and caught fireflies and mayflies.