Nauvoo Highlights

We were in Nauvoo the Beautiful for two and a half days and we kept fully busy the whole time. The first thing we did when we arrived on Monday was see the play The Promise (formerly High Hopes and River Boats). Lily in particular loved this play about new converts arriving in Nauvoo. That evening we saw the musical variety show Sunset on the Mississsippi. This was a thoroughly entertaining mix of music, jokes, and dancing put on by the senior and junior missionaries and the brass band. My favorite part was one senior missionary who kept telling joke after joke after joke. Every one of them was funny to me.

We took one of the early wagon rides on Tuesday morning which was perfect to give us grounding on the city of Old Nauvoo. Lily loved the horses Jim and Jack.

We spent the rest of the day going into the houses and cabins in Old Nauvoo. It reminded me of Williamsburg the way there was a blacksmith (with prairie diamond nail rings), bootmaker, bakery (with delicious gingerbread cookies), gunsmith, brickyard (with souvenior Nauvoo bricks), post office, print shop, and tin shop. In each of the areas missionaries would explain what life was like back then. In the blacksmith shop in addition to getting a prairie diamond Lily was also the only one to receive the miniature horse shoe he made.

There were also cabins and houses for the prophets, apostles, and pioneers who had lived in Old Nauvoo. The missionaries told inspirational stories in each of these locations. In Brigham Young's root cellar excavators had discovered several pieces of cracked pottery. A complete set was placed on the kitchen table but you can still see the cracks. The Sister there mentioned how this reminds her of the Atonement and how though we might make mistakes the Lord can piece us together like new.

I also loved the story in John Taylor's home about when they left to cross the plains. His little boy was sad and crying along the way. When John Taylor asked him what was wrong he said he missed his rocking horse so much and was sad to have had to leave it behind. So John Taylor rode his horse back to Nauvoo (I don't know how far they had gone) and got this rocking horse for him, strapped it to his horse, and they brought it all the way to Salt Lake. It had been in the family for generations before they finally brought it back to the original house in Nauvoo again.

I really thought this yard was beautiful with the temple in the distance:

The girls were both asked to read quotes in the Seventies Hall and did a great job:

We ended up running into several people we knew in Nauvoo. There were four or five families from HCP including the Madsens and Bagleys. We also saw the Porters from Cedar Hills:

The Nauvoo Pageant is markedly different from the Hill Cumorah one. I would almost call it more of a play than a pageant. The actors are micked (sp?) and talk and sing live. The cast is smaller and it has a more intimate feel. Because it goes on for a whole month rather than just a week, the attendance spreads out with more like 2K per night rather than 8K. It is less of a spectacle with special effects and a sweeping cast than a warm hearted story. I personally enjoyed the British Pageant which is playing alternating days better. I particularly liked the lead in the British Pageant. I thought he was such an excellent actor and really stole the show.

On Wednesday we went to Carthage Jail. It was a bit difficult to appreciate this experience because it was tremendously crowded. We still were able to learn some new things and I'm glad we went. Even more impactful was a lecture we attended in the evening by George Durrant and Susan Easton Black Durrant on the martyrdom. It was quite illuminating to understand the role that Governor Ford played in Joseph Smith's death and to see a clear outline of Joseph's last few days. 

When we came back to Nauvoo from Carthage we found a little time to take a rootbeer break. Apparently Lucy Mack Smith sold rootbeer in NY and they sell some mighty delicious rootbeer in the Red Brick Store.

It was wonderful to spend time around the Nauvoo Temple. I love this quote from President Hinckley: 

"Today, facing west, on the high bluff overlooking the city of Nauvoo . . . there stands Joseph’s temple, a magnificent house of God. Here in the SaltLake Valley, facing east to that beautiful temple in Nauvoo, stands Brigham’s temple, the Salt Lake Temple. They look toward one another as bookends between which there are volumes that speak of the suffering, the sorrow, the sacrifice, even the deaths of thousands who made the long journey from the Mississippi River to the valley of the Great Salt Lake."

Overall we had a fantastic trip to Navuoo. There were fabrics to braid, ropes for wooden bears to climb, pioneer paper dolls to color, bonnets to try on, wood logs to cut, log ends to have burned with Nauvoo patterns, square dances to watch, bag pipers to hear, sample bread to eat, rootbeer to drink, and stories of pioneers and prophets to hear.